When exploring her post-secondary options, Joanna Xu's future was anything but set in stone. Yet through exploration, curiosity, and a spark of inspiration along the way, she found a field, and a team, where she could thrive. 

"I was very indecisive about what I wanted to pursue in the future," explained Xu. "I jumped through many different ideas, including being a physiotherapist, a doctor, a psychologist, and a forensic scientist. But then after I took physics, I completely changed my path of pursuit. I really liked the course and all the interesting content that we learned and it persuaded me to go into engineering. From there I got into the Materials Science and Engineering program (MES) and am honestly super glad that it worked out this way." 

Excelling since making that decision, Xu has earned both Dean's Honour Roll and Varsity Blues Academic Excellence honours. This comes in addition to her standout performance with the U of T badminton team, which claimed both the OUA provincial title and University-College national championship during the 2024-25 season. 

"It was super fun getting to travel with the whole team to Quebec for the national championship and after the previous season bouncing back to win the championship title," said Xu. "It would definitely be my favourite Varsity Blues memory to date, just traveling with the team and competing with them all week was super fun." 

In addition to her studies and competition with the Varsity Blues badminton team, Xu has also been active within her Skule community. This year, she is now one of the executive members with Skule Photography, which captures engineering events throughout the year. As well, she was a member of the Skule dragonboat team over the past two years, which even took her to Italy for a competition. Lastly, she helped restart an outreach club called U of T Robogals, which aims to inspire young girls in elementary schools to pursue a STEM related career path. 

"My favourite thing about Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) is just how close the community is," said Xu. "MSE is a small discipline, which means we all share similar classes, and you get used to familiar faces. We are also able to become much closer with the professors." 

Enjoying as much as she can with the U of T community, Xu points to the great scope of options as one of the primary reasons the University of Toronto stands out among post-secondary institutions. 

"I think one of the best things about U of T is the sheer size of it. This comes with a lot of great perks, including being able to meet so many people from around the world who share similar interests. Also there are so many opportunities to be involved. And then there are also so many resources that U of T has that allows for research opportunities and networking after graduation. I think that these were the main points that drew me to choosing U of T."