Meet Adriana Diaz Lozano Patino, the Troost ILead Difference Maker of 2023

Mar 16, 2023

Adrian Diaz Lozano Patino is the winner of the 2023 Difference Maker Award from Troost ILead. Photo by Cormac Rea.

Adriana Diaz Lozano Patino, the recipient of the 2023 Troost ILead Difference Maker Award, is an undergraduate student studying engineering science in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. Growing up in Mexico City gave her a front row seat to the disparity that can exist between the “haves and have-nots” in society. “When you are driving in Mexico City, there’s this bridge,” she explains. “It’s called the Poet’s Bridge and it takes you from where I live to a really fancy part of town. On one side of the bridge, you have these massive and super expensive condominiums. On the other side, you have this area we call the ‘Lost Cities.’

“These are places that migrants from other states came to and built on irregular land. They have no infrastructure. They don’t have water. Sometimes they don’t have electricity. These neighbourhoods separated in so many ways by just one bridge. It just didn’t compute in my head how that was OK.”

The power of early leadership

Inspired by the belief in the power of engineers to lead, the annual Difference Maker Award celebrates and empowers engineering students who are chasing their dreams, taking on big challenges, and making a positive impact in service to others. The $50,000 award will help fund young leaders in the pursuit of their goals. Diaz Lozano Patino’s goal setting began with lessons first learned at home.

Her grandmother — a steady influence for Diaz Lozano Patino and her brother (a U of T Engineering alumnus) — was an early mentor. “Up until time took her away, my grandmother lived by three beliefs: that history holds immense power, that life will have you teach yourself how to walk more than once, and that happiness is built out of small acts of kindness,” says Diaz Lozano Patino. “Weaving these beliefs into stories and encouragement, she made sure to pass them onto me.”

The Difference Maker Award will enable me to go to the field and talk to people, spend time and understand how they live.

Following the death of her grandmother (just two weeks before receiving acceptance to U of T), Diaz Lozano Patino left Mexico for Toronto. Leaving Mexico with the intention of gaining an education and returning home, Diaz Lozano Patino initially found herself lacking direction. “I thought I could ‘outsource’ myself and then bring knowledge back,” she says. “And then I came to U of T and I was really struggling. I got kind of lost.”

The Difference Maker Award will enable me to go to the field and talk to people, spend time and understand how they live.

A new sense of purpose

Involving herself in the Hi-Skule Outreach program, Diaz Lozano Patino soon found that leading others could help her regain a sense of self and purpose. “Hi-Skule is a STEM outreach club for the Engineering society,” she says. “I would interact with younger students and they would have so much life and hope.”

It wasn’t long before Diaz Lozano Patino made an impression on her own mentors. Professor Amy Bilton, Director of the Water and Energy Research Lab (WERL), recognized an uncommon talent within her classroom. “[Adriana] led a team in a practical analysis of a coupled UV-RO system for Bangladesh,” wrote Bilton, in a testimonial letter for Diaz Lozano Patino’s Difference Maker Award submission.

“In her ‘spare’ time as well, she was also supporting some data analysis for a PhD student working on sanitation in peri-urban areas of Mexico City, where she grew up. She did a tremendous job, and covered a lot of new ground, really a testament to her motivation, leadership and problem-solving abilities.

Finding a sustainable solution

Diaz Lozano Patino aspires to continue her studies with a Masters of Applied Science, focusing on global development and continuing to seek out opportunities that involve STEM outreach. But with her winnings from the Difference Maker Award, Diaz Lozano Patino has set her sights on a specific project — returning home to utilize a refined sense of vision.

Ultimately I want to create something that’s sustainable. Not only environmentally sustainable, but sustainable for the community to perform in the long term.

“You can imagine the amount of wastewater that a city of 30 million people produces. It all goes to the valley of Mezquital and an Indigenous community that’s lived there for so many years, the Otomies people. They’ve pretty much been forced to make their livelihood out of using wastewater for agriculture.

Ultimately I want to create something that’s sustainable. Not only environmentally sustainable, but sustainable for the community to perform in the long term.

“How can I help them have a sustainable solution to use this wastewater as an economic resource but then prevent them from having such a high incidence of disease? [The Difference Maker Award] will enable me to go to the field and talk to them, spend time and understand how they live,” she says.

“Ultimately I want to create something that’s sustainable. Not only environmentally sustainable, but sustainable for the community to perform in the long term.”

By Cormac Rea