Registration is officially open for the 2025 Map the System Canada, and TRU will continue to participate in this global competition that asks students and educators to rethink social and environmental issues through systems thinking.
Systems thinking is a way of understanding complex problems by examining concepts as a whole rather than as smaller, separate parts.
The competition aims to bridge the gap between student-as-learner and student-as-changemakers by encouraging students to create solutions to real-world issues through research and self-made programs.
Students can register as individuals or as a team of up to five members. Those who register for this competition can begin work on their respective projects beginning in January.
Recent graduates are allowed to participate as long as they have graduated within 12 months of the date.
Ashley Dion has been the lead in system learning since 2023. She oversees the program management around Map the System Canada.
Dion participated in the 2020 competition as part of the Mount Royal University, an experience she said led to the beginning of her career.
“It was life-changing,” Dion said. “It gave me confidence to be able to know what is happening and put research together to make a difference in the world in that way.”
Students will need to focus on one of the four-track areas: health, climate, economic or social fields of study. The areas aim to balance and allow students to champion problems they are passionate about.
“We’re asking students to have a very broad bibliography,” Dion said. “We’re asking them to understand the lived experience of this, go to social media, have academic sources, videos, interviews, so we’re really asking them to do a wide analysis on it.”
Participants will be expected to compellingly articulate their research findings in a way that engages audiences and promotes understanding.
Teams are required to produce a Written Systems Analysis, Visual Systems map(s) and a Bibliography by the submission deadline. They will then participate in a local campus final. Select teams will advance to the National and Global Map the System Finals.
Last year, TRU participants Chandhana Gogineni and Nitish Sharma won the campus-level competition in April and competed in the semifinal in May. Their topic revolved around farmers’ reduced revenue and returns in Canada.
Sharma, a recent master’s in business administration graduate, said her experience allowed her to grow a network of people with similar interests and continue her work toward establishing her research.
“It’s about presenting something you care about,” Sharma said. “We were going to farmers’ markets and [talking] to farmers to collect data. We looked at news articles, and we basically had to start from zero.”
Only three teams from TRU participated in the last competition, and Sharma believes more students should consider participating in this competition to gain more recognition as an institution.
“People need to know about this, I want people to look into those social issues that matter for them,” Sharma said.
Apply by January 31, 2025, to embark on your student change-making systems journey and compete in Banff and Oxford. Important date information and instructions on how to apply can be found here.