As an ISCI student, it might seem odd to join the Co-op program. You might be wondering, what could I learn from Co-op that would actually be useful? You might think it’s a waste of time, adding an extra year to your degree, to just work, when you can do that after you graduate. You might feel like Co-op will not help you and your degree. However, I am here to change your mind! Co-op is not just a year of working, it’s a life changing experience, which could fully change your plans for the future. The skills you learn, be it wet lab, clinical research, or even just soft skills, make you a hundred times more hireable post-graduation. As well, the experience looks amazing on medical school applications, graduate school applications, and many many other programs. In fact, Co-op is one of the only ways to shadow doctors in Canada. That kind of experience can truly help you decide on the course of your future. Maybe being a doctor is exactly what you want to do, but maybe it’s not! And wouldn’t it be great to figure that out sooner rather than later, so when you return to fourth year, you have a focus and a goal in mind? Co-op is not just amazing for academic positions, there are opportunities in clinical research in the hospital, or in the biotech industry, or in STEM outreach, or even in small start-ups in completely different fields. The cool part is you have 16 months to work in whatever field you would like to and figure out what YOU want to do! You don’t have to take classes, you get paid, and you get time to learn more about yourself. Sometimes, in the rush of school, it's hard to take time for yourself, to figure things out, but Co-op gives you some much needed rest and time to soul search. I can only speak to my own experience, but for me, Co-op was earth shattering, life changing, and transformative. When I entered the Co-op program, I was really confused about what I should do after graduating. My options were graduate school, medical genetic counselling, and some kind of professional program, but other than this, I had no clue! I didn’t know if I would like medical genetic counselling, and I had zero clue as to what field I would want to be in for graduate school. I was confused and figured I would take a year off to work, and figure it out. To be completely honest, I wasn’t confident in my ability to get into graduate school, or even in myself! I felt like I was just another average ISCI student and wasn’t sure how to make myself standout. The Co-op program was a game changer. Co-op is not just 16 months of working. Leading up to this, you attend workshops on resumes, cover letters, and interviews, you meet and network with other ISCI co-op students, you talk to alumni and senior students. Most importantly, you are mentored by the ISCI Co-op Coordinator, Yas Azarpajouh. Yas is one of the most kind-hearted persons I know. She truly has your best interests in mind and takes the time to meet with you to work on your resume, cover letters and interview skills! She is there with you every step of the way, from entry to the program, landing your first job, checking in to see how you are adjusting, and to the other end, when you finally return to school. Yas was instrumental in my own journey. With her help, I landed a job with Dr. Kevin Hay at the Terry Fox Labs (TFL) in the BC Cancer Research Centre studying CAR T-Cell Immunotherapy. I had always been interested in gene therapies, but never expected to actually get a job in the field! My experience at the TFL was amazing, and I realized, I want to continue to study immunotherapy, and work towards improving them to improve cancer patient outcomes! After this, I worked at the University of Calgary, with Dr. Hermann Schaetzl studying heat shock proteins in prion diseases. Calgary is home, so I was lucky to be there during the pandemic. I was even luckier to have the opportunity to work on a review and help prepare a manuscript for publication! Through the Co-op program, I learned many wet lab skills, but I also learned about research, working in academia, and I finally figured out what I am passionate about. I got my first publication. I have offers to return to both labs for graduate school. I connected with other co-op students and graduate students, making some amazing friends. Co-op truly changed my life, for the better. I encourage you all to apply to Co-op, attend an information session (below), or just visit the website! The application deadline is October 1 for third years. If you are in second year, feel free to attend the sessions as well, and think about checking the “Co-op” box in your degree proposal! And as always, feel free to contact me through this form, or on my insta! Cheers, Charu UBC Science Co-op Yes, this is a photo of me, in the lab, counting some cells... Session 1:
Date: Friday, September 18th, 2020 Time: 1pm – 2pm Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/67811311685?pwd=VnNTYlltVlR3Ynh3UlptaktTZTF4UT09 Passcode: 034794 Session 2: Date: Wednesday, September 23rd, 2020 Time: 12pm – 1pm Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/66343713666?pwd=eUsvdUZ1Y3g3TTF1R0tRY3RpZnE0QT09 Passcode: 093056 Session 3: Date: Friday, September 25th, 2020 Time: 1pm – 2pm Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/67811311685?pwd=VnNTYlltVlR3Ynh3UlptaktTZTF4UT09 Passcode: 034794 Session 4: Date: Wednesday, September 30th, 2020 Time: 12pm – 1pm Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/66343713666?pwd=eUsvdUZ1Y3g3TTF1R0tRY3RpZnE0QT09 Passcode: 093056 First, I want to say welcome to all of you second year Integrated Science students! I hope you are all super excited for the upcoming school year, even though classes will be online. My name is Charu, and I will be going into my fifth and final year of integrated sciences and my disciplines are molecular