Microbiology club focused on supporting students’ goals
For science students looking for a new and invigorating club to join, the undergraduate Microbiology Student’s Club (MiSC) is motivated to make the student experience at the U of M as positive and beneficial as possible.
MiSC co-presidents Randi Roy and Aakash Natarajan are energized for the 2023-24 academic year and excited to share all that the club has to offer. The club has gotten an early start on events, participating in U of M’s first-ever Life Science Olympics on Sept. 9. Roy explained the importance of finding community at U of M, especially within science programs.
“These programs are really robust and can be quite difficult,” she said. “Having that type of community and support system I think is important for people with these degree paths.”
Roy and Natarajan further delved into the importance of community through mentorships. Roy noted the “power” that comes with being connected with those in the same degree paths as you.
“We also have an amazing mentoring program led by one of the other execs on our team, Tiana,” said Natarajan. “The mentoring program connects undergrads with graduate students in a few different departments on both campuses, and it’s sort of a way for them to see what graduate life is like.”
The club is focused on research, ensuring members are aware of research opportunities within the U of M and beyond. The club holds research nights highlighting the work of professors at the U of M and works in partnership with the National Microbiology Laboratory by hosting an information session.
MiSC has plenty of resources to offer. Natarajan is pioneering a guide listing multiple research scholarships available to students outside of what the U of M offers. The guide will also break down lab structure, how to get involved in research and how to connect with a professor if you are interested in their research.
There’s also a new space for the group that Roy organized, where students can network and attend events. The group can be found in the Parker Building, room 134.
Along with research, the group will host a Halloween social in collaboration with other science clubs on campus and its annual Valentine’s Day social in February.
For more information or to join the club, MiSC can be contacted through its twitter @UofmMicroclub or through its Instagram, @misc.uofm.
Photo club prepares for a new year of skill building
For decades, the photo club has been capturing the beauty that Manitoba has to offer. If you have ever wanted to learn more about photographing the people and places of Manitoba while joining a supportive and collaborative group, the photo club is the perfect place to start.
President of the photo club Anthony Phung joined the group in 2019. Since then, he has continued to foster a supportive hub for photography hobbyists to gather, learn and share ideas.
“The main thing that our club does is outreach to students,” said Phung. “We can get them involved in a new hobby that might bring happiness or joy to their lives, as well as creating an environment of education where people can learn off of each other.”
Within the club, students can grow their skillsets in many aspects of photography, including composition, lighting, shading and editing.
Past events run by the club include photo walks, an activity where photographers gather and explore nice locations to take photos while getting to know fellow photographers.
The club has also facilitated workshops on improving photography skills, offering a chance for members to socialize with other hobbyists and encouraging hands-on experience.
Before the pandemic, the club would take a yearly trip to the Maskawa Project, a non-profit in Pine Falls, Man. There, students could go on a retreat and take pictures of the vast array of wildlife and the aurora borealis.
Phung explained that the club is a friendly environment focusing on skill improvement. If students wish, there is the option for critique, but it is always constructive and geared toward helping group members succeed.
Currently, the photo club is restructuring its operations. It will open membership applications soon for students who wish to join the club and help shape it for the 2023-24 academic year.
Stepping up to the podium
Debate club is back in full swing after years of on and off club management.
Christy Abraham is in her fourth year in the faculty of arts, and as president of the debate club she helped the club get back to active status.
“Debate has a lot of applicable skills to life,” Abraham said. When it comes to public speaking skills, like those that you can build as a member of debate club, “it will make school as well as your life easier.”
Whether you want to debate recreationally, competitively or just want to watch a good debate, debate club is for you. You don’t need any prior experience to join. Abraham said that the club teaches everything from how to structure a speech to how to actually debate a topic. Above all, the skills you can gain from being an active member range from creating and defending an
argument to confidence.
Abraham said that at the club when participants are getting ready for a debate, they’ll be given a topic and a stance — either for or against — time to prepare and then the debate begins.
“As long as you want to learn, just drop by.”
Debate club members will get the opportunity throughout the year to visit other schools in order to compete. The club will also be hosting a high school debate tournament in November. Abraham and another executive member host a podcast on the U Multicultural production company’s show, “U Talk,” where they talk about debate and debate club at the U of M campus.
While the club is on the smaller end of the scale right now, its members are hoping to attract a bigger crowd. You can attend a debate club meeting on Mondays and Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Tier 306. Abraham encourages all interested students to become active members. All you have to do is show up to meetings.
Keeping your nose in the books
From sci-fi to romance, the U of M Book Club has room for every reader to find their next favourite book and make some new friends.
Crystena Desilva is a third-year criminology student and Gabrielle Ramsay is a fourth-year microbiology student. Together they are the U of M Book Club’s co-presidents.
Desilva and Ramsay were looking for opportunities to connect with fellow book lovers during the COVID lockdowns. A student-run book club was listed on the UMSU website, but once the two arrived back in person, they found the club no longer existed. To fix that, Desilva and Ramsey decided to start one themselves.
The club began again at the beginning of 2023, and Desilva and Ramsay are happy to have brought it back to campus.
The goal of Book Club is to “bring people together who love reading and love books,” and “to connect through a common hobby,” said Ramsay.
Rather than all reading the same book, members of the book club are given a theme and a list of book recommendations within the theme. These themes are meant to provoke dialogue between book club members, not to be restrictive. For the latest theme, “Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You,” readers picked a book that had a film adaptation.
Meetings occur once a month, with locations announced on the U of M Book Club Instagram. In meetings, members chat about what they read that month and pick out the next month’s theme.
If you like reading and enjoy a friendly, bookish environment, join the book club. “If you’re just getting back into [reading] or have been reading forever,” book club is for you, said Desilva.
The next meeting of the book club will be held at the end of September or beginning of October.
You can join the U of M Book Club by visiting its Linktree, which can be found on its Instagram @uofmbookclub.
The place for all creative minds
You don’t have to have any experience coding to join .devClub, the U of M’s software development club. In fact, Ahmed Ahmed, .devClub vice-president, said that skillsets from the Asper school of business and fine arts, among others, are helpful to every project done in .devHacks, the club’s yearly hackathon.
.devClub is a student club for people from all fields and degrees to join.
“We’re more focused on making computer science and tech more accessible for everyone,” Ahmed said.
Joining .devClub gives students access to beginner-level coding workshops, social events, exam crams and coding competitions.
One of those coding competitions is the .devHacks competition, where students form teams to build a “semi-working application that has a good human-computer interaction component” from scratch.
Besides learning how to code and building on technological skills, .devClub is a place to create and foster friendships.
“A big part of computer science is being able to socialize and communicate with others,”
Ahmed said. “Nowadays, you can’t do much if you don’t communicate with others.”
.devClub got together with other computer science clubs in July for a picnic where students from different backgrounds were able to socialize and make friends. At the beginning of September, .devClub held Are We There Yet? an event where students travelled up to Gimli for the day.
.devClub has weekly meetings and monthly events. The first event of the school year is Coding Kick-off, a workshop for anyone interested in learning soft skills for computer science, networking and possible career paths in computer science. The event will take place on Sept. 21 at 5:30 p.m. in E3-270 in the engineering building.
Events are open to everyone, and becoming a member of .devClub is as simple as joining the discord server and filling out a quick form. The link can be found in the Linktree on the @UMdevclub Instagram or on the club website, devclub.ca.
