Where?
MaRS Discovery District
When?
Thursday, September 25, 2025
10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Where?
Auditorium of the Lower Concourse
Why visit?
- Discover recent innovations that can help you in the lab
- Meet your local sales specialist
- Sandwiches, desserts, and coffee will be served!!
- 250$ gift card to win (must be registered)
Click here (www.SmartShow.ca) to register now and skip the registration line at the show
Best Practices for a Successful Supervisory Relationship hosted by the Centre for Graduate Mentorship & Supervision
Friday, Sept 26 I 12:00 – 1:30 PM I GB202 (35 St. George St., Galbraith Building, Room 202)
The SGS Supervision Guidelines is a document that will help you as a graduate student understand best practices in graduate supervision. Join us for this overview of the Supervision Guidelines, including an overview of the roles and responsibilities of students, supervisors, and committee members. We will reflect on different supervisory styles, provide a summary of the SGS regulations for making satisfactory progress and maintaining good academic standing, and discuss steps for what to do if you need academic accommodations. Participants will be provided with scenarios for discussion and problem-solving
Learn more about the Centre for Graduate Supervision & Mentorship!
Register in advance, pizza will be catered!
Workshops
Grad Orientation: Strategies for Success from CLSS
Tuesday, September 9, 5:00-6:00 pm
Make the Most of Academic Reading
Friday, September 12, 1:00-2:30 pm
Monday, September 15, 12:00-1:30 pm
Time Management for Graduate Students
Thursday, September 18, 4:00-5:30 pm
Strategies to Optimize Group Work
Wednesday, September 24, 4:00-5:30 pm
Ongoing Weekly Writing Groups and Productivity Groups
Grad students in all disciplines are welcome in these supportive, positive, popular sessions.
Links in program titles are active.
Join a weekly group. See the schedule.
Email gwg@utoronto.ca to register.
Grad Productivity Groups – Actually Work From Home!
Log in using this link to browse and register for any group, anytime.
Accessibility Sections: GWG-A & GPG-A – inquire at as.learning@utoronto.ca.
Individual Learning Strategy Appointments
Meet with a Learning Strategist to improve your learning and academic experience. Book in Folio.
Booking assistance: clss@utoronto.ca, 416-978-7970.
Join our Listserv!
Graduate students, staff and faculty are invited to join Grad Student Success to receive regular, advanced notice of workshops and programming designed specifically for graduate and second-entry professional students.
Grad Programming Inquiries: Dr. Andrea Graham ak.graham@utoronto.ca
Folio (Registration System) Inquiries: folio@utoronto.ca.
On September 23, Innovation OnBoard and the Centre for Entrepreneurship are hosting a fireside chat with two inspiring speakers:
- Dr. Wayne Pommen – Chief Revenue Officer at Affirm (US $30B fintech)
- Dr. Morgan Barense – UofT Psychology Professor and founder of HippoCamera
Students will get the chance to:
- Hear candid founder stories about turning research into real-world products
- Learn career lessons from industry leaders
- Ask questions directly in a live Q&A
- Explore the Centre for Entrepreneurship’s coworking spaces, labs, and makerspaces
Last year, our events brought together 600+ student innovators. From our pitch competition alone, 14 teams were admitted to UofT incubators, and 2 reached the Top 3 of the Desjardins Startup Prize.
With the start of the new academic year, the Scadding Court Mentorship Program (SCMP) is recruiting volunteer mentors to join our team! The SCMP is a community affairs program supported by the Faculty of Medicine.
What exactly is the SCMP?
The SCMP pairs up children (aged 6-12) with 2 volunteer mentors from U of T’s Faculty of Medicine based on common interests. The program promotes fostering positive relationships with children in a high-risk neighbourhood through a variety of fun activities. The focus of this program is to foster development of leadership, self-esteem, compassion, and overall social skills through interactions with the mentors, while providing kids with the unique opportunity to participate in interesting and diverse activities which they may otherwise not have access to. We hold sessions weekly where mentors get to hang out with their mentee, followed by group activities such as introduction to coding workshops, field trips to skate at Nathan Phillips Square, or instructional magic shows!
When/where is it?
The program runs on Saturdays from November to April (excluding holidays and March Break) and will be held at the Scadding Court Community Centre (Dundas & Bathurst). Sessions will usually be from 12:00-2:00pm, and as mentioned above, time will be split between hanging out 1-on-1 with your mentee, and interactive group activities that change weekly. The co-directors plan and facilitate the activities each week, so mentors are only expected to show up and participate with their mentee, with no preparation required ahead of time. We know how busy graduate, medical, dental, and pharmacy students’ schedules are, so 2 mentors are assigned to each mentee, meaning mentors only need to attend bi-weekly. Mentors are connected with their co-mentor once paired with a mentee, and are free to schedule who will attend which sessions based on their availability. We will also have some slightly longer field trips that extend past 12:00-2:00pm, but these are usually just 30 minutes longer to allow us time to commute to the activity, and you will be notified of them well in advance. The SCMP is a popular program among the children (they really look forward to it!) so we ask that those who sign up are committed to attending their scheduled sessions on alternating Saturdays.