biology and immunology. I am in both the Co-op program and honors so feel free to reach out if you have any questions about these! Lastly, but most importantly, I am your ISSA (Integrated Sciences Student Association) VP Admin for the upcoming school year, so you will probably hear from me in various blog posts and such. Second year ISCI can be such a confusing time. I remember having no idea what courses to take as an incoming ISCI student. I heard the words "degree proposal" had no idea what that was. I was overwhelmed by the number of courses I was interested in. I ended up spending hours looking into possible courses I would want to take in my upper years and looking into their pre-requisites to try to cover every possible angle, just in case I changed my mind. I know most upper year ISCI students went through a similar experience. As an ISCI student, you are given this amazing opportunity to plan your degree. What it also means, is you can literally take any course you want. With the vast number of courses available, this gets to be very confusing! I hope to provide some clarity and to guide you through this confusing mess, as you near course registration. Below is a general guideline for courses needed in second year for specific disciplines. Of course, these are only suggestions and there may be courses I have missed! Ultimately, you can take any course you choose to, and integrate any subject you are passionate about so you should make sure to do your research on what pre-requisites may be required for any upper level courses you are interested in. I only hope to shed some light on a very confusing grey area. Note You also have to make sure you fulfill your general requirements from the Faculty of Science! Check out these links for more details: Shout out to our amazing Marketing Coordinator, Hannah, who made these beautiful visuals!!!
Note: If your integration involved life sciences, you will be required to take BIOL 200 and BIOL 201 or BIOC 202 Other resources The CMS Package worksheets may be helpful – it has details on their 7 subjects and combinations which may help you in your search for courses. Another good idea is to look at other Majors (Biology, Microbiology, Stats, Biochemistry, …) on the UBC advising website and see what courses are mandatory in second year. In September, we will have events to help you find a Mentor and offer a Peer Mentor program for help with your degree proposals. Right now, just focus on planning out your courses for this upcoming year, and thinking about what courses you will want to take later in your degree. Good luck! And of course, feel free to reach out to those of us here at ISSA, Mary Anne (Program Manager and Advisor) or Science Advising if you need any support with course planning! Cheers, Charu From a final year ISCI student. 1. The ability to build your own degree
The freedom to choose your own specialization allows you customize and tailor your degree to support your passions. 2. Very few requirements! Instead of taking courses you are not interested in, you can focus on what is actually essential to your disciplines. 3. Fantastic faculty mentorship ISCI has a great group of faculty mentors. This means you will have one-on-one time with a UBC professor who will help guide you as you design your degree and possibly beyond! 4. No required lab courses This can be both a pro and con, but I like to see it as a pro. Lab courses take up a lot of time, and so without them, you will have a lot more free time to be a part of the UBC community. This could be through volunteering, working, joining a club, or even assisting in a research lab! Research experience is worth 10x what you will learn in a course. 5. Really cool courses ISCI offers some really cool courses like ISCI 361 where you go to Hawaii or Iceland to study sustainability! Another fun course is ISCI 320, a research retreat without internet, or ISCI 350, Darwinian medicine. 6. An amazing department Mary Anne Lyons, the Program Manager and Advisor, is incredibly kind and helpful, and is always there to answer your questions and help you out! Lee Groat, the Director, is passionate about his teaching and loves getting to know every ISCI student. He is a great faculty mentor as well! 7. Directed Studies! Directed studies are a great opportunity for upper year ISCI students to carry out an individual research project, with the guidance of faculty. This can be lab, field, or theory based and allows you to apply your knowledge and gain real world experience. 8. An outstanding Co-op program. Yas Azarpajouh, the Co-op coordinator for ISCI, genuinely cares about each of her students and goes above and beyond to help each student find success! Many ISCI students pursue really cool Co-op opportunities—from clinical research to wet lab to industry, ISCI students are there! 9. Peer Mentorship ISSA offers a peer mentorship program, where second-year students are paired with a senior student who is able to answer your questions and provide support as you pick your courses and write your degree proposal. Of course, once you are a senior student, you can volunteer to be a peer mentor and give back to the ISCI community. 10. ISSA! The Integrated Sciences Student Association (ISSA) is all about helping and connecting ISCI students and has some great events to do so! From Meet your Mentor, where we help you find a faculty advisor, to proposal workshops to Meet Your Alumni, where ISCI grads offer insights on paths after your BSc, ISSA is there to support you! Cameron Houchmand, a Peer Mentor and fifth year ISCI student integrating Pharmacology and Physiology sat down with ISSA's very own, Megan, to talk about the Peer Mentorship Program, doing a five year Honours Degree and some tips for ISCI students. M: What is something that you enjoy about being a Peer Mentor?
