U of T student, grads win City of Toronto Awards
Published: October 1, 2013
Two University of Toronto alumni and one PhD candidate have won City of Toronto International Student Excellence awards.
Engineering alumnus Hargun Suri won in the entrepreneurship category while Arts & Science alumna Junko Asano won for academic excellence and longtime volunteer Stephanie Shaw, a PhD candidate in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology, won for international student services. The awards were created to recognize the significant contribution that international students make to the city's economic and socio-cultural development.
"U of T is a big winner," said Jagdish Yadav, senior advisor with the City of Toronto.
With classmates Anirudh Ganti and Ian Xiao, Suri created Interngration.com, a web-based application to bring students seeking internships into contact with start-ups in need of talented people.
The app is still in the beta stage, but already the former classmates have signed up 200 U of T Electrical & Computer Engineering students and 10 companies.
"At this stage when an engineer looks forward to a 4x4 cubicle at a Fortune-500 company, me being a rebel, I want to own a Fortune-500 company," said Suri, originally from India. "This award is very encouraging for me and provided the official stamp - Entrepreneur."
The award is designed to recognize the significant contributions that international students make to Toronto's economic and socio-cultural development. Categories include entrepreneurship, community service, academic excellence, sports, arts and culture and professional achievement.
"We are delighted that Hargun Suri has been recognized for his innovative and entrepreneurial project," said Cristina Amon, dean, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. "He is an excellent example of the forward-thinking and creative engineers who graduate from the University of Toronto."
The winners received a certificate, gift and $500 cheque at an award ceremony at the International Students Festival on Sept. 28 at Toronto's Metro Hall.
