Diana Bingqing Li 

Diana is a recent graduate of the University of Toronto Scarborough, where she majored in City Studies and minored in Anthropology and Applied Statistics. Diana participated in the Moss Park Community Research program within the Urban Studies Program at Innis College. 

Attending the Moss Park Saturday Market every week, Diana had the opportunity to talk with local residents asking them about their community needs. To further gain context for this community, Diana attended community meetings and City Counsellor’s meetings regarding community redevelopment plans. 

This research experience introduced her to the different ways the public sector and non-profit organizations engage with community:

“From these two different roles, different perspectives, and my involvement, I can feel that they are both helping the community in different ways. Both are very important to the community and the work of these two different roles complement each other and make a difference to the community.”

Through this experience, Diana learned how to conduct field research– talking to people, listening to their needs, collecting this information and analyzing it, then thinking about a community development plan. She hopes to continue her research by applying to U of T’s Urban Planning program for graduate school.

Research Type(s): Community-Engaged Research