Thank you, and farewell
As the year comes to a close and everyone gets ready to grade finals and wrap up experiments, it is a good time to reflect on our success and progress and look forward to the future.
This fall, the Graduate Students Council organized several successful events, including our Trivia Night with Strong Bones Strong Minds Strong Muscles. We want to thank everyone who came out, and everyone who donated to the Bake Sale in October. We will be hosting our second annual Open Mic Night on November 30 and hope to see everyone there.
This past semester, we had our first of the Collaboration of Practitioners and Researchers (CPR) seminar series, which was very well received and had full attendance. The next in the series will take place on December 1. The goal of the seminar series — which is organized by Jessica Blom, MD/PhD representative, and Charles Yin, Hippocratic Council — is to increase community and collaboration between the graduate trainees and medical students at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. Moving forward, my hope is that the culture of communication and collaboration will extend to include all trainees, students and postdoctoral fellows — it is something we are working toward, and we have already taken a major step to achieving it.
The Council and Social Committee are already getting ready to organize more events for you in the new year. If you have any ideas, please contact your program representative. So far, we are planning a dodgeball tournament and another Trivia Night.
I would like to announce that this will be my last newsletter message as Chair of the Graduate Students Council. My term is coming to an end this December, and the Council will elect a new Chair. It has been a pleasure working with the rest of the Council, and I am very proud of the progress we made together. It is a stellar group of trainees, and the support we received from the administration has been incredible.
I would like to thank Jake Bedore, the Vice Chair of the Council, for working on everything from writing the Council’s operating guidelines to helping organize events, as well as Jessica Blom and Charles Yin for their tremendous work on making the CPR seminar series a reality. I would also like to thank Jesica Hurst, Communications Coordinator, for her support and help in writing each newsletter article throughout the past year.
Thank you to Doug Jones, PhD, Vice Dean, and Andrew Watson, PhD, Associate Dean, for their support in all of the Graduate Students Council endeavours and for the trainees here at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. Their open minds and eager ears made so much possible, including the CPR seminar series and the scholarship application panel discussion last year. Finally, I would like to thank Janelle Cobban, Manager, Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs, for her support, guidance, encouragement, advice and assistance in everything we have done as a Council. She truly goes above and beyond for every trainee who is lucky enough to cross paths with her, and I am grateful to have had the good fortune of working with her.
Beyond this list, there are many more people who have not been mentioned who work to make this Council run, and to make life better for the trainees here at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. You are the community I cherish, so thank you.
Moving forward, I am excited to see what new things the Council will do for all students at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, and look forward to seeing all of you at future events.
All the best,
Alex Moszczynski
PhD Candidate, Neuroscience
Chair, Graduate Students Council, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry
