VP Academic - Candidates
Nicky Dunn
BIO
Hi, y’all! I’m Nicky Dunn (he/him) and I’m excited to be running for our class’s MMSC. I came to Mac after completing my third year in the French Immersion Nursing program at uOttawa, where I was Class Representative and Vice-President on student council. I strongly believe in working to foster a safe and inclusive space for all, and foster a collaborative environment where students and faculty are working together towards shared goals. Outside school, I love coaching kids in skating and hockey; cutting my friends’ hair (check out Scott’s haircut for reference 😎) and entertaining my family and friends with movie quotes and impressions, especially Austin Powers! Feel free to message me (FB or IG) if you have any questions, or if you’re looking to connect or get a haircut. I’m so glad to have met many of you and I look forward to our next three years together. PLATFORM LGS INTEGRATION: I’ve heard from many of you that LGS can sometimes be out-of-touch with our stage of learning. As VP Academic, I would advocate for better communication with lecturers to ensure they’re aware of our tutorial objectives, and tailor LGS content toward our expected level of understanding. RESOURCES: With all the resources available to us, I think it’s crucial to continue the work of our current VP Academic to make them more user-friendly. I would love to extend it to non-academic and CaRMS-related resources, ensuring they’re displayed in simple ways that encourage us to use them if and when we need them. FEEDBACK: I want us to establish more effective and easy-to-use feedback loops that really work for you. With these forums in place, we will be able to translate feedback into meaningful differences within our program and within MMSC! |
Muqtasid Mansoor
BIO
Hey, it's Muqtasid. I come to you with a drive to represent YOUR voices YOUR input and YOUR ideas as YOUR Vice President Academic. For me, representing YOU is the most important thing. I am your ideal candidate for this position. With me, I bring unique experience in top level education leadership through prior roles as a student trustee, and as policy committee co-chair of the Ontario Student Trustees' Association - along with experience in research related to teaching, here at our university. I am excited to work with all of you to ensure YOUR voice concerning academics is being represented at all levels from McMaster all the way to Canada as a whole. PLATFORM The main priority for my Vice President Academic platform is shaping curriculum such that it will help make future MDs, all of us, prepared for a rapidly evolving 21st century career in medicine. I want to ensure that our curriculum is being moulded to directly benefit us in our practice - in all aspects, from our interactions with patients, to being lifelong learners, and everything in between. My platform is predicated on expanding YOUR voice. Putting forward YOUR ideas. And advocating for YOUR input to shape YOUR education. My platform is YOUR platform. Scott Mason
BIO
I was born in 1992 and attended Queen's for political studies prior to starting a business called CleanSlate UV. I ran CSUV for eight years. My favourite book is a comic called Watchmen and I distrust anyone who says "they like IPA's" or uses a selfie stick. I got my first grey hair at 12, I did a school exchange to China in 2014 and I once played Ping Pong with the bishop of Shanghai (he won). My wife and I are expecting our first child in December, which is probably a good reason not to vote for me as I will be pretty sleep deprived January haha. I’m a WRC student and I’ve been trying my best to travel to Hamilton to participate in every event. Meeting new people is one of my favourite things and I look forward to getting to know each one of you. PLATFORM • Gather input and implement proposed Student Mistreatment Policy. • Continue student advocacy during accreditation process. Based on my prior experience in student government, I've come to the conclusion that substantive policy changes are challenging to implement in a single year term. As opposed to promising you the moon and then not accomplishing anything, I feel the most honest answer is that I won't make changes beyond the two above which I believe I can complete by the end of the term. Rather, I commit myself to being an advocate for our class to the administration and a friend and ally to everyone in the program. I think the job of class President is to work for you: so my phone number is 416 371 3027. Call or text me anytime, for any reason, and I promise I will support you and we'll figure out whatever is troubling you together. |
Rabia Tahir
BIO
My name is Rabia and I am a first year medical student at the Michael DeGroote School of Medicine. I have been at McMaster for my entire University experience, so it really has become my home away from home. I love doing group study sessions in the reading room at the Health Sciences Library, drinking coffee at William’s Café, and taking photos by the Arch. In my spare time, I like to read, sing, and play guitar. I have always been passionate about advocacy – I was part of several initiatives at McMaster during my undergrad – and I want to be able to continue that through medical school. Hopefully, as an MMSC representative, I will be able to explore those avenues, and create opportunities for others to get involved as well. PLATFORM One thing I love about McMaster is how dynamic and changing the curriculum is. The faculty take student feedback seriously and alter the program so that we can learn in the most effective ways possible. If elected as VP Academic, I hope to integrate more informal feedback modes and use polling features in addition to the “evaluate session” option that currently exists on medportal. I often find myself and my peers ignore the “comments” section because we don’t quite know how to articulate our thoughts – having a “select” poll on an informal platform like facebook or Instagram would likely increase feedback volume and promote honesty. I also want to see if I can help make changes that are enacted in real time, as often our feedback is used to improve lectures for future classes instead of our own. |