C: My favourite part is being able to connect with fellow ISCI students. It can be kind of difficult to connect with ISCI students especially since we’re so spread out with our integrations. This position really allowed me to get more connected within the ISCI department. I love being able to pass on what I’ve learned to other students and being able to mitigate some of the challenges that I came across and it’s super rewarding. M: I noticed when I started my degree, so many people help me out. It takes a village. Now I want to be able to help younger students and give them all the help that was given to me. C: Totally! One of the biggest things that I really enjoyed was last year when I was able to calm people’s nerves about certain courses. A big misconception for example, is if you’re doing a Physiology integration, is that people get worried about fourth year CAPS courses. I can genuinely say that fourth year CAPS seemed “easier” than third year because they really just test more logic rather than your memorization skills. So instead of having to remember one tiny detail about one pathway, there would be a question asking you to describe the pathway in general. I found those types of questions really fair. When I had my first test in [fourth year] CAPS, I realized “Wow, this is so much better than what I was anticipating.” M: What was one of your fears/concerns going into ISCI and how did you deal with that fear? C: I definitely had fears and concerns. I was someone who was lucky and knew what I wanted to do. I guess in terms of fears it concerns it was more in terms of “don’t screw anything up.” It was really helpful that I actually had a peer mentor. It was actually one of the reasons that I applied to this job and she was really kind and good at helping me calm down about a lot of things. Because the staff in the ISCI department are so helpful and approachable, it really helps as well. If they weren’t like that, it would be terrifying. You would feel so alone but because they’re so supportive, it’s not as scary as some people make it out to be. It’s funny when I look back at a lot of the concerns I had and I just wonder why those things stressed me out so much. M: What is something you would suggest prospective ISCI students research/look at prior to applying to the program? C: I feel like my perspective is biased because from my own experience I would say to know pretty well what you want to do coming into the program. But that being said, there’s so many students that didn’t really know what they wanted do and ended up figuring it out and still came out with great degrees. I would say, it’s really good to have some time management skills coming into the program. As you know there’s a lot of different deadlines, especially in second year, associated with finding a mentor and submitting your proposal. Having some sort of system where you’re able to manage your time effectively is really important prior to coming in. Also, knowing about some of the limitations that the program inherently has regarding lab courses. A lot of people don’t know this, but lab courses are really hard to get into. You don’t necessarily need lab courses if you want to go into research. I highly recommend doing a directed studies. That, in my opinion, would give you better lab experience than doing lab courses. So if you are someone who wants to go into research, ISCI is still a really great option. M: What is something you liked about doing an Honours degree? C: There’s a number of things that I liked. I liked that it really showed me my ability to manage a graduate level’s workload. I did a lot of hours in the lab and maintained a full time course load, which was stressful at times. But, now looking back and realizing I was able to do that successfully, it's a huge relief and it showed me that I can pursue something if I set my mind to it. M: How was doing a 5 year degree? C: I did a fifth year because I finished my fourth year and it was a lot. I felt accomplished after but I also felt tired because I'd done four years and a heavy course load. I didn't want to graduate with resentment about the workload because I really love my degree, so now I’m taking all the electives I want and treating my fifth year has a victory lap. It’s a breath of fresh air. M: That’s a great way to put it! C: One thing that I’ll add about taking a fifth year is that I had the option to graduate and come back unclassified or take the fifth year. If you decide to graduate and come back unclassified, you’re the lowest priority for picking classes, whereas, if you come back as a fifth year, you hold a fourth year standing on SSC and would get the same priority as other fourth years. Another thing is that if you do a fifth year and fail one of your electives, if you’re an honours student, you would become demoted from your honours degree. That’s just something to keep in mind if you plan on taking a more difficult class M: What is something you didn’t like about doing an Honours degree? C: Looking back, the things I didn’t like were very surface level. Stuff like the workload, like your average complaints. Overall, I can only say positive things about it. Don’t get me wrong, it was very difficult, I won’t sugarcoat it, but, if you’re someone that likes a challenge or likes to push yourself, it’s a great opportunity. M: Since you did a physiology degree and physiology is becoming increasingly popular, are there any physiology courses you would recommend? C: I would say to really pick an interesting course that you care about. I took Renal Physiology which a lot of people don’t like