MRU team set for Map the System Canadian Final in Banff

A team of MRU students will compete next week in the Map the System Canadian Final in Banff.

Team Caring is Cool, made up of Grace Moore and Damon Vennard (Bachelor of Communication — Information Design), were chosen as the Top MRU Campus Team at an MRU competition and will be representing MRU at the Canadian Final held during the Banff Systems Summit on May 19.

Map the System is an initiative out of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship based at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. Mount Royal’s Institute for Community Prosperity’s mandate for Map the System is to “connect students with social-impact learning through applied, community-partnered research, creative knowledge mobilization and systems-focused education.”

Faculty and staff work closely with students who are willing to undertake the immense challenge of discovering the root causes of systemic problems and apply an enactable solution. This work happens outside of the demands of their regular coursework.

“We had amazing submissions this year, but only one can represent MRU at the national and global level. We are very excited for next steps of Map the System and we hope everyone tunes in to support team Caring is Cool as they represent MRU,” said Dr. Katharine McGowan, PhD, associate professor in social innovation and the main educator and mentor of the program.

The team’s topic, The Systemic Undervaluation of Care, posited that care is everyday, essential work. Yet the dominant mental models related to care work fail to reflect this essential nature, leading to the systemic under-appreciation and undervaluation of both paid and unpaid care work.

“As information designers, we aim to understand problems and to communicate meaning in a manner that honours the diversity of lived experience. We have seen how care can be both a source of connection and a site of burnout or tension. We chose to explore invisible labour and the experiences of women who care using a systemic perspective to better understand why care is taken for granted,” Moore says.

The team says they are looking forward to connecting with other learners who are passionate about systemic change and learning about a wide range of topics while drawing connections to our own.

“For us, the experience has been exciting and confidence-building. Leading up to the summit, we have already met with and learned from so many amazing people,” Vennard says. “We are benefitting from the chance to engage with other folks and to practice our presentation skills. Plus, we get to travel to Banff and England!”

Map the System organizers at MRU highlighted other teams who took part in the campus competition:

• Dana Dutton, Hallie Vermette, and Naheel Al Sourani: Why are Youth in Canada Disconnected?
• Isaiah Haughton: Disinformation and Misinformation in Canada After the Pandemic
• Katelyn Bennett, Isabel Melendez, Cristina Nguyen, Matthew Rennick, and Zakari Mulrooney: Canadian Nurses' Experiences of System-Level Betrayal: A Review of the Effects of Organizational Failures and Misaligned Policies in Healthcare
• Mohamad Kamel, Cameran Christianson, and Laura Gonzalez: Uncovering the Systems of Intimate Partner Violence in BIPOC Communities in Canada
• Nicole Ranieri: Cracking the Code of Women in Tech