BI student wins leadership award after finding her niche at Faculty of Information 

It was love at first course for Sehar Bajwa when she switched to the Bachelor of Information (BI) program from engineering where she had completed her first two years of study at U of T. After two years in a purely technical environment, she realized it was stifling her creativity. “I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, you know what? I’m not an engineering student. I’m something different. I’m something additive. I just need to find what that is.” 

Now in her final term and preparing to graduate in the spring, Bajwa says her two years in the BI program allowed her to become not just a design student but a law student, an information student and a data student as well.  

Outside of courses, she participated actively in the broader Faculty of Information community, serving on several committees ranging from academic programs to the revitalization of the Faculty of Information’s Bissell Building. On top of that, she was president of the Bachelor of Information Student Association and the Faculty of Information’s representative to U of T’s Provostial Undergraduate Student Advisory Group.  

For these contributions and more, Bajwa recently received the University of Toronto Student Leadership Award for her volunteer service and commitment to the university, making her the first BI student to receive this important honour since the Faculty of Information launched its BI program in 2019. She was nominated by Assistant Professor Maher Elshakankiri, director of the BI program. 

One very visible sign of Bajwa’s achievements is the Faculty of Information merch she worked to create and ensure is now regularly stocked in the university bookstore. Recognizing the sense of pride and belonging that branded gear fostered in other faculties like engineering, she was shocked to find that the Faculty of Information, which is almost 100 years old, didn’t have its own merch.  

“This has to be fixed immediately,” she remembered thinking. And when the merchandise finally arrived in the bookstore after several months and dozens of emails, Bajwa videotaped herself inspecting the brand-new hoodies and t-shirts. Months later, she still feels a sense of pride when she sees fellow students in their hoodies, which “foster a sense of community and shared identity.” 

Bajwa originally discovered the Faculty of Information while scrolling through Instagram and thought that it would better fit for pursuing her long-standing interest in design. An international student who had received a $100,000 scholarship upon her admission to engineering, Bajwa put the idea of switching faculties to her parents, who were both supportive.  

As what’s known as a second-entry program, the Bachelor of Information accepts students from all different fields who have completed their first two years of undergraduate studies. BI students explore interactions between social worlds and information technologies, completing the degree in two years. They acquire both the practical techniques and conceptual tools necessary to understand and effect change in a data-intensive society. 

Bajwa knew that she had found her academic niche  from the first week of BI classes. “It was fantastic coming from a program that had 600 students to a class of 30 where the professor knew your name,” Bajwa says. “And I really got to stretch my creative instincts on assignments. “I could make a website or an infographic for an assignment and that would be okay. It was a safe environment to learn and all of my classmates came from different backgrounds so that was fantastic as well.” 

Looking towards the future, Bajwa plans to apply to law school, inspired by both her coursework in law and policy studies as well as her extracurricular experiences in university affairs. She likes the systematic nature of the law and looking into old precedents to discover new solutions. “It appeals to me, I’ve really enjoyed creating new policies or working on how they’re modified,” she says.