Michelle Lai (Year 4 IndE) is the recipient of the 2025 Troost ILead Difference Maker Award, a $50,000 award recognizing outstanding impact, contributions to community and a strong vision for the future. 

From a young age, Lai understood the important role educators play in children’s lives. 

“When I came to Canada, I didn’t speak any English, and it was quite intimidating,” she says. “My teachers were a very welcoming presence in the classroom. Having them there made me feel a lot more comfortable, and it was the first time I felt how important a trusted adult is in an environment like that.” 

While still in elementary school, Lai developed a passion for working with children. 

“Every day at lunch, I would go to the kindergarten class to read to the children, chat with them, draw and sing together, and help out however I could. Over those two years, I saw them grow and start to build trust in me. It was the first time I realized I loved working with children,” she says.  

Lai continued volunteering extensively throughout her high school years with community initiatives such as Key Club, where she eventually served as president of her school’s chapter.  

“Seeing others’ passion for improving the community and realizing how much this work means to the people it impacts, I discovered my love for community leadership,” she says. 

For Lai, pursuing industrial engineering was a way to bring her passions together. 

“Volunteering with organizations like Canada Learning Code, the MINA Project, and other groups centred on providing young students with STEM learning resources, I realized I could combine my knowledge of engineering and my passion for youth education to do what I love all day. It was the best of both worlds,” Lai says. 

“What links my experiences together is empathy. A large component of industrial engineering is human factors, which is all about understanding user experience and how to alleviate stress points. Similarly, when working with youth, you’re trying to create an environment that removes the friction preventing them from realizing their potential.” 

Lai describes a formative experience she had teaching in the remote Indigenous community of Chisasibi in northern Quebec.  

“When I stood in front of the classroom, things fully clicked and I knew that pursuing youth education was something that I had to do; it’s the only thing that will make me happy. Even as I worked my hardest every single day, I always felt so fulfilled and energized,” she says. 

“A lot of the students never had a teacher who encourages them and tells them that they are capable. It was small gestures like coming in early to make sure that I could welcome them, baking treats and writing encouraging notes, or asking them what their favourite songs were, that really counted. I wanted them to see that someone was invested in their academic success.” 

Currently, Lai is developing PeaceOfMind, a mobile application designed to provide preparatory resources to young children undergoing medical operations involving anesthesia. It was awarded first place at the 2023 HFES Mobile Health App Design Competition, an international contest hosted by the world’s largest scientific association for human factors and ergonomics professionals. 

“During my research with the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) Lab under Professor Myrtede Alfred, I came across the statistic that 60% of children facing operations with anesthesia struggle with pre-operative anxiety, which can have negative effects including prolonged recovery time,” she says. 

“A lot of existing solutions are not very child friendly. Unlike adults, kids can’t read lengthy brochures or attend complicated briefings, so I wanted to make something that reaches them directly in a way that is accessible and familiar.” 

Lai intends to continue leveraging her engineering and human factors background to create more opportunities for youth empowerment. 

“Directly interacting with young learners and facilitating their growth, making a space where they can explore their curiosities and ask questions, that is important to me,” she says. 

Lai’s advice to aspiring leaders and difference makers is to face imposing challenges head on.  

“I never considered myself the smartest kid in class growing up, and I’m not a huge risk taker, but I was fortunate enough to have amazing mentors who encouraged me and pushed me outside of my comfort zone,” she says. 

“Ask questions and trust in yourself to take on challenges — the more times you take that leap of faith, the more proof you have that you can go even further. Then when you’re ready, you can pass on what you learned as a mentor for others.”