Through all of her experiences, Shefaza has built a transdisciplinary set of skills and knowledge, making her a great MPP candidate. Not only has Shefaza been actively involved in community outreach and collaboration throughout her educational journey, but her academic background is also deeply rooted in science. Shefaza has established the well-rounded perspective that is needed to address community issues through her education in science, engineering, and socio-ecological research.
Shefaza started her academic career at McGill University, achieving a Bachelor’s degree in Bioresources Engineering. She fell in love with learning in creative, hands-on ways in this program and found a passion for exploring the intersections between engineering and nature.
From there, she got a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada and then worked as a Facilities Engineering Intern at the pharmaceutical company, GSK. At this point in her career, she was passionate about environmental engineering but wanted to further integrate social issues into her work. This pursuit brought her to the School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability (SERS) at the University of Waterloo to complete her PhD.
SERS is an interdisciplinary department that bridges ecological and social research areas to find sustainable solutions. Shefaza’s PhD research focused on building capacity in Tanzania’s urban agriculture communities to address issues of food insecurity, soil degradation, and urban sprawl. She looked at ways to build community resilience and create a circular economy in these systems through the sustainable use of food waste. In 2019, Shefaza completed her PhD and continued as a lecturer in SERS, teaching courses on topics such as ecosystem restoration, field ecology, and environmentalism in popular culture.
In Shefaza’s academic life, she has always been an advocate for engaging people in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). As part of this effort, she is the Waterloo Ambassador for an organization called BrainSTEM Alliance, a network of people who are passionate about empowering youth and young adults in STEM. Shefaza works primarily on their EnviroSTEM initiative, which integrates engineering with environmental systems and focuses on learning from nature to build efficient, creative engineering solutions.
From Shefaza’s experiences, it is evident that she is driven by a strong sense of curiosity, and her own passion inspires others to learn, build careers, and work towards sustainability. Her diverse educational foundation alongside her strong understanding of the interconnections of social, ecological, and economic systems makes her the perfect candidate to address complex issues, implement new solutions, and build community capacity.