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Honours and Awards

 


Engineering Student Named to Top 20 Under 20™

By Kate Brand

David GodriSecond-year Civil Engineering student David Godri was named to Canada’s prestigious Top 20 Under 20™ list in recognition of his leadership and innovation.

“Our exceptional global-minded Engineering students, like David, are shaping the world at an unprecedented pace with their dedication to solving our most pressing challenges,” said Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering. “This extraordinary recognition will help David further his goals to raise awareness about the environment and climate change. We are extremely proud of David and we look forward to nurturing him here at U of T as he pursues future endeavors.”

When 18-year-old Godri has an idea, he makes it happen. At 16, he had a dream to make his high school, William Lyon MacKenzie Collegiate Institute in Toronto, less dependent on the power grid. He wrote a 15-page proposal and founded a non-profit organization, called SWITCH (Solar and Wind Initiatives Towards Change) that led to a grant from the government, which will enable the high school as well as nine other Toronto District School Board (TDSB) schools to install solar panels this Fall.

He worked closely with the TDSB to secure the government funds of $250,000 and develop a renewable energy competitive bidding process. As part of SWITCH, he has also coordinated and managed events that included guests Dr. David Suzuki and Steven Page from the Barenaked Ladies band. Godri plans to bring his passion for spreading environmental awareness and renewable energy technologies to the university and college level in the near future.

In 2005, Godri worked as a research student in the Petawawa Research Forest performing studies to determine the impact and ideal contagion sites of an infectious root rot on black spruce trees. In this role, he executed coring procedures and sapwood analysis under the direction of a research scientist. In that same year, he also worked as a teacher’s assistant, instructing students from grades one to six to build their own computer games and construct their own robots.

Godri has also been an active volunteer since 2005, working in an ombuds capacity with his fellow peers at high school. He has also volunteered as a publicity coordinator for Global Day for Darfur: Toronto Rally, and he currently motivates youth across Toronto as project leader for the non-profit organization Project Equity, which provides youth with opportunities to guide them away from gangs, drugs, and crime.

He has received numerous awards and scholarships, has served as a panelist and keynote speaker, and will be featured in an upcoming environmental book for children to be released this Fall. Above all of this he is also proficient in Hungarian and French.

As part of the Top 20 Under 20™ recognition, Godri will receive up to $2,000 to be directed toward education, the opportunity to attend a four-day leadership summit in Toronto, career coaching, mentoring and personal branding advice.

The Top 20 Under 20™ is a national youth awards program presented by Youth in Motion and sponsored by ING Canada, ING Foundation, Bell Canada, CTVglobemedia, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario and many other organizations and corporations who believe in youth as the future of this country. 

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