MBA students turn community challenges into impactful stories at GRIT Week

After five fast-paced days of fieldwork, filming and problem‑solving, first-year MBA students wrapped up GRIT Week the way any good story should end: with a short film premiere. As lights dimmed at the DeGroote Impact Film Festival (DIFF), students settled in to watch their own work on screen, which were short videos documenting the challenges they tackled alongside local non‑profits and charity organizations.

For DeGroote, the festival isn’t just a celebration. It’s the final chapter of a week designed to push students outside the traditional classroom and into real community problems. Each team spent the week learning from partner organizations, building solutions under pressure and capturing their journey on film.

Behrouz Bakhtiari, Director of MBA Programs, summed up the purpose of the week simply:

This year’s partners represented a wide range of missions and needs from YouthReach and the Centre for Diverse Learners to Community Living Oakville, Kemp Care Network, Tune In Foundation and several others. Students listened, researched, brainstormed and built solutions aimed not at profit margins but at people.

Adding to the excitement, a panel of staff and faculty judges selected three finalist teams, with one earning a top prize of $3,000. The audience cast their own vote as well, choosing the winner of the $1,000 Audience Choice Award, generously supported by Merit Brewing. The friendly competition, paired with the spirit of community collaboration, created an energetic finale that celebrated creativity, teamwork and purpose-driven problem solving.

Learning to think differently

For first-year student Kaelyn McGinty, whose team won the top prize, the project with YouthReach was a lesson in balancing strategy with real-world limitations. “Working with this project has really shaped my strategic thinking in a real-world setting,” she said. It wasn’t just about applying what she had learned—it was about recognizing “organizational constraints… as well as the partner’s own perspective and their priorities.”

McGinty had completed GRIT Week once before, and she didn’t hesitate to compare the experiences. Her first one, she said, felt “really intense” because it was similar to an engineering problem. But this time, it was different. With a mission-centered challenge, she explained, her group felt more unified around the mission and had fun with it. The chance to showcase their work on film made the finish even sweeter.

For classmate Aryan Sharafi, the nonprofit lens was an eye-opener. “It was a different way of thinking where it’s not just about generating profit, but also creating social impact,” he said. Teams had to rethink how they defined success, balancing dollars and impact, sustainability and service.

Community organizations see real value

The week wasn’t just transformative for students. Many of the partner organizations walked away with solutions they say they’ll actually use.

At Community Living Oakville, students tackled a data and HR systems challenge. Director of Human Resources, Shannon Coles, said the team built a proposal that directly addressed ongoing issues. “They have put together a wonderful proposal… that will help us solve our issues around data, data analysis and some of our EHR systems,” she said. The organization, she added, is “excited about taking the next steps.”

Kemp Care Network’s Major Gifts Specialist, Lindsay Barnett, echoed that sentiment. “We really benefit from the amazing work that they do,” she said. Students surfaced real problems, she added, and brought thoughtful solutions the organization wouldn’t have had the capacity to explore on its own.

Even DeGroote alumnus Jeff Maimer of MS Canada, who came at the beginning of GRIT Week as a guest speaker, reminded students why work like this matters. “A strong business plan ensures that you’re clear about what your objective is and how you’re going to get there,” he said. For him, using his MBA skills in the nonprofit sector felt deeply meaningful:

Why it all matters

The festival closed with applause, awards and a sense of pride that stretched far beyond the Ron Joyce Centre auditorium. But the real impact will unfold over the coming months, both for the organizations receiving student recommendations and for the students who now have a clearer sense of the kind of leaders they want to become.

GRIT Week is fast. It’s challenging. It’s messy. And that’s the point.

Experiences like this are core to learning at DeGroote, helping students build adaptability, critical thinking, creativity and resilience. All of which are skills they’ll carry into every interview and every workplace they enter.

For a new class of MBA students, GRIT Week 2026 wasn’t just about completing a project. It was about discovering their capacity to lead with purpose.