but because my job is in kidney transplant research I enjoyed it and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I also took CAPS 424 which I thought was an amazing course, which was endocrine physiology. I also took some neurophysiology courses like bio-psyc which is PSYC 304. I would heavily recommend that course because it was really interesting. This course in particular is actually an honorary science course, so even though it’s technically an arts course, you get Science credits. I would also recommend CAPS 301 over taking a combination of 390 and 391 because it gives you a better overall understanding of physiology. You can find a list of Honorary Science Courses here: https://intsci.ubc.ca/advising/curriculum-requirements#Honorary%20Science%20Courses Overall Curriculum Requirements can be found here: https://intsci.ubc.ca/advising/curriculum-requirements More Information About the Peer Mentorship Program as well as their Office Hours and Contact Information can be found here: https://intsci.ubc.ca/advising/peer-mentoring-program
S: How long have you been the director of Integrated Sciences? Were you the one to start it, or? LG: No, I’ve been director since 2007. The program started in the late 1990’s, I think around ‘95. S: Did you overtake it from the original director? LG: No, ah, there [were] a few people in between me. They originally asked me in 2004, but I had too much other stuff going on. So I came back in 2007, and I figured it was going to work well for me. But it’s a good question; how many directors have we had? We’ve had acting directors for a while too. There was some sorting out to be done - figure out where, how to place Integrated Sciences, and the program took off like a rocket when it started. And they decided they had to, to cut enrolment somehow, the number of students, so they stopped taking applications and word got out that you couldn’t get into Integrated Sciences. And the enrolment dropped like a stone. S&K: *laughs* LG: Pictures of the graduating class as you can see. S: It’s like 100, and then 25. LG: When I came on the scene, I think their might have been 75 students at all stages. And so we had to rebuild the program, and tell everyone that they could actually get into Integrated Sciences. And now we’re up around, um, I think we’re around 400 at different stages, between their 1st and 3rd year. 400 – 450, I couldn’t tell you exactly. So, we’ve really grown and the program has gotten very successful. I mean the incoming students are among the best students at UBC, so yeah. S: Awesome. If you were going to rate how competitive it is to get in, what would you say would be an average rating, and a number of times people submit an application to get in? LG: Ah. It’s never impossible to get in. There’s two ways of getting in. One is by choosing integrated sciences in first year, in the, what do you call it, where you have to choose your major. S: Ah, degree specialization. Is that what they call it? LG&K: Yeah! LG: But you can always get in by coming to see us and saying that you’re interested in integrated sciences and then following the path of finding a mentor and completing an application. So, there’s kind of two ways of getting in, and the first way you still have to find a mentor and do the application, but when you choose integrated sciences at the end of first year, then you can make sure that we keep a spot for you. Even if you get in, this year we had 100 spots and they filled up. Again, we even have students coming to us in the beginning of their 4th years, saying “Hey, I’m really interested in integrated sciences...um, can we still do something?” And, we can up until [a certain point]. S: But there would be no specific like stats you would say? It’s all, it’s very interpersonal in deciding who can get into Integrated Sciences then? LG: Yeah, I mean it’s very rare, very rare, in fact I can’t remember, that somebody couldn’t get in. As you know, the [important thing] is really the application. The desire to complete the application, as you know, it does take effort, and there’s a lot of checks, because, when it’s accepted, it’s law, it becomes a legal contract between you and the University. The University says “If you do what you say you’re going to do, we’ll give you a degree.” Now, we can always unlock and make changes and so on, but it has to be right. The reason why this program, why there aren’t more programs like this in other universities, is that that’s a big job, and we have permission from the senate to approve programs, individual programs. A lot of universities, the senate has to approve everything, but you can imagine, it wouldn’t work. [Here] it’s worked spectacularly well, but as you know, there’s a lot of responsibility on the part of the student and the advisor and us here in the office to make sure we are not making any mistakes. S: For being a mentor, are your, the people who select you as a mentor, are they very specific in geology or have you gotten a wide range of [applicants]? LG: Wide range, yeah, because students who can’t find a mentor, they’ll come to us and I’ll often, because I’ve done a lot, and I have great people like Mary-Anne who can help me, I’ll say, “Yeah I’ll act as your mentor.” I think it’s better if the student works with somebody that it’s an area that is in one of their areas that they want to integrate, because then that person can give them ideas about grad school and so on in their areas. But yeah, probably half the students I mentor are doing something in earth science, and the other half could be in any area. S: What was the most unusual