I have always had a personal interest in technology, which started when I would “fix” the family computer running Windows 95 as a three-year-old. This has blossomed into a life-long love of technology, both personally and professionally.

When I learned through a news report about the benefits older adults can experience when they use technology, I co-founded the enTECH Computer Club at the University of Waterloo as an undergraduate student. EnTECH's vision is a world where everyone has the means, support, and tools to engage with technology, and primarily accomplishes this by directly supporting older adults living in retirement and long-term care homes in using technology to keep in contact with their families, and for recreation. 

What started as a small group of undergrad students going to a local retirement home once a week blossomed into an organization that is entering its seventh year of operations, and spawning four articles, two peer-reviewed publications, two media interviews, and a TEDx talk I delivered at TEDxUW in 2020:

EnTECH has also been featured in an article in The Record, as well as an interview on interview on CBC KW's The Morning Edition:

EnTECH colleagues and I have also written a number of articles on enTECH's work and the value of helping older adults use technology, which have been published in medical and geriatric-focussed lay-person publications:

I see many of these articles as an opportunity to mentor more junior enTECH volunteers, helping them go deeper in an area of interest and produce a meaningful piece of work at the end, and which also spreads news of enTECH's mission.

One of our volunteers, Nathan Nagallo created a knowledge translation document for an honours thesis project supervised by Dr. Jim Wallace, distilling much of what makes enTECH tick into an easy-to-read document aimed at lay people:

enTECH Knowledge Translation Document

Finally, we have published two peer-reviewed publications on enTECH's work, including a protocol to study enTECH as an intervention to study social isolation in older adults, as well as a person-centred framework to launch technology programs in long-term care settings:

We are incredibly pleased with the progress that the club has made in providing services to the Waterloo Region and beyond, including technology support at two different retirement and long-term care homes, at the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre, and since the beginning of the pandemic, an at-home support service named enTECH@home.