GEORGINA, Nov. 5, 2025 鈥� 91亚色 and the Town of Georgina signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today to formalize their long-standing collaboration in key areas of mutual interest.  

The five-year MOU outlines areas where Georgina and 91亚色 can collaborate to benefit both the community and the University and further develop their shared interest in primary care, local economic development, entrepreneurship initiatives and knowledge mobilization.

One of the goals is to expand the current relationship which began even before the opening of YSpace Georgina Business Incubator/Accelerator Hub in 2022, 91亚色鈥檚 pan-university entrepreneurship and innovation hub. YSpace offers support for local businesses, including opportunities for learning and collaboration.

鈥�91亚色 is proud to deepen our partnership with the Town of Georgina through this new Memorandum of Understanding,鈥� says Rhonda Lenton, president and vice-chancellor of 91亚色. 鈥淏y working together, we are expanding opportunities for experiential learning, supporting local innovation, and driving positive change in our communities. This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to advancing primary care, economic development, entrepreneurship and prosperity, while empowering our students and partners to make a meaningful impact 鈥� locally and beyond.鈥�

The MOU will encourage alignment and open avenues for experiential learning opportunities for 91亚色 students that will also benefit Georgina, along with professional development and training opportunities, involvement with capstone projects and community education.

鈥淭his MOU reflects the strong and growing relationship between the Town of Georgina and 91亚色,鈥� said Mayor Margaret Quirk. 鈥淭hrough initiatives like YSpace Georgina, we鈥檝e seen firsthand how collaboration can drive innovation, support local businesses, and create meaningful opportunities for our residents. We look forward to continuing this work together to build a more vibrant and resilient community.鈥�

The University and the Town also share an interest in supporting projects and initiatives involving research and artificial intelligence that will foster benefits for both the University and Georgina. The MOU will solidify the relationship between them which has already delivered benefits to both communities.

About Town of Georgina

Georgina is a lakeshore town in one of Canada鈥檚 fastest-growing economic regions, 91亚色 Region, where residents, organizations and businesses work collaboratively with the municipality to create a well-connected and diversified economy poised for growth. Georgina is a community of communities, with each area having a unique and historical identity, all united and proud to collectively call Georgina home. With 52-kilometres of Lake Simcoe shoreline and only an hour from Toronto, Georgina offers a balanced rural and urban lifestyle, making it a desired location to live, work and play.

About 91亚色

91亚色鈥痠s a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. 91亚色's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91亚色鈥檚 campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs, while at the Markham Campus, innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, and industry collaboration are built into every program. 91亚色鈥檚 new School of Medicine, the first Canadian medical school to focus on community-based primary health-care education, will welcome its first cohort in September 2028.

Media Contacts:

Tanya Thompson, Town of Georgina, 905-476-4301 Ext. 2446, tathompson@georgina.ca

Sandra McLean, 91亚色 Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

The post 91亚色 U and Georgina expand their collaboration appeared first on News@91亚色.

Museum of Toronto partnered with Design Lab to create site-specific installations and an accompanying interactive app as part of their latest city-wide exhibition

For students completing a Bachelor of Design (BDes) at 91亚色, studio requirements offer the opportunity to learn through building. The Design Lab course is structured as a realistic work environment, with third- and fourth-year students engaging actual clients. That鈥檚 how, under the guidance of School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) Professor Angela Norwood, this year鈥檚 cohort found themselves at the heart of Home Game: Toronto Loves Basketball, an exhibition by the Museum of Toronto on view until Oct. 12, 2025.

In January, the Museum presented students with an ambitious brief. Led by the institute鈥檚 executive director , a 91亚色 alumna, and co-curated by Sarah Bay-Cheng, former dean and professor at AMPD, the Museum was planning a multi-site, months-long exhibition. Called a love letter to basketball, the exhibition charts the sport鈥檚 entrenchment in the city鈥檚 psyche from Toronto鈥檚 first women鈥檚 basketball club in 1895, to the first professional basketball game played by the short-lived Toronto Huskies in 1946, and the recent creation of the Toronto Tempo WNBA team.