integration you’ve seen? LG: The most unusual...uh, it wasn’t mine, but there was a student who was interested in how we perceive music, and so she did neurology, psychology, and a minor in music. Then I had a student that came in and said she wanted to study plants and rocks. And that worked out pretty well. We’ve seen a real wide range, it’s, I mean there’s been some really creative integrations, and kind of the wilder it is, the more fun it is to put something together. S: When you’re putting something together, do you find you mostly do it over e-mail? Do you find you do it in in-person meetings? LG: It’s, whatever the student is comfortable with, there’s some students that prefer email, it works better for them, and others that I think really enjoy the one-on-one meetings. So it’s, it’s right across the spectrum. S: If you were going to do an integration now, do you have an idea of what you would do? LG: Oh my goodness, wow. Good question. Ah man, I’d probably do something really unusual. But, ah, but yeah. I mean, you know I don’t know much about biology, because I didn’t take, you know I didn’t take that area much. I mainly did geology and chemistry, so maybe some kind of combination of geology and biology. [Some] biohydrometallurgy [and] bacterial work we did, was really interesting. S: I’m not sure if you know this, but what would be your guess of proportions of students, of where they end up. Do the majority [of Integrated Science Students] end up in, say like a professional Ph.D. or Masters, like Medicine or Dentistry, or..? LG: Yeah, almost all go on, and I would say that, I couldn’t predict, a lot go to med school, a lot go onto research, a lot of medical research. The majority of our students are in the life sciences, so the majority go into that. We have students who get into med school before they finish their degree, we have one fella’ doing a combined law and MBA program in California. We have a student really interested in stem cell research, and there wasn’t much at UBC so she started communication with researchers at Oxford and they invited her over for the summer, and then they said when you finish your undergrad why don’t you come work with us. Almost everyone goes on to something, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s probably, a quarter go to med school, okay let’s say maybe a third go to professional schools, and a third go to research like graduate school, and then a third end up doing something, something else. But, we do try to keep track of what people are doing, and percentages of students keep in touch, even after 10, 12 years, so, if they’re in town they’ll drop by, which is always nice. S: If you were going to pick the major three advantages and major three disadvantages of becoming an Integrated Sciences student vs a single major, say Biology, what would you say? LG: Well, I have to say, first off, one real major advantage is you’re creating your own degree, so you’re a unique degree, you’re not on a X/100 students doing the same thing, following the same path, so when you go to apply to grad school or a job, they’re going to say “what’s Integrated Sciences” and you say “Well, I was unhappy with the programs, so I used this opportunity to create my own degree.” You work with an advisor, which can be akin to how a graduate student works with a supervisor. I think it shows people that you are pro-active, you know you saw something that you thought, this is really neat, and you went and you put the effort into putting the application together, and you got in, and you have a degree that’s different from everybody else's, that’s a huge selling point when applying. Definitely the med school’s got the word on it, they all know us. They liked to see broad backgrounds in science. I’d say that’s really an advantage. Other advantages: it’s a small group, if you want to you can get very involved in things like ISSA, there are students that use the classroom to study, and the back room. It’s pretty easy to get to know us, because there are 3 of us. The kitchen of course. We’re like a small university inside a big one. If you’re looking for something smaller and more personal ISCI can be that, so that’s the second advantage. The third advantage, well you get to know all of your profs, your mentor/advisor, a lot of our students do directed studies projects in a lab. I think it’s a real vehicle where you can really, if you’re an integrated science student there’s a lot of things you can do with it, I don’t know, I think if you’ve already done the work to be an integrated sciences student you’ve realized there’s a lot out there, offered to you. LG: Disadvantage: we can only take so many students, you know, we’re already over loaded. This year we had lower the intake in first year from 110 to 100, but that said, as I mentioned, you can always get into Integrated Sciences. So, you know it’s, I think it’s such a great program, I think it has great students, I’d like to encourage everyone to take Integrated Sciences, but we can’t take everybody. We were supposed to have 180 students in third and plus year, we’re around 210, 220. I wish I could get to know all of the students, I used to know all of the students, but my life’s gotten pretty crazy on the research end. I try, but yeah. Don't forget to come out to Meet your Mentor, hosted by ISSA Tuesday October 11 at 4pm in Abdul Ladha! Meet some cool profs like Dr. Lee Groat, and get to know your ISSA. Click this link to go to the event page! |
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January 2022
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