One thought drove Mahnoor Leghari while at U of T Scarborough: leave a legacy. Now with graduation approaching, she hopes that she truly has left her mark on the campus she called home for four years.
One of her legacies includes the “Metamorphosis: Growing through the Seasons” mural located in the Market Place seating area sponsored by the Biology Student’s Association, for which she served as president and 50th Funds Director. The organization sponsored the mural in celebration of the BioSAs 50th anniversary.
“I wanted something that would be on campus for a really long time,” she says.
She hopes that this mural serves as a representation of the whole campus.
“One of the things I realized was this mural reflects the whole campus, it’s for everyone, it doesn’t matter what discipline, if you’re a staff, faculty or student this is supposed to reflect everyone,” Leghari says.
With the help of other BioSA executives, she came up with the idea of representing student life through the four years, or four seasons, of undergraduate learning, beginning in fall with orientation and ending with spring and convocation.
“One of the things that really motivated me to come up with the art piece was the campus environment,” she says.
The mural was an outlet to show her interdisciplinary experience as a science (Human Biology)and humanities (Health Studies) major and Psycholoy minor.
“A lot of things went into it, but the main point was to leave a legacy on campus and incorporate the arts into the science in some sort of way, and we did that by being on the science committee and led an artistic project,” Leghari says. “It was the highlight of my undergraduate career.”
In leaving her legacy she co-founded the Health Humanities Journal Club. The club works to encourage students in Health Studies to engage with different types of literature in their field of study.
“One of the biggest influences for me would be HLTB50: Introduction to Health Humanities,” she says. “I worked with Andrea Charise on the idea of starting an academic journal club focusing on the discipline of health humanities, but trying to look at different ways of engaging with it.”
She hopes that even after her graduation the group will continue and incorporate art gallery visits and going to the theatre.
“We got the chance to think really deeply about the material as well, which we weren’t getting a chance to do in the classroom because it is timed. So we really got the time to dissect it and discuss things about it,” she says.
Now, Leghari is looking forward to taking some time away from school to relax, but she still has plans for her future.
“I definitely want to pursue graduate school. One of the two fields I am really considering a master's in public health or master's in health informatics,” she says. “Both of those stem from my undergraduate experience in health studies program.”
On reflection, Leghari says, she does feel she has left her mark.
“I have left a little piece of myself here in some way. The main point is to leave a legacy and motivate other people to leave their legacy as well,” she says.
To read about more of the class of 2017 graduates click here