Spring SPH student success stories
It has proved a successful spring so far for a number of School of Public Health (SPH) students.
Nafisa Absher, a first-year Master of Public Health student, has been elected to the position of Vice-President, Operations and Communication, in the annual elections for the Graduate Student Association (GSA) executive. Nafisa was very grateful for the support of her SPH colleagues during the election, and she plans to bring many positive changes in the graduate student community, encouraging students to become more engaged with the GSA, creating inclusive and safe spaces in the GSA commons, and connecting graduate students to a greater number of well-being services, to name a few.
PhD student Ellen Rafferty has been invited to participate in the CIHR Research Poster presentation as part of the Canadian Student Health Research Forum to be held this June in Winnipeg. Ellen, a student in the School’s Vaccinology and Immunotherapeutics thesis-based program, was nominated to take part in the forum as one of the top five per cent of doctoral students in health science disciplines at the University of Saskatchewan, and she was also selected to receive a CIHR travel award. The Canadian Student Health Research Forum will present a valuable opportunity for health research trainees at the PhD level from across Canada to present their work and be recognized for the excellence of their contributions.
Finally, two SPH students in thesis-based programs were selected as recipients of a 2016 Saskatchewan Innovation and Opportunity Scholarship through the College of Graduate Studies and Research. Masud Rana, an incoming PhD student to the Collaborative Program in Biostatistics, and Shermila Kulanayaka, a PhD student in the Vaccinology and Immunotherapeutics program, each received awards of $20,000. The scholarships are available through a special program where the Government of Saskatchewan has matched donations to scholarships for Saskatchewan post-secondary students. The scholarships are awarded based on excellence in research and academic performance.
Congratulations to our students on their success!
Photo shows Nafisa Absher.