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AlumniNotesRhodes to SuccessWhen Wojciech Gryc,21, was in high school,he started the nonprofitorganization and onlinemagazine Five Minutes to Midnightto muster opposition to theIraq War and generate interestin human rights. Now Gryc, aU of T Scarborough graduate whomajored in International DevelopmentStudies and math, has beennamed an Ontario Rhodes Scholarfor 2008. Gryc will attend theUniversity of Oxford to pursue amaster’s degree in mathematicalmodelling and scientific computing.He says that it’s all in the nameof providing technical knowledgethat can be used to improve lives.You travelled to Kibera,Kenya – one of Africa’s biggestslums – last summer withFive Minutes to Midnight.You trained people to usecomputer software andproduce a newspaper. Howdid this come about?About two years ago, grassrootsorganizations abroad started askingFive Minutes to Midnight fortraining and help. That’s how wedecided to help others publish. Ourfirst project was in Chad in December2005 with a group called Rafigui.During that time, we heard from anorganization called Shining Hope forCommunity, which is based in Kibera.We decided to go there to run technologyand journalism workshops.Wojciech GrycWhat impact does your work haveon a community?A lot of the groups we work with usenewspapers as a way to spread socialmessages about violence in schools,HIV/AIDS, women’s rights and otherissues. And the technical skills peoplegain when they’re working on theseprojects allow them to find jobs…. Oneperson we worked with in Kenyaended up being really interestedin programming, and we spent alot of time on weekends goingover it and now she’s working as anetwork administrator. It’s justone person, but then you startbuilding connections and in thelong run it could lead to manymore opportunities.There are so many differentmodels for development. Howdid you decide where to channelyour efforts?This is a question that comes upa lot. Why are you training peopleto design newspapers whenyou could raise money for foodaid? If you’re going to bring foodto an area that’s experiencingfamine, that’s really good but it’sa short-term solution. Teachingpeople to farm is a longer-termsolution. And that’s how I seetraining people in technologyand journalism.Where did the generalimperative to help otherpeople come from?In October 2002, my sister passed away.I was 16 and it was the first big familytragedy I lived through. Following that,the war in Iraq started and I realized thatthis happens every day to millions offamilies. I thought that this would be agood way to give back and come topeace with the experiences I’ve had.– Sarah TreleavenContinued from page 41productions and helped coordinate workshopswith acclaimed German director PeterStein and Japanese actor and director YoshiOida. Elias has also acted in The Rocky HorrorShow and Reefer Madness at Hart House, andco-directed and managed the Innis CollegeCabaret, which raised more than $4,000 forthe Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.Award winner Adam Muzzin served asboth president and treasurer of the U of TGraduate Astronomy Student Association,and helped make the cosmos seem less complicatedthrough his talks at University ofToronto Day and International AstronomyDay events.42 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MAGAZINE / SPRING 2008
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