Scadding Court Community Centre:
How do you sign up?
If you are interested in being a mentor, we will be hosting an information session over Zoom on Wednesday, October 8, 2024 from 7-8 PM to provide further details about the program and answer any questions. The meeting will be accessible through this link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/89635505795 (Meeting ID: 896 3550 5795- no password required)
If this program interests you and you are already able to fully commit to being a mentor for the 2025/2026 academic year, please register by filling out the following Google form: https://forms.gle/yYHf5toY5Nzx2vK69. Our program starts on November 1, 2025, and we ask that any interested applicants register through the Google form by October 17th so we can begin pairing up co-mentors with a mentee. If you wish to volunteer with us, you will also require a Vulnerable Sector Screening (VSS). Good news – the community centre covers the cost of the VSS! The instructions are provided in the application.
If you have any questions, feel free to email us at sccc.mentorship@gmail.com. We look forward to this year’s exciting program with you!
Interested in mentoring the next wave of scientists and improving high school STEM education? Get involved with the Discovery program this Fall!
The Discovery Program at the University of Toronto is seeking mentors for its upcoming Fall 2025 session (October 2025 – January 2026). This initiative targets high schools with fewer educational resources, offering students a chance to engage in university-level STEM projects. In partnership with high school educators from the Toronto District School Board, participating students work in teams to design and execute experiments to solve real-world problems. We are currently recruiting volunteer mentors to help guide high school students through their iterative designs. As a mentor, you’ll guide students through capstone projects in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, helping them apply their knowledge in a hands-on, inquiry-based environment. You will also have the chance to gain skills and experience for future teaching opportunities, connect with fellow mentors, and share your passion for science and engineering with students!
If you’re interested, sign up using this link: https://forms.office.com/r/1be3d5aTQM or scan the QR code below. For more details, visit uoftdiscovery.ca or reach out via email to: discovery@utoronto.ca
We look forward to seeing you at Discovery!
REGISTER NOW!
GRADUATE WRITING AND SPEAKING COURSES
STARTING FROM NEXT WEEK
Dear graduate students,
Welcome to a new academic year and, for many of you, a new graduate program!
The Graduate Centre for Academic Communication (GCAC), a division of the School of Graduate Studies, is offering a number of valuable free, non-credit courses that can help you grow into proficient academic communicators – both written and verbal – of your research. The courses (descriptions below) help you develop strong scholarly writing skills, academic conversation skills, oral presentation skills, and organization and critical skills for communicating at the graduate level, and some begin as early as next week! Registration is currently open for all courses, and you may register for a maximum of two courses at a time.
Please click on this link to register for GCAC courses. You will need your UTORid and password to register.
COURSES TO ORIENT YOU TO GRADUATE-LEVEL WRITING AND SPEAKING
Writing: Conventions of Graduate Writing is a 5-week course that covers the transition to graduate writing by providing guidance on the disciplinary practices of understanding academic genres, integrating sources smoothly, developing an authorial presence through metadiscourse, building an effective writing structure, and developing your identity as a research writer. The course also offers an opportunity to meet individually with the instructor for feedback on a sample of your writing.
Sections offered:
Thursdays, Sep 11 – Oct 9, 10am—12 noon (in person).
Fridays, Sep 12 – Oct 10, 2pm—4 pm (online)
Wednesdays, Sep 17 – Oct 15, 10am—12noon (online)
Thursdays, Sep 18 – Oct 16, 2pm—4pm (online)
Academic Conversation Skills (for non-native speakers of English) is designed to help students develop into stronger listeners and speakers in an academic environment. Over 6 weeks, we help you gain the confidence to participate in academic discussions, both in person and online, by providing guidance on conversation skills that include how to ask and answer challenging questions, how to disagree respectfully, and how to manage academic interactions sensitively.
Sections offered:
Tuesdays, Sep 9 – Oct 14, 2pm—4pm (online)
Thursdays, Sep 11 – Oct 16, 3pm—5pm (in person)
Fridays, Sep 12 – Oct 17, 10am—12pm (in person)
COURSES TO FURTHER BUILD STRONG GRADUATE CONCEPTUAL, WRITING, AND SPEAKING SKILLS
Pre-writing Strategies for Developing and Organizing Your Ideas is a 4-week course designed to help you synthesize scholarly literature and clarify the content and structure of your argument before you begin to write a draft. You will be introduced to a range of strategies for developing and organizing your ideas, from tech tools and spreadsheets to diagramming and Aristotle’s topics, and you will be encouraged to practice strategies that work for your own learning style at both the pre-writing and mid-writing stages.
Mondays, Sep 15 – Oct 6, 4pm—6pm (in person)
Tuesdays, Sep 16 — Oct 7, 10am—12noon (online)
Wednesdays, Sep 24 — Oct 15, 2pm—4pm (online)
Revising: Achieving Flow and Clarity focuses on helping you become a better editor of your own work through developing an informed process for revision. In this course, we cover improving coherence and achieving flow in your writing, learning the principles of clear and stylish sentences, revising for concision, and bringing together these skills to revise long documents. We will also examine the possibilities for using GenAI in the revision process. As part of this 5-week course, you will have an opportunity to meet individually with the instructor to receive editorial feedback on your writing.
