Recent Arts & Science graduates — Rhea Raghunauth and Omer Malikyar — are among seven recipients of the prestigious Pathy Foundation Fellowship, which provides new Canadian university grads with $50,000 in support to create meaningful change in their communities.
Raghunauth and Malikyar will receive mentorship, attend workshops and gain access to other resources through the Pathy Foundation as they work to create meaningful change in their communities.
Through her project, By Their Side, Raghunauth aims to educate youth in Indo-Caribbean communities in Peel Region about intimate partner violence and help them build healthy and supportive connections with others.
“When you have a strong support system behind you, it's a lot easier to identify and even avoid instances of violence, whether that be emotional, psychological or physical,” says Raghunauth, who earned her honours bachelor of science in 2025 as a member of St. Michael's College.
Malikyar was motivated to create Refugee Bridge Academy by his own experience seeking asylum in Canada. As a newcomer, he struggled to navigate the system and wished he knew about the scholarships and funding opportunities available to him at the time.
Malikyar plans to start a mentorship program to help Afghan refugee youth navigate post-secondary education, career pathways and mental health challenges.
“My fellowship ties to my academic, professional and personal journey,” says Malikyar, who earned his honours bachelor of arts in 2023 as a member of Woodsworth College. He earned his master of global affairs from the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy in Spring 2025.
Raghunauth and Malikyar have already found themselves relying on what they learned during their time at U of T during the intensive process of developing their respective projects.
Raghunauth studied public health, neuroscience and classics. In her fourth year, she worked with postdoctoral fellow Cyndirela Chadambuka on a research project about gender-based violence.
“That project informed my work going forward and helped me better communicate with people in the intimate partner violence and gender-based violence space,” Raghunauth says.
The scientific inquiry methods she learned in her neuroscience studies gave her helpful perspective during her fellowship and her classics minor gave her the writing skills she needed to convey the importance of her work.
“Every single thing I learned at U of T is applied in some way to this project,” Raghunauth says.
During his bachelor’s degree, Malikyar took courses in Canadian studies and political science. He built on this foundation with his graduate courses on forced displacement, refugees, security, human rights and migration.
“My life experience and my master's at the Munk School gave me the ability to work with people on the ground and see how government policies are unfair to some groups of people, like refugees,” Malikyar says.
Malikyar was also highly involved outside the classroom, leading the Afghan Students’ Association at U of T. At Munk, he also worked with another Afghan colleague to create a research hub called the State Fragility and Displacement Initiative, building policy briefs related to fragile states and displacement in different regions of the world.
“These opportunities prepared me to not only study the theoretical side of things but also have those practical skills when dealing with the real world,” he says. “U of T and Munk have been very helpful.”
As Pathy Foundation fellows, Raghunauth and Malikyar are part of an extensive support network — a relationship that will continue after the one-year program ends.
The fellows connected with each other during a month-long training session in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where they learned risk management, ethical considerations, budgeting, how to find other funding opportunities and more.
“It's inspirational and motivating to see how passionate the other fellows are about giving back to their community and helping those with struggles they have faced in the past,” Malikyar says.
"Everybody comes from very different backgrounds, and they have so much knowledge to share,” Raghunauth says. “They just feel so deeply about their community and the people they work with.”