Business Minor Spotlight: Sasha Dahdah
As a high school or first-year student, it is hard to know exactly what programs to apply for and courses to enroll in. Sasha Dahdah has demonstrated adaptability in shaping her academic journey, paving the way for award-winning achievements and emerging as a confident, influential leader within her community. On November 12, 2025, I sat down with Sasha Dahdah to discuss how she came across the Business Minor Program at IMI and how she hopes to apply the skills and knowledge she has learned through the program into the workforce.
Sasha had her sights set on the Biotechnology Specialist at UTM, but she was interested in supplementing her science degree with a background in business. “I saw that it [Business Minor] was very diverse in terms of the courses that were offered. It makes you a very well-rounded person. You get knowledge in marketing, finance, accounting, and project management; there is a course for everything,” Dahdah explained. She enrolled in the Economics Minor but switched out to gain a wider understanding of business principles. “I thought that the Business Minor at IMI was more beneficial than the Economics Minor, and I didn't know what I was going to do with it. This gave me a set of skills related to every business topic,” she said.
Dahdah highlighted Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IMI400H5) and Managing Projects, Operations & Preparing a Business Plan (IMI302H5) courses within the IMI Business Minor that offered the most applicable knowledge for her professional development and career goals. “I learned a lot through the project management course, specifically. I had the opportunity to come up with my own business idea, for which I had to write a whole report. It discussed the finances, the start-up costs, and who the target customers were. If I ever decide I want to start a business…I'll know what steps I have to take to get there,” she explained. Dahdah is currently enrolled in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IMI400H5) and is learning the best practices in the business landscape. “The course teaches you how to operate a business in an environment that's full of risks. The way the course is structured makes you feel like you're creating a business and pitching it in the real world. There are different teams in the course, and we're all like pitching against each other.”
With her experience in the Biotechnology Specialist and her journey through the Business, Science, and Entrepreneurship Minor, Dahdah will be applying for into the Master of Biotechnology at IMI. “The way it's structured blends business, bio, and chemistry in a way that no other university does.” Her goals span beyond academics and into the workforce with the ambition of working with a start-up company. MBiotech is Canada's leading professional biotechnology program and will be accepting it’s 25th cohort in May 2026 with over 800 professional alumni.
In 2025, Dahdah had the opportunity to work in a research lab at UTM, enrolling in the Research Opportunity Program (ROP) with the Experiential Education Unit (EEU) and was supervised by Professor Marcus Dillon in the Department of Biology. Part of her summer role was designing a poster of her research project for the Summer Research Day at UTM. “I ended up winning an award for the poster. I owe it to the Business Minor. I can always be thankful to this minor for helping me get out of my comfort zone and stepping up and being more comfortable with speaking in front of an audience.” Business Minor courses apply theoretical business concepts through team activities, case studies, presentations, and business pitches, allowing science students the opportunity to delve into real-world engagements. Students are able to develop a broader understanding of the economy and with that shift of thinking, also develop transferable soft skills that they generally do not hone in typical science courses.
To learn more about the Minor in Business, Science and Entrepreneurship at IMI, please visit the website or contact imi.businessminor@utoronto.ca.
To learn more about Sasha’s second-place poster presentation, please visit Summer Research Day. Here’s Sasha’s LinkedIn.