Thursdays, Sep 25 – Oct 23, 10am—12noon (online)
Oral Presentation Skills. If you would like to learn how to develop and present polished, focussed presentations to your audience, this 6-week course is for you. We cover tailoring your message to your audience, structuring your presentation, creating strong visuals, managing the question period, and handling nerves. You will be given the opportunity to give a presentation, develop critical presentation skills while providing feedback to your peers, and receive feedback from the instructor.
Sections offered:
Tuesdays, Sep 9 – Oct 14, 10am—12noon (in person)
Wednesdays, Sep 10 – Oct 15, 1pm—3pm (online)
Tuesdays, Sep 16 — Oct 21, 5pm—7pm (in person)
Thusdays, Sep 18 – Oct 23, 6pm—8pm (online)
In addition, we offer free workshops on a range of academic and professional skills, including Writing NSERC Proposals (Sep 8), Writing CIHR Proposals (Sep 9), Building on Your Writing Skills to Speak with Confidence (Sep 17), Writing a Literature Review (Sep 23), Writing an OGS Proposal (Sep 30), Considering the Use of Generative AI in Academic Writing (Oct 2), and Formulating Focused Research Questions (Oct 15), among many others. Please check out the entire list of this semester’s offerings at this link.
Finally, please visit our Writing Centre where you book an appointment to receive feedback and guidance on your graduate assignments, proposals, articles, or theses at any stage of the writing process from one of our consultants.
To receive regular notifications on our range of forthcoming offerings (courses, workshops, and registration dates), please join our listserv and follow us on Instagram (@gcacuoft).
Applications for the OPTIONS MASc Cohort Program are Now Open!
The Cohort Program is an opportunity to dive deeply into career management with a supportive community of like-minded graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Facilitated by faculty and professional development experts, the program provides an opportunity to clarify your interests and aspirations, develop job application materials, and explore career pathways. We offer three different Cohort Programs to address the specific needs of the U of T Engineering community.
Application Deadline: Submit your application before Wednesday, September 17, at 5 PM ET.
If you have any questions, please email grad.experience@engineering.utoronto.ca.
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital’s 15th annual Pursuit Awards international competition is now accepting applications.
This prestigious competition recognizes PhD students and recent doctoral graduates from around the world for their outstanding contributions to childhood disability research—enabling personalized versions of a good life across the lifespan for all individuals with childhood-onset disabilities, acquired injuries and developmental differences, their families and communities.
Over the years, the Pursuit Awards have celebrated some of the most promising young minds in the field—researchers who have, for instance, explored how physical activity can benefit youth with neurodevelopmental conditions, or developed tools to help families make informed decisions for children living with brachial plexus birth injury.
Award details
The top three candidates, selected by an esteemed panel of scientists, staff and family leaders, will be announced at a ceremony held during the annual Bloorview Research Institute (BRI) Symposium on November 25-26, 2025.
- 1st place: $3,000 CAD
- 2nd place: $2,000 CAD
- 3rd place: $1,000 CAD
The Pursuit Awards is made possible by the generous contributions of The Ward Family Foundation, Holland Bloorview Foundation donors, and the Bloorview Research Institute.
Learn more: https://hollandbloorview.ca/research-education/bloorview-research-institute/awards-events/pursuit-award
We’ve also attached a flyer to this email for easy sharing across your networks.
Application Process for the 2025 Pursuit Award
Eligibility
The Pursuit Awards are open to applicants from around the world. You are encouraged to apply if your PhD research focuses on pediatric disability, and you are a:
- Current PhD student (less than six months away from defense); OR
- Postdoctoral trainee (within one year of receiving PhD); OR
- Recent graduate (within one year of receiving their PhD).
Criteria
Finalists will be evaluated on:
- Academic excellence, including academic training, experience, and awards of distinction
- Research potential, including originality, critical thinking, innovation, and the ability to influence practice, policy or research in childhood disability
- Knowledge translation, including efforts to engage partners, disseminate findings, and collaborate across disciplines
- Research productivity, including the quality and quantity of publications and presentations
Finalists are expected to pre-record their presentations for the annual BRI Research Symposium which will take place on November 25-26, 2025. It is expected that finalists are available to participate in the event.
Please note: The deadline to apply for the 2025 Pursuit Award has been extended to Friday, September 5, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EST.
How to apply
To apply for the 2025 Pursuit Award competition, please fill out the application file below and submit to BRISymposium@hollandbloorview.ca by Friday, September 5, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EST
Email Subject Line Instructions
To help us manage applications and inquiries efficiently, please use one of the following subject lines when contacting us:
- For applications: 2025 Pursuit Award Application – [Your Full Name]
- For questions: 2025 Pursuit Award Query – [Your Full Name]