Clubs and initiatives for current students
There are lots of TRP student clubs and initiatives to get involved in! See below for some of the current ones that can enhance your time as part of the program.
Anti-Racism Committee
The Anti-Racism Committee (ARC) at the Translational Research Program is a student led group that came together in June 2020. ARC’s mandate is to hold the TRP accountable to meaningful, concrete, and sustained anti- racism work, and to support members of the TRP community belonging to racialized or underrepresented minority groups. ARC’s vision is to challenge people to apply Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) principles to lead and drive change in their communities and improve medicine, health and care.
Contact: trp.arc@utoronto.ca
Impact Gap Podcast
The first patient-centered podcast committed to amplifying the patient perspective, providing a platform for patients to share their views and to raising awareness for important patient issues within healthcare. Their mission to bridge the health care gap for the every-person.
This is a student run podcast that started in 2020.
Email: impactgap.trp@utoronto.ca
Fitness Club
The TRP Fitness Club is a student-led exercise group within the TRP looking to improve student mental health, physical health, and overall experience with fun exercise! Promoting an inclusive and positive environment, the TRP Fitness Club offers a great opportunity to learn more about healthy active living and to encourage the building of relationships within the TRP community. The weekly workout sessions are created collaboratively and incorporate exercises with varying difficulties including beginner-friendly exercises and alternative techniques.
Email: fitness.trp@utoronto.ca
Service Club
In the TRP, we students dedicate our time to finding ways to improve health with the goal of providing care to those in need. Thus, the TRP Service Club intends on dedicating our time and effort toward providing selfless community service initiatives to support and care for those in need. The club aims to be inclusive of individuals trying to contribute and seeks to offer virtual and in-person opportunities to make a positive impact in our local community.
Social Committee
The TRP Social Committee plays an important role in developing and maintaining the culture of the TRP and contributing to the hidden curriculum. Core to the values of the TRP are collaboration, imagination, and ingenuity. Such values are cultivated partly through formal academic training but is also highly dependent on the relationships cultivated and experiences outside of the classroom.
The TRP social committee serves to create an engaged community and more complete learning environment by organizing social and extracurricular events that are opportunities for students to relax, have fun, make connections and build relationships.
Current chairs: Gabriela Ferrari and Aflyn Amaleethan
TRP Health & Wellness Club
A group of TRP students dedicated to promoting health and wellness in our community.
LMP initiatives
TRP students are part of the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology which means they have the opportunity to participate in departmental opportunities & initiatives.
Student Union: CLAMPS
Enjoy life outside of courses with our graduate student union the Committee of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology Students (CLAMPS). The TRP is part of the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology (LMP), so, you will automatically become a member of this active organization.
We are the annually elected student council of the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology.
- Current TRP representative: Mikhail Lobo
CLAMPS serves the best interests of its students, offers support and guidance, and acts as the voice for its members within the School of Graduate Studies and the University of Toronto.
We provide assistance to graduate students within the department in relation to:
- academia
- research
- establishing social events
For prospective students and current students alike, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact CLAMPS through email, and please don’t hesitate to approach us in person at any time… we are quite friendly.
LMP mentoring program
We offer two different kinds of mentoring for our graduate students:
peer-to-peer: where lower year graduate students are mentored by upper year graduate students (across all programs)
alumni: where our alumni mentor graduate students at any stage of their program
All LMP graduate students are welcome to take part across all our programs. All alumni are welcome to join as mentors!
Registration takes place every September/October.
The Peer Communication Team (PCT)
The Peer Communication Team is a group of senior graduate students and alumni from LMP whose vision is to improve the communication skills of graduate students across the department.
We provide all LMP graduate students across all our programs with feedback on a presentation of their research which includes:
- Constructive and tangible feedback on presentation style.
- An individual practice session prior to the student’s Graduate Seminar, Capstone project, or any other presentation requirement, with skilled communicators/coaches affiliated with LMP, who will provide their insight, feedback, and support.
- A friendly, inclusive environment that supports and encourages peer learning.
Other opportunities in LMP
LMP Art Competition
The LMP Art Competition is an opportunity for any student, faculty, staff and alumni to submit images of what they see in their research.
Running in spring every year, LMP community members can submit images which are voted on by the rest of the community. Images can win prizes, showcased at the LMP Annual Celebration of Excellence, or hung in the corridors of LMP HQ in the Medical Science Building.
TRP students are encouraged to take part!
The LMP Annual Celebration of Excellence
This annual event in LMP celebrates the departmental awards, promotions, graduations and more at Malaparte in the TIFF Lightbox. A fun event with food and drink served on the terrace, it is a time for the whole department to get together and celebrate the latest academic year.
The Three- Minute Thesis Competition (3MT)
The 3MT (or 3-Minute Thesis) is an academic research communication competition developed by The University of Queensland, Australia in 2008.
It is you, your research project, one slide and 3 minutes.
You are communicating to a non-scientific audience about why you’re doing your research and what you hope to achieve with it. You are not judged on your research or the science, you are judged on how you communicate it. You can take part even if you have zero research results yet!
LMP runs a 3MT competition every year which is a great training ground. Submissions are due in January each year.
The University of Toronto takes part in the official world-wide competition which TRP students can also compete in. Heats usually take place in February.