04/06/2021
Its that time of the year again! Here are your candidates for your 2021-2022 MIBS Council!! Be sure to check your emails and vote!! Also if you are interested in being VP Finance, VP Fundraising, Physiology/Math rep, Physiology/Physics rep, Quantitative Bio rep, Biophysical chemistry rep, or Comp sci/Bio rep please message!!
President: Angela Zhao
My name is Angela Zhao and I am running for MIBS President for the 2020-2021 academic year. I am currently a U2 Honours Computer Science and Biology student with a minor in Mathematics. My main interest lies in quantitative research methods in life sciences. As president, my main goals are to help interdisciplinary science students gain exposure to research and industry opportunities, encourage student engagement with MIBS, and increase awareness of social causes. My qualifications for this position are listed below. I believe they demonstrate familiarity with MIBS’ values and knowledge of opportunities that are of interest to undergraduates in this field. - Current VP Events of MIBS - Current McGill Undergraduate Tutor - Current NSERC USRA Awardee - Two-time TEAM Awardee My platform rests on the following key points: 1. Plan the first MIBS Panel Discussion, which will serve as a non-academic (i.e. industry) complement to our annual MIBS Symposium 2. Provide feedback forms and liaison for students 3. Initiate opportunities for students to discuss with professors in informal settings (MIBS Tea Time, post-covid lab tours) 4. Increase charitable events for social causes Integrative biosciences comprises of majors that both prepare students for graduate programs (research) and immediate entry into industry. MIBS currently holds an annual Research Symposium every Winter. I wish to introduce a counterpart — MIBS Panel Discussion — which invites industry representatives to inform students of employment options with their degree. The McGill student body is home to brilliant minds and ideas. I believe that MIBS can be improved to better suit students' needs with (anonymous) feedback forms that will be reviewed on a bi-weekly basis. Furthermore, I aim to make MIBS an important liaison and prominent resource within the McGill community for students who may be struggling academically or personally. In the upcoming year, I will re-initialize Tea Time with MIBS — an opportunity for students to discuss research and ask for personal advice from both their upperclassmen and professors. I believe this is imperative for students to re-establish their connection to the McGill community after the virtual academic year. Furthermore, I will endeavour to collaborate with bioscience professors to host lab tours for small groups of students in the post-covid era. Finally, it is MIBS’ responsibility to ensure a welcoming environment for every student. I also recognise that we do not only have this obligation towards McGill, but towards the community as a whole. I will make social awareness in academia a priority through informational events and/or listservs. In addition, this year, our fundraising events had difficulty gaining traction due to their online nature. Next year, we will focus on previously successful efforts such as food sales (Krispy Kreme, samosas, etc.) as permitted by Covid-19 regulations. As MIBS President, I commit to hitting these goals to make MIBS all the more inclusive and exceptional in the 2021-2022 academic year. Thank you!
VP Academic: Caterina Pacifico
Hi there! My name is Cat and I am a U2 in Quantitative Biology, running for the position of VP academic.
This year, I acted as the MIBS QBio representative. Although the pandemic put a halt on meeting many people, I really enjoyed getting to know and answering the questions of the prospective students of the program who reached out online! Entering the integrative biosciences at McGill can be a bit overwhelming, and honestly extremely confusing - too many good options with so much variability and potential!
As VP academic, I would make it my goal to be the general contact point for anyone interested in joining our incredibly diverse mini-faculty, providing general information about each program and contacts/references for more detail on individual programs. To this end, I plan on working closely with both the MIBS major representatives and the faculty/program advisors to shed light and promote the amazing opportunities within both the integrative-bioscience academics and research at McGill.
Further, I would like to start a note-sharing initiative for the core-classes of our majors - because lets face it, with everything you’ve got going on as a MIBS major, nice review material is EVERYTHING.
Please feel free to contact me on Facebook or LinkedIn if you have any questions/suggestions for me! Thanks for reading, hope to see you next year :) (Maybe even in person!)
VP Communications: Negar Matin
Hey everyone! My name is Negar and I’m a U2 Physiology and Math student. I’ve been a part of MIBS for the academic year of 2020-2021 as a physiology and math representative. Im running for the position of VP Communications because i want to make sure that the communication between MIBS and the students will be at its maximum. My plan is to grow our social media presence and have more involvement in our future events. I have exciting plans coming up and hope yall vote for me:) meanwhile best of luck with exams and assignments!