The tribute goes beyond the Raptors鈥� 2019 NBA Championship, highlighting the milestones, game-changing events and legendary players from street courts to sold-out arenas. The exhibition spotlights diverse grassroots teams from Chinese-Canadian youth squads to Muslim women鈥檚 groups, exploring Toronto鈥檚 deep connection to the game and chronicling how the sport has kept pace with a growing city鈥檚 global aspirations.

鈥淲e can鈥檛 capture every facet of this complex history,鈥� Bay-Cheng told . 鈥淏ut we can outline the known story, highlight the key players in Toronto鈥檚 basketball culture, and create space for new voices to join the narrative. This is an evolving record of who we are as a very complex, diverse, multicultural, multinational city.鈥�

Design Lab students were tasked with creating an interactive app that would bring basketball history to life through AR, and site-specific installations that would operate as check-in points. The resulting student-built experiences 鈥� a mobile web-based app and a series of custom-designed lockers installed at key locations across the city 鈥� invite users to share their own basketball memories and collect digital artefacts.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very different homework experience,鈥� says Shaheer Saif (BDes 鈥�25), who led the student group responsible for designing the app before graduating in June. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e working with a small team that you chose, and then you鈥檙e figuring out problems that get applied to something that people outside of the classroom will experience and see. There was guidance, but the training wheels are off a little bit.鈥�

While the Museum provided a general ask, the specifics were developed by students, giving them the hands-on experience of running a multidisciplinary design studio. 鈥淭hey had an ambiguous idea of what they wanted,鈥� says Saif, who added that the biggest lesson was in learning how to translate UX and UI concepts into plain language for an audience not fluent in technical terminology. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e museum curators. They know the experience they want to have, the information they want to convey, but how to convey our ideas to them 鈥� that was a big learning point.鈥�

The resulting web-based app allows users to design their own custom jersey and view keepsakes and historical artefacts, including the first Toronto Huskies game ticket and Scarborough Shooting Stars trophy. In addition to the main exhibition at Harbourfront Centre, three off-site locker locations serve as entry portals to the app: 91亚色鈥檚 Vari Hall, Regent Park Community Centre and Pan Am Centre. The colourful, vinyl-wrapped lockers showcasing memorabilia draw passersby into the experience, promoting the app via QR code.

鈥淲e actually pitched three different ideas. We can't be married to what we present, because at the end of the day, the client chooses,鈥� says Beatrice Labb茅, a third-year design student who led the team responsible for the design of the physical installation. 鈥淭hroughout our degree, we learned how to argue our ideas and present them in a way so that they seem approachable. We came in really strong with these amazing concepts, these ideas, these mood boards 鈥� the whole shebang 鈥� they liked the locker.鈥� She says they leaned into that concept, a personal favourite of hers, but that once it was greenlit, all these other real-life considerations came into play 鈥� beyond simply what themes would define each site and the artefacts on display but also how to keep them safe and visible.

鈥淲e had to think about more than just the aesthetic but also the usability and how people will interact with it,鈥� Labb茅 continues. 鈥淲e need to add plexiglass. Do we add a light inside the locker? Do we glue them shut so people can鈥檛 open them?鈥�

These features didn鈥檛 come from a textbook. Design Lab challenges students to juggle ideation, user experience, and technical constraints with client relations and expectations. From client presentations to production and vendor coordination, students were responsible for all aspects of their assigned projects. They worked in teams to brainstorm, pitch, conduct user testing, and asset development while navigating weekly check-ins with the Museum team and adapting to evolving creative and technical requirements.

The project also came with real-world constraints, say Saif and Labb茅. For the app, file sizes had to be minimized so the AR experience could function across a variety of mobile devices and network speeds, designs needed to balance aesthetics with functionality. The lockers needed to be secured, and the Harbourfront structure had to be weatherproof. The kind of challenges young designers rarely face until they enter the workforce. The experience also helped sharpen skills that go beyond design, like project management, stakeholder communication, and problem-solving under pressure.

Since its launch in May, the app, which encourages users to contribute their own stories, has become a living document of Toronto鈥檚 basketball heritage by celebrating the shared joy, hope and myriad histories experienced through the sport.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a cool portfolio piece because you have a real-world project while you鈥檙e still in school,鈥� says Saif, who is now working an internship with the Toronto-based independent design studio Concrete, which has clients including H&M Beauty, Canadaland, Joe Fresh and other global brands.

