In 2021-22, the GSA approved and funded 37 student projects with the total funding of $155,330. Below are some of the highlighted Quality Money-funded projects and its results that might give you some ideas for your own possible Quality Money project!

We sincerely thank all applicants that applied and carried out graduate student projects within the past year and we look forward to reviewing and funding your student projects again this year.

Calgary Women’s Health Research Symposium

Women’s health research is an emerging area of excellence and innovation at the University of Calgary (UofC), however much of this work is siloed by discipline. The inaugural Calgary Women’s Health Research Symposium will be an interdisciplinary event connecting faculty, staff, and trainees from across our institution to share ongoing research in women’s health across the lifespan and share ideas to build capacity for women’s health research at the UofC.

Banff Symposium on Organic Chemistry (BSOC) – 10th iteration

Since BSOC was organized by graduate students for graduate students, we were able to provide attendees an opportunity to share their research in a comfortable environment. This event helped students to better communicate their research, which should make them more successful in future presentations, conferences and job interviews. Additionally, we hosted several industry representatives, including XChem, Merck, Pfizer and Gilead, giving our participants the chance to network and ask them questions about potential careers. This was the 10th time the BSOC was hosted, and as anticipated, it was extremely successful in bringing together Chemistry Graduate Students from across and outside Canada – we had participants from UBC, Simon Fraser, UVic, U of A, U of C and U of S.

2022 VMGSA Lake Barrier Writing Retreat

Based on participant feedback, the writing retreat event expectations were met. Students reported benefiting from both the writing workshops and independent work time, as well as change of scenery, and expressed interest in having the retreat organized as an annual event. Many students also left feeling that they had made both new and better connections with their peers, something that had previously been inhibited by the pandemic.

7th Annual PHAS Symposium

The 7th Annual PHAS Symposium was attended virtually by 72 graduate and undergraduate students, as well as by 3 faculty and staff members. The Symposium consisted of 17 oral presentations given by students and postdocs, as well as 4 invited keynote speakers. One keynote speaker gave a solo talk and the other three participated in a panel discussion. There was an increase in both registration and oral presentations compared to previous years.

phasgsa.ca

Nowruz Celebration

IGSA celebrated the 2022 Persian New Year by an Iranian themed party and hosted over 150 participants (143 graduate students who purchased the ticket and the IGSA board members and volunteers). Participants had the chance to meet up, unwind and dance to Persian music played by the DJ. They had the opportunity to take photos with the 7-sin table designed by IGSA board members and volunteers. Moreover, regular and veggie burgers and diverse drinks were served for dinner.

Based on IGSA plans for this event, we met the expectations and successfully celebrated the Persian new year with over 140 Iranian graduate students. We are planning to celebrate Nowruz every year, as it is the major Iranian annual celebration all around the world.

10th Annual Philosophy Graduate Conference

We had four talks from external graduate students and two talks from external keynotes. Our main goal was to provide an environment for UCalgary grad students to be able to engage with these researchers, and we felt this was achieved in two different ways. First, we had UCalgary Grad Students chair every session as well as provide commentaries on the presentations. This provides valuable experience as these two components are integral parts of participating in philosophy conferences, and it also provided the students with an opportunity to add a line to their CV. Second, we had ~20 minute Q&A sessions after each graduate student talk, along with 30~ minute Q&A sessions after each keynote talk. This gave students who were not doing commentaries a chance to respond to the material presented.

Overall, 18 University of Calgary philosophy graduate students registered for the event. Our marketing also attracted graduate student attendees from other institutions, such as the University of Alberta and the University of California Santa-Cruz.