UOIT students raise $560 for Lesotho HIV/AIDS orphanage

Students taking an elective summer course in Collaborative Leadership from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology's (UOIT) Faculty of Business and Information Technology recently raised $560 for HIV/AIDS orphans in Lesotho as part of a class project – and they learned a lot about teamwork while doing it.

As part of the course, the students, who are from academic backgrounds as diverse as Business and IT, Criminology, Nursing and Communication, had the opportunity to hear about leadership challenges and successes from many different guest speakers. One of them was Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik, founder of Bracelet of Hope, an organization that works with grassroots groups in Lesotho and other African countries to fight HIV and AIDS.

When Sessional Lecturer Rob Elkington presented the students with a teamwork challenge of either winning a free pizza for the best group, or working in teams to raise money for HIV/AIDS orphans in Lesotho, the students unanimously chose the latter option. The 68 students in the class split into six teams, and Elkington gave each team $20, with the task of growing that investment as much as they could within one week through effective teamwork.

Since there were no rules for raising the funds, the students had to get creative. "We all had different ideas of how to raise the money," said Fariya Khan, a third-year Communication student with the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. They collected donations, held bake sales and bottle drives, and sold bead-decorated pens made in South Africa. Within a week the whole class collectively raised about $560.

The project also helped the students learn a lot about themselves and the power of effective teamwork.

"The challenge pinpointed where some of my weaknesses are," said Shiva Jagdeo, a second-year Energy Systems Engineering student. "It came with difficulties and touched on some of my past experiences. We learned that you need to inspire and motivate people; you can't just tell them what to do."

Teamwork challenges such as this one also demonstrate that individuals can make a difference if they initiate something and then get others on board. "The common view is that school won't teach you much for life, but this course did," said Amandeep Minhas, Commerce, class of 2014. "It showed how students can be motivated to go out on their own and achieve something and make a difference in this world."

Dr. Pamela Ritchie, Dean of the Faculty of Business and IT, added, "This project is really indicative of the nature of UOIT, its staff and students. It doesn't matter whether you're from FBIT or another faculty; we are a whole team made up of other teams. The Collaborative Leadership course really brings that to the forefront."

Dr. Ritchie congratulated the students on their creativity and desire to give back to the community. "Our students are really great and do a lot of outreach; we are proud to work with them to make a difference."