VP Communications - Candidate

Jamie Halperin

Eric Chen

Aaron Wen

BIO
 
Hey c2025! My name is Jamie and I am so excited to serve you on MMSC! I hail from Montreal and got my BSc in Physiology at McGill. After completing one year of an Accounting program, I spent the past year working full-time as a medical secretary and gained invaluable experience in the healthcare field. Student leadership holds a special place my heart. I was Student Council President in elementary and high school, and then served as U1 Rep, Communications Director and Vice President on McGill’s Physiology student government. I have extensive experience leading and collaborating with teams, eliciting student feedback, planning social/academic/fundraising events, allocating budgets, and bringing student concerns to the forefront of the conversation. Outside of MacMed, I love to play violin, listen to Rock music, go on hikes, sing karaoke (badly), and watch Netflix. Fun fact: I am the most talented napper you will ever meet, period.
 
PLATFORM
 
After previously serving as VP Communications on McGill’s Physiology council, I have lots of ideas to improve communication between MMSC and the student body! Keeping the MMSC Weekly Newsletter up-to-date and relevant will be one of my top priorities. I will consolidate all of the emails we get, reminding you guys of key academic dates and research opportunities, sharing Interest Group announcements, and highlighting upcoming events and conferences. I’d also like to add a ‘Meme of the Week’ section, featuring a hilarious meme created by a different MacMed student each week! Some of my other goals include maintaining an active social media presence and responding to all email and website inquiries within 24 hours of receiving them. Finally, I plan to spruce up the design of the MMSC website, including the addition of an anonymous feedback form so that MacMed students can easily bring their concerns to the MMSC’s attention. ​

BIO
Hey! I'm Eric, and I did my undergraduate degree at Western. I like to think that I'm a laidback, relaxed, but competent person. I've always enjoyed promoting events - I've spent multiple years as VP Events of a few clubs at Western and have also spearheaded social media promotion of my high school tribute band (please ask me more about this in person). I'm very musical; I love singing and playing the piano, and I believe that karaoke is objectively one of the best ways of having fun and relieving stress. I'm a Raptors fan and the biggest Giannis fan you'll have the pleasure of meeting!

PLATFORM
​Communication is often confused with information - often used interchangeably despite signifying very different things. As journalist Sydney J. Harris says, "information is giving out, communication is getting through". As VP Communications, I will focus on delivering information in an easy, digestible, and visually appealing way. I'm someone who is easily intimidated by walls of text and a plethora of resources/opportunities, and so I will work to create documents that help summarize all of these things. Much like how the pre-clerkship guide details different academic resources, I would change the weekly newsletter to contain a summary of different events and opportunities in a pdf format. And finally, in addition to attending MMSC meetings and working with interest groups, I would also like to create a monthly newsletter that includes text and graphic summaries of events to update our peers that might have missed something and to immortalize our precious memories.

BIO
​Hi! Aaron here. I am a graduate of the Health Sciences program here at McMaster University, and am running to be your MMSC President and VP Communications. Chances are, you know me as the person doing magic tricks at our social events. Although I can't make problems disappear like the cards in my hand, I do think that my experiences as a leader and facilitator throughout undergrad make me a qualified candidate for these roles. My academic interests include neuroanatomy, infectious disease, immunology, and education. If I am not shuffling cards, I like to spend my spare time playing a medley of sports (badminton, soccer, table tennis, squash) or playing violin!

​PLATFORM
​Although everyones perception of VP Communications may be represented entirely by Nav's regular emails (or just Nav in general), I think there is more room to grow. It makes a lot of sense to me for the VP Communications to be the actual primary point of contact that the MMSC has with students, from organizing anonymous feedback forms, publicizing MMSC meetings, to keeping students up to date with interest group events. Perhaps it is because I feel bad for someone like Jason (current VP Internal), who seems to be juggling 50 things at once, but I hope that the VP Communications can grow its role and collaborate with VP Internal to better engage the student community. Furthermore, I hope to use the VP Communications role to better curate and share resources with the student community, likely in partnership with the VP academic.