Category Archives: Featured Students

Golzar is going into her final year of studies in Biology and Psychology. Her passion for psychology has led her to gain research experience and form meaningful connections.

DOUBLE MAJOR, DOUBLE THE VISION

Golzar first majored in biology as it would give her the flexibility to pursue various healthcare careers, and to choose courses from various disciplines, like psychology. She enjoyed her first-year psychology courses so much that she ended up majoring in psychology too!

With her double major, Golzar’s opportunities have doubled as well. Golzar is keeping an open mind for the future, but she is leaning towards grad school, where she can continue to follow her passion and explore different psychology subfields.

BE OPEN TO RESEARCH

Last year, Golzar was a research assistant at Living Lab. She learned how to communicate effectively with children and their parents, as well as how to run psychology tests and keep data.

As part of her directed studies, Golzar got to research linguistic diversity, and she even got her poster published! 

GETting INVOLVED

Since her first year, Golzar had been heavily involved in UBC clubs. Golzar eventually became the president of the Pre-Optometry Club, and she was also the photographer for the Heart and Stroke Foundation Club and UBC TWECS.

Outside of school, Golzar has been volunteering with Camp GoodTimes, and she also leads workshops to empower young women. Golzar’s involvement with the community has allowed her to meet new people.

ADVICE FOR FIRST yearS

Golzar emphasizes the importance of being open to talk to new people and to have new experiences, as these can all lead to greater opportunities.

Although she believes that grades don’t define an individual, Golzar suggests sitting at the front of the class to be more successful in one’s studies. This has helped her focus and connect with hardworking classmates. 

For those who like to sing, Golzar highly recommends taking choir – that’s where she met one of her closest friends! For those who commute, she also suggests bringing food from home because campus food can be pricey.

A PRODUCTIVE QUARANTINE

Golzar has been volunteering with a non-profit organization to put together and deliver care packages. She has also been practicing her vocals, relaxing at the beach and parks, and doing video call workouts with her friends! 

FUN FACTS

-Golzar has a cousin with the same name as her.

-She is a cat lover!

-Her favourite campus study spot is in the Scarfe building, where there’s a lot of natural light and just enough background noise.

Rex is a 4th year Science student specializing in Chemistry. He is particularly interested in analytical chemistry and has grown professionally from his Co-op experiences.

WHY CHEMISTRY?

Rex originally wanted to enter the UBC PharmD program, but he realized that he didn’t take the prerequisites for admission. So, at the end of first year he listed his top 3 specializations: Immunization and Microbiology, Integrated Sciences, and Chemistry.

Rex was then placed into the Chemistry program, but since chemistry students have a standard timetable, he still wasn’t able to choose the required courses for PharmD. Things didn’t seem to be going in his favour.

However, in hindsight, Rex thinks it was a good decision for him to stay in the Chemistry program, where he has had the opportunity to learn cool chemistry concepts, form good connections, and gain rich Co-op experience.

SAY YES TO CO-OP

Rex spent 12 months with the Solvay Group in Stamford, Connecticut, where he analyzed rock samples for valued minerals via X-ray fluorescence. He also worked closely with the supervisor, devising more efficient and portable methods of analyzing clay content to see if rocks were worth digging.

Not only did co-op enhance his work experience, Rex was also able to go sightseeing and explore the cities in the neighbouring state of New York every weekend. Rex reminisces on the good memories he made during his time there, and feels grateful for this rewarding experience.

This summer, Rex is working for the L.B. Foster Company, where he performs quality checks on their products. He is also developing a top secret project that we can’t wait to know about once it’s finished!

LOOKING AHEAD

Whether it is landing another job in Vancouver or pursuing a Master’s Degree at the National University of Singapore, Rex is open to options and down to go wherever the road will take him.

listen up, first years!

Rex admits that he had more of go-with-the-flow attitude in first year, and he thinks he was lucky that his path worked out. But there are aspects in his discipline that he doesn’t like and he wished he had researched more extensively beforehand. 

So, his advice to incoming first year students is to begin contemplating and researching what specialization(s) they want to study, even if they have until the end of first year to select majors.

Rex also encourages thinking long-term about the job prospects. Points he would consider are: Is it employable? Is it competitive? Is it projected to grow in the future?

Lastly, Rex would like to share what a good friend once told him:

“You don’t get what you deserve in life — you get what you negotiate.”

keeping busy during quarantine

Over the past few months, Rex discovered his passion for biking, and his goal is to bike 100km in a day by the end of summer. He has also picked up reading as a hobby, and he is currently reading “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham.

FUN FACTS

-Rex’s favourite food is a plain old cheese pizza, or a classic margherita pizza.

-As for his favourite study spot on campus, you’ll most likely find him with his friends in the Walter Gage lobby or ballroom.

Cathy is a 5th year Science student at UBC doing an honors in Microbiology and Immunology. She is greatly interested in synthetic biology and genetic engineering, and has been involved in many research opportunities regarding these topics.

Why she chose her current major

UBC has no formal genetics program for undergraduate students. Doing a Microbiology and Immunology honors allowed her to pursue topics in genetic engineering and synthetic biology. The program also gave her flexibility in pursuing other life science topics and explore other potential interests. She chose to do an honors, because of the opportunity to do a thesis. In this regard, she could gain research experience, be responsible for her own project, and decide whether she should pursue graduate studies.

Her advice to incoming first years

When Cathy first started university, she was actually in a business program. She found out that she wasn’t really interested in business, however didn’t want to deal with the hassle of switching to another program. In the end, she switched and she hasn’t regretted this decision at all. Cathy’s advice to first years is to not be afraid of changing your program if you’re unsatisfied. Don’t stay in a program you don’t like, the sooner you switch the better.

Research and projects

Cathy is very involved with research. One of her favorite experiences was being part of UBC BIOMOD, a student design team.

In 2018, their team looked at ways to minimize the toxic side-effects of doxorubicin, a chemotherapy drug used to treat Acute Myeloid Leukemia (a type of cancer). These side-effects occur due to doxorubicin targeting healthy cells (hair follicles, intestinal cells, etc.) along with cancer cells. To this end, they created a tetrahedron delivery molecule, which could specifically recognize tumor cells. Upon tumor cell recognition, they delivery molecule would enter the cell and release doxorubicin, allowing for targeted delivery of the drug.

In 2019, they further developed a delivery system called a nanoclew. Which, in addition to doxorubicin, carried zinc phthalocyanine. Zinc phthalocyanine can be activated via light, generating reactive oxygen species that destroy the cancer cell. Using both doxorubicin and phthalocyanine simultaneously in the cancer cell allows for combinatorial therapy.

Cathy has also undergone two Co-op experiences. The first where she investigated knockout genes in Caenorhabditis elegans by using CRISPR. The second where she was involved in screening drugs against bladder cancer, specifically those targeting a specific receptor, notch 2.

Plans for the future

Cathy is looking to continue her studies in graduate school. She is looking to pursue a masters in a genetics or computational biology field, with the end goal of doing a PhD.

How she’s keeping entertained during quarantine

Cathy has been binge watching machine learning videos to learn Python and R. This has inspired her to consider computational biology in the future.

Bonuses

-A fun fact about Cathy is that she loves making 2D animations in her spare time.

– Her favorite place on campus is the life science institute, because of the nice views and the quiet study spots.