VP Events: Emily Pettitt
Hi MIBS! I'm Emily Pettitt and I am running to be your 2021-2022 VP Events. This past year I was fortunate enough to be your MIBS VP Internal where I dipped my feet into some of the more broad, concept based aspects of event planning and worked closely with our current VP Events to coordinate activities, distribute promotional material, and correspond with professors for our Academic symposium and correspond with students to organize our Undergraduate Student Research Symposium. Next year I want to get even more involved in the specifics of event planning for MIBS, especially as things get back to normal with the pandemic and help ease the transition back to in person learning with some awesome MIBS social events to strengthen departmental bonding. If elected, I look forward to organizing various Tea Time with MIBS, bonding events at Tipsy Cow or the soon to reopen GERTS! I also want to increase dialogue with the AWKWARD departments as all MIBS students take many math, physics, and computer science courses and/or are in joint programs with those departments and would like to see MIBS invited to events such as the Awkward semiformal again at in department rates.
VP External: Marta Kanne
Hi! I’m Marta Kanne (she/her), a second-year Quantitative Biology student from Toronto. I am excited to announce my candidacy as your incoming MIBS VP External for the 2021-2022 year. To this role, I would bring my experience working with the SUS, my interest in science policy, and my personal work ethic and ideas. For the past two years, I have been involved with the SUS as a member of the Science Internal Committee (SIC) and the Public Relations (PR) Committee, where I collaborated with other SUS organizations to both implement and promote events. Through these experiences, I have learned the ins and outs of communication within the science community and will utilize this as your next VP External. However, I am mainly drawn to this position because of my interest in student policy and democracy. As MIBS is one of the smallest departments within the SUS, it is imperative that your voice is accurately represented. I know I will excel in this role because of my organizational, interpersonal, and time management skills. To learn more about what I would do as VP External, please take a look at my platform!
Accessibility: As VP External, my goal is to be accessible to every MIBS constituent in order to represent our department as a whole. I aim to implement many opportunities to voice your needs, such as an anonymous submission form. I will personally make myself available through a variety of platforms (for example, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Slack, Email, or Facebook) to better suit your needs.
Outreach: One of the responsibilities of VP External is to develop relationships with groups and individuals outside of McGill. I would love to continue this tradition and work with sustainable and equitable organizations.
Transparency: As it is important for MIBS constituents to understand our relationship with the rest of the SUS, I plan on providing summaries of SUS General Council meetings in the context of MIBS in each listserv and on the website, marketed as a “What you missed at SUS General Council” type of blurb. This would act as a MIBS-specific supplementary to SUS meeting minutes.
Thank you for taking the time to read my campaign, and please consider voting for me! Stay safe!
VP Internal: Léo Gullion
Hello everyone,
My name is Léo and I'm currently in my third year in the Biological Physics program. I am the current VP Academic and am interested in being next year's VP Internal. Why? Because I love talking and I feel like VP internal's do that. I'm a team player and hope you'll be onboard as well! Take care guys!
Biology and Math Representative: Dawson Phan
I like socks
Biological Physics Rep
Hi! My name is Ally (she/her), and I’m a U2 student in the biological physics program.
When I came to McGill, I thought I wanted to major in biology, but throughout my first year, I realized how much I love the quantitative nature of math and physics. When I found out about the biological physics program, it felt like the perfect fit for me.
My favourite courses that I’ve taken at McGill so far have been related to quantitative life science or biological physics. I love the sense of community I feel when I’m in a class primarily filled with other quantitative life science students, especially knowing that everyone else is equally as passionate about the topics. However, due to the small program, at times I’ve felt alone, and it took me a while to find other people in the biological physics program specifically, and not just broadly in quantitative life sciences. As program representative, I would use the small program size to our advantage to create opportunities to connect and grow both as learners, friends and a community.
As a result of my experience, I would like to create opportunities to connect U0/U1 students with upper-years to gain valuable information and connections within their program. This would be beneficial for all; it would allow U0/U1 students to gain a mentor in their program who can offer advice and support, and for upper years to gain mentorship experience and to give back to their community. This might include program-wide study sessions or meet-ups whether that’s online or in-person.
I would love to use my creativity and organization skills to improve the experience of all students in the biological physics program. I am looking forward to this upcoming school year and hope to connect with you all then!
