For the third year in a row, we asked the Sheridan community to recognize a peer or colleague whose contributions – big or small – show they are passionate about making a positive impact on the environment and their community.
We are thrilled to introduce you to this year’s group of Mission Zero Heroes. Read on to learn how these honorees are making a difference and inspiring others across the Sheridan community!
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Kirsten Abrahamson
Kirsten Abrahamson
Kirsten Abrahamson is a faculty member in the Art Fundamentals program and the lead facilitator of the Sheridan Art Hives initiative. Her steadfast commitment to providing Sheridan students, faculty, and staff a safe and inclusive space to explore their creativity each week using recycled, reused, and repurposed materials is truly inspiring. She offers everyone in the Sheridan community the opportunity to create beautiful art using materials that may have otherwise ended up in a landfill. The Art Hives not only supports the health and well-being of our Sheridan community but that of our planet as well!
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Jaimin Bhavsar
Jaimin Bhavsar
Jaimin loves riding his e-bike to commute to campus and to run errands. Choosing to ride a bike helps him reduce his carbon footprint and stay physically active. He regularly visits the Bike Hub to learn how to maintain his bike, which also gives him confidence when future repairs are needed. He hopes others can enjoy their commute as much as he does!
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Patricia Buckley
Patricia Buckley
Patricia’s dedication to promoting sustainable practices and educating others on the importance of environmental stewardship sets an example for the Sheridan community. She completed the LEED Green Associate preparation course, is a member of the Sheridan Green Team, and curates the library’s materials collection to promote use of sustainable materials in design. Patricia also helped to initiate the Art Hives program to promote upcycling of art materials, received an SRCA Growth Grant to study the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), authored Sheridan’s SDG Library Guide, and is currently enrolled in a course about sustainable librarianship.
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Sharmila D'Souza
Sharmila D'Souza
Throughout the Winter 2023 term, Sharmila has consistently supported the Mission Zero Freeuse Pop Up Shop program. Sharmila took the initiative to have donation bins placed in the FAAD office and encouraged her colleagues to participate by donating any unwanted items. As a result, over 150 lbs of gently used items were generously donated to the Freeuse Pop Up Shop! Sharmila’s inspiring efforts are a testament to her dedication to helping others, reducing waste, and promoting a culture of reuse on campus.
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Jesse Foster
Jesse Foster
Jesse has shown dedication to helping Sheridan meet its Mission Zero goals by volunteering as a fixer at multiple Sheridan Repair Café events. He happily offers his skills and knowledge in repairing broken items to help others in the community extend the life of their belongings. In addition to volunteering as a fixer for Sheridan Repair Café events, Jesse also does his part in reducing his carbon footprint by riding his bike to campus whenever he can.
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Artem Gusev
Artem Gusev
Artem’s uses low impact transportation to help reduce his carbon footprint. He makes his grocery runs by bike throughout the whole year and he regularly visits the Bike Hub to learn how to properly maintain his bike. By choosing low impact transportation, Artem showcases his determination to make a positive impact on the environment and inspires others to adopt sustainable practices in their daily lives.
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Jacentea Kerlow and Kelsey Vassallo
Jacentea Kerlow and Kelsey Vassallo
Jacentea and Kelsey, Experiential Design students, volunteered their skills through Sheridan's Co-Curricular Recognition (CCR) program when the library needed to curate an exhibit that would connect its collection of sustainable materials with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Collaboratively, they conducted extensive research on the objectives of the SDGs and the Material ConneXion Library’s collection, culminating in an educational and visually stunning display that aimed to promote sustainability.
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Hanna Kowal
Hanna Kowal
Hanna, a student in the Creative Writing & Publishing program, is serving as Sheridan’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Coordinator for the 2022-2023 academic year. In this volunteer position, she is working to build an SDG Student Hub that aims to ensure all Sheridan students are aware of the SDGs and have opportunities to take action towards their implementation. She played a vital role in planning for Sheridan’s SDG Week Canada events March 6-10, 2023, including hosting the Artful Change Showcase which featured sustainability-themed artwork and performance by Sheridan students.
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Andres Orozco Moreno
Andres Orozco Moreno
Andres supports the Sheridan Bike Hub initiative by volunteering his time and skills between classes to help repair bikes. His efforts have made a meaningful contribution to help ensure bikes are in good riding condition for others in the community. In addition to his volunteer work, Andres enjoys riding himself and aims to reduce his carbon footprint by renting a bike from the Sheridan Bike Hub to commute as often as possible.
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Khushi Shah
Khushi Shah
Khushi inspires positive impact through her actions towards environmental initiatives. In 2019, she and her friend started a non-profit organization called Urvari to conduct social and environment-related activities in their Navi Mumbai community, including tree planting, beach clean ups, food drives, upcycling contests, and making shelter homes for street animals using “eco-bricks” that are made of waste plastic materials. She continues to run the organization and strives to influence thousands of people to make a difference.
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Hughroy Staple
Hughroy Staple
Hughroy has been an active and reliable Mission Zero volunteer, earning a Co-Curricular Recognition (CCR) certificate in Fall 2022 semester for his support at several Freeuse Pop Up Shops, an e-waste/tech collect drive, and a community tree-planting event. Not only does Hughroy generously offer his time and skills volunteering at Mission Zero events, but event organizers have also touted his strong interpersonal skills and his genuine care in helping and supporting others. Hughroy also serves as a Peer Mentor at Sheridan and is leading a collaboration between the Peer Mentor team and Mission Zero to host an interactive, sustainability-focused engagement activity at Sheridan’s Davis Campus this April.
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Mickey Wang
Mickey Wang
Mickey Wang not only built the 3D printing machines in the Industrial Design workshop using open-source plans, he also makes sure that the waste material generated from the students’ 3D products is recycled for future uses. Design is an iterative process; the first model is not usually the final one. Students often need to rethink, redesign, and start again. What happens to the “waste” created in this creative process? Mikey recycles the failed prints, along with any project print waste, using an old oven to melt the waste into sheets of materials that can then be used for other model-making purposes. To up his game, Mikey is also looking into a plastic grinding and filament re-extrusion system that will enable him to produce recycled filament, the material needed to create 3D printing. Mickey and his Industrial Design colleagues are not only preparing Industrial Design students for future careers, but also demonstrating sustainable practices that can benefit everyone’s future.