鈥淚t felt like a very unique experience and opportunity that we wouldn鈥檛 necessarily have gotten outside of 91亚色. It feels very rewarding to have an actual project that we made be in the real world,鈥� says Labb茅, who is returning to complete her final year in the fall.

Co-curators of the exhibition include Kayla Grey, a Canadian sportscaster with TSN, and Perry King, a journalist and author of Rebound: Sports, Community, and the Inclusive City.

Home Game: Toronto Loves Basketball runs until Oct. 12 with free entry at Toronto鈥檚 Harbourfront Centre.

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New MOU agreement supports City鈥檚 business development,
environmental sustainability, continuous improvement and innovation initiatives

Richmond Hill, Feb. 3, 2025 鈥� Earlier today, Richmond Hill Mayor David West and 91亚色 President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), to set a path forward on shared goals to benefit both Richmond Hill residents and businesses.

The MOU will provide a number of new opportunities for the City of Richmond Hill and 91亚色 faculty and students with a focus on new research projects that support business and entrepreneurship; new experiential learning opportunities at the City for 91亚色 students; professional development and training opportunities for staff within the City; and additional education opportunities for the community.

In addition, the MOU will support local economic development initiatives including continued collaboration related to 91亚色鈥檚 Food Business Incubator and ELLA Women Accelerator programs.

Richmond Hill has a long history of welcoming 91亚色 graduates and faculty to the community. This new partnership builds on shared goals of community building, business development, environmental sustainability and continuous improvement and innovation for which the City and 91亚色 each pursue a wide range of initiatives and projects.

Quotes

鈥淚 am truly excited about this opportunity to further collaborate with 91亚色. 91亚色 is a top international teaching and research university and a driving force for positive change in our Region. By deepening our partnership, we are bringing a lot of smart people together to work on developing shared projects that will ultimately benefit our community as a whole. I am looking forward to this next chapter and seeing where it takes us!鈥� 

- David West, Mayor of Richmond Hill

"91亚色 and Richmond Hill have a long history of partnering to create opportunities for the communities we serve. With a shared focus on advancing sustainability, societal well-being and economic prosperity, we are well-positioned to create meaningful change. I want to thank the City of Richmond Hill for partnering with us. I am confident that together, we can realize a more sustainable, equitable and prosperous future for us all.鈥� 

- Rhonda Lenton, President and Vice-Chancellor, 91亚色

About the City of Richmond Hill

• Richmond Hill is home to more than 200,000 residents and almost 5,000 businesses.
• The City offers access to world-leading professional services, top-notch incubators and research facilities and over 20 universities and colleges within a one-hour drive.
• Smart people from all over the world come to Richmond Hill to build and grow innovative businesses. The City is home to over 4,500 companies, many of whom are designing and developing the next generation of cutting-edge products.
• Richmond Hill is part of Canada鈥檚 largest technology cluster and a pioneer in the four key business sectors (Professional, Scientific and Technical Services, Health Industry, Finance and Insurance, and Information and Cultural Industries).
• Richmond Hill is a leader in environmental management and sustainability. Its forward-thinking Environment Strategy and Community Energy and Emissions Plan help guide the City and community鈥檚 environmental efforts and tackle climate change issues from various angles.
• The City is committed to working with innovative and engaged citizens, as well as key government and private sector partners, to build a sustainable, resilient, low-carbon city.

About 91亚色

• 91亚色 is a modern, multi-campus, urban university with three campuses in the Greater Toronto Area including Keele and Markham, in the heart 91亚色 Region, one of the most diverse and dynamic urban communities in the province.
• 91亚色's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.
• We are committed to ensuring that our students have an array of opportunities inside and outside the classroom to hone the skills they need for success including co-op and other forms of work-integrated learning.
• We also provide transnational learning activities both online with international partner institutions and through exchanges and courses offered at our Las Nubes Campus in Costa Rica and/or summer programs.
• Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we are committed to providing the talent, research and innovation to help solve societal challenges and drive positive change for the communities we serve. 

Media Contacts

Sandra McLean Senior Writer and External Communications Specialist, 91亚色
Sandramc@yorku.ca

Candice Debi
Director, Communications, City of Richmond Hill
Candice.Debi@RichmondHill.ca

Kate Davey
Communications Coordinator, Office of the Mayor
Kate.Davey@RichmondHill.ca

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