Finding Her Place, Changing Her Campus: Meet UC Graduate Hargun Rekhi
by Georgia Laidlaw
Hargun Rekhi’s academic journey wasn’t always easy. Initially, she wanted to major in psychology, but life had other plans. “The first two years of my degree were particularly difficult. The transition was hard for me, so I didn’t meet the requirements for a psychology major,” Hargun recalls, “The only course that I did really, really well in was a resource and sustainability course, and I loved that course enough to want to pursue something related to the environment full-time.”
Fast-forward four years and Rekhi, who graduated last June with a major in Environmental Science and minors in Psychology and Environment and Behaviour, went on to become one of the key sustainability changemakers on campus. In her third and fourth years, she served as the UC Lit’s sustainability commissioner and was a student representative on the President’s Advisory Committee for Climate Change and the Environment (CECCS) .
As part of these two roles, she led a targeted waste audit at the college to identify gaps in existing data, edited an international sustainability education award application, and fostered pivotal community connections by organizing the first inter-college sustainability conference on campus — all of which helped contribute to last year's back-to-back #1 Global Sustainability Ranking. Now, she’s a master's student in environmental studies at York University with a focus on Indigenous sovereignty and community consultation.
Reflecting on the experiences that brought her here, she attributes much of her early transitional difficulties to the challenge of finding community connections during the pandemic.
“I commuted in my first year and spent most of my time going back and forth between my house and campus,” she says. In her spare time, she was a member of Hart House Debate and worked for the sports section of the Varsity, “but because it was largely online the first two years, I wasn’t able to develop as strong of a community.”
Things shifted in the summer after her second year when she was accepted into a Research Excursions Program (REP) at the Koffler Scientific Reserve. There, she moved into Harkaway Cottage with eight other U of T students and conducted an independent research project while groundskeeping on the reserve’s racetrack area.
“While living there I met students who are now lifelong friends. I really love them and meeting them changed things for me,” Rekhi recalls fondly, “because you’re in a remote area, you have time to get to know each other. We’d do fieldwork, go back to the cottage, have a meal together, and then spend our evenings together. It was transformative.”
Invigorated by the new friendships she had made, Hargun saw a positive increase in both her outlook and academic standing. “There was a massive jump in my grades because I felt connected to the work that I was doing. I wouldn't have pursued being a scientist as a career, or even seen myself in that role, if it wasn't for that opportunity,” she says.
She also brought the insights and newfound passions garnered back to campus in her roles as the Sustainability Commissioner for the UC Literary and Athletics Society and as a work-study student on the President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability (CECCS) — a multi-constituent committee comprising students, faculty and staff that reports directly to the president's office.
“Going into third year, I was very well equipped. I had three different sets of communities: I had my Koffler friends. I also had this exciting new thing working with student government, and of course, I still had debate.”
Like with her newfound friend groups, Hargun’s work with CECCS and the UC Lit had three major aspects: build networks and enact key sustainability initiatives on the ground with the UC Lit, coordinate those initiatives with the rest of CECCS, and — consistent with her scientific training until that point — record and communicate her findings to generate further understanding and support.
“U of T has done a very effective job in connecting groups of people. I think the reason why our QS rankings have been so high is because we've been able to establish that interconnectivity on campus,” Rekhi observes, “institutions will come up with plans or recommendations, but the shortfall lies in implementation. Sometimes it's hard to build that bridge.”
“The role that I tried to play as Sustainability Commissioner at the UC Lit was to help do some of that bridge work where we translated plans into actual implementation measures.”
For example, her team created and led sustainability initiatives like reusable cup sales and clothing swaps, and hosted office hours where students could ask questions about sustainability on campus. She also worked with the UC principal on the Sustainability Committee to ensure these issues remained at the forefront of college operations.
“Our main role is to keep students engaged and make sure that they have a place to come to,” she says, “it sounds little, but it takes a lot of effort to plan an event. And if you do find a group or a place where you can go, that's transformative.”
The effects of her efforts were clear: after hosting and organizing the first inter-college sustainability conference on the St. George campus, which brought together clubs, college groups and other stakeholders interested in sustainability, attendees made connections and had the opportunity to join forces in addressing sustainability-related issues.
“What I found most interesting was that when I brought these people together, most of them came up to me and discussed how they didn't really know that these [other] opportunities existed,” Rekhi says. “I loved hearing that my work is having cascading impacts, because the people that I spoke to now have an interest in sustainability that was cultivated because they attended an event I organized.”
Far from sitting on these laurels, Rekhi is fully cognizant that there is still a way to go with sustainability at U of T. “U of T has done a lot, but my work on CECCS was important because I got to see the work that's still left to be done, for instance, for our goal to reach a net positive campus by 2025.”
When asked what she felt was one of the biggest areas of growth on campus, communication and knowledge translation came to the top of mind alongside continuing to consult Indigenous community and incorporate their perspectives into the work — something which Rekhi will continue to explore in her master’s degree.
“Sustainability is engaging the community. The environment impacts everybody, but we need to communicate what we're doing so the public knows what's going on and create a way for the people who are listening to these problems to engage with them and actively contribute.”
She credits meeting two Indigenous researchers at a Field Research in Ecology and Evolution Diversified (FREED) placement to first bringing her attention to the importance of Indigenous environmental sovereignty and the need for community connection in sustainability research. FREED is an access-based program for BIPOC researchers who are invited to live at the Algonquin Wildlife Research Station. “Getting access to that information and looking at that perspective inspired me to pursue more in my master's degree,” she says.
From struggling to find community, to leading the way as a community changemaker, one piece of advice that Rekhi would share with new students after her graduation would be the value of perseverance.
“When things don’t pan out in the first, second, third or fourth try, we tend to really penalize ourselves because of our failures or shortcomings. As undergraduates, we need to recognize that we're starting out in the world of adulthood. Even if you aren't necessarily doing the things at the level you want to be doing at in that moment, you need to be patient with yourself and recognize that the work that you're doing is probably the best that your body or mind can accomplish in that setting.”
“Recognizing that doesn't mean that you won't be able to improve in the future, it just shifts your perspective. A quote that really changed things for me is: it doesn't matter how slow you go, as long as you don't stop, consistency and persistence far outvalue the accomplishments that you're seeing in the moment.”
Through all her ups and downs, and in the spirit of an environmentalist who sees the interconnectivity of all things, Rekhi credits her remarkable evolution to the many people she came across during her time as a student, with a few standouts including Ben Gilbert, Kristy Bard, Jared Boland, and of course, her parents.
“You don't know what life will look like five or six years down the line. Don't stop. Keep going because there's a way, and it will come. It will just take time. Undergrad was great because I met some really lovely people, and I hope that every single student who comes to U of T has the privilege of meeting equally good people.”