Volunteer Spotlight
Scroll through the gallery below to meet our youth outreach ambassadors. Click on their photos to learn more about what they do outside of UHN STEM Pathways.
UHN STEM Pathways is supported by a diverse team of volunteers across UHN and it’s affiliated network. Our volunteers are a dedicated group of UHN scientists, staff and trainees. In particular, our Ambassador Spotlight highlights the select few volunteers who have undertaken a leadership role to help create STEM programming and act as a contact point for volunteers. Our Volunteer of the Month Spotlight highlights volunteers for their outstanding youth outreach efforts. Scroll down to learn more!
Position: PhD Candidate. Favourite Part of Outreach: "My favourite part of youth outreach is being able to show students from in and around Toronto the wide range of opportunities for work and research in the rehabilitation sciences field!"
Position: MSc Candidate. Favourite Part of Outreach: "I really love getting to run in-person demonstrations for students. It is rare that they will get to work with real cutting-edge lab instruments, and giving them the opportunity and the knowledge will hopefully grow their interest in becoming a scientist."
Position: Postdoctoral Researcher. Favourite Part of Outreach: "It's an opportunity to inspire and guide young minds who may not traditionally have the resources around them to navigate into the STEM fields. Seeing how impactful these experiences were to me as a young trainee, I hope to provide the same to the next generation."
Position: PhD Candidate. Favourite Part of Outreach: "I love outreach because I can re-experience the joy of scientific discovery through the students I work with and because I can instill the tools and passion that may encourage new and amazing scientists. "
Position: PhD Candidate. Favourite Part of Outreach: "Being able to inspire others to start their journey and create their own path through unconventional and more interactive ways."
[Image Alternative Text: Gallery features headshots for UHN Research Institutes’ outreach ambassadors - in order of appearance: Brenden Rabinovitch (Krembil), Calaina Brooke (KITE), Cristiana O’Brien (Princess Margaret), Crizza Ching (TGHRI) and Ian Fernandes (McEwen). Headshots are within polaroid graphic pasted onto pale yellow background, with UHN STEM Pathways logo and ‘Ambassador Spotlight’ written above.]
Learn more about UHN STEM Pathway’s volunteer team and some of the fantastic youth outreach ideas they’re working on. Every month UHN STEM Pathways recognizes the outreach work of one our volunteers. Scroll through our volunteers of the month below.
August 2024 - Calaina Brooke, a research trainee from the KITE Institute, has made significant contributions. She has long been involved in youth outreach at UHN, including volunteering for the KITE Young Innovators program before the creation of STEM Pathways. She has planned and led many initiatives – we are grateful for her time on the team!
July 2024 – Matthew Chang, a research trainee at the McEwen Stem Cell Institute, has made significant contributions to our programming. He has planned workshops and supported students in various capacities, including hosting a bilingual workshop. Matthew has done an excellent job communicating his work to students and we are grateful to have him on the team!
June 2024 - Echo Jing, a research trainee at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, has helped with a wide array of outreach initiatives. She has also helped facilitate research workshops, including planning and executing an in-person class visit. We are grateful to have her on the team!
May 2024 – Lianna Montanari, a research trainee at KITE, has played a vital role in our programming. She has been instrumental to facilitating lab tours for students of all ages and has done an excellent job communicating her research work. We are grateful to have her on the team!
April 2024 – Foram Vyas, a research trainee at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, has played a vital role in our programming. She has helped facilitate numerous events and has done an excellent job communicating her work in the field of pancreatic cancer. We are grateful to have her on the team!
March 2024 - Carla Kulcsar, a research trainee at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, has been instrumental in facilitating Dr. Lilge’s laser workshop. Carla helps lead this exciting physics activity for students visiting UHN and has done an excellent job communicating how high school physics relates to real-world applications. We are grateful to have her on the team!
February 2024 - Majed Abdul-Samad, a research trainee at TGHRI, has been crucial to our outreach team. He has helped with numerous youth events, most recently, taking the lead on organizing an on-site workshop. This involved recruiting volunteers from his lab and planning an interactive atherosclerosis workshop for students. We are grateful to have him on the team!
January 2024 - Shaghayegh Chavoshian, a research trainee at KITE, has been an essential member of our outreach team. She has helped with virtual and in-person programming, teaching youth about cardio-respiratory disease and engineering. She has also assisted with lab tours, showing youth ongoing research at KITE. We are grateful to have her on the team!
December 2023 – Elizabeth Chee-Hing, a research trainee at KITE, has been an invaluable member of our team. She has helped facilitate many visits to UHN, hosting workshops related to her Institute’s ongoing research and giving tours of their lab spaces. She has also gone out into the community to offer fun workshops to youth – we are grateful for her many contributions.
November 2023 - Natalie, a biomedical engineer at the Guided Therapeutics Lab (GTx) of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, has been an integral member of our team. She has facilitated numerous in-person workshops at GTx and hosted a career talk on engineering for a community group. We are grateful to have her on the team.
October 2023 - Aarushi, an undergraduate student doing research at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, has been an integral member of our team. She has participated in many outreach events, even creating and facilitating her own interactive workshops. She was also a key member of our 2022 outreach ambassador team. We are grateful for her many contributions.
September 2023 - Michael, a research scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, has been an essential member of our team. He has participated in many career sessions for youth and has hosted numerous workshops at the Guided Therapeutics (GTx) Facility. We are grateful to have him on the team.
August 2023 - Lovisa, a licensed physiotherapist and research trainee at KITE, has been an integral member of our team this year. She has participated in many career sessions for youth and even developed her own in-person physiotherapy-focused workshop - grateful to have her on the team!
July 2023 - Ash, a PhD candidate doing research at TGHRI, has been a fantastic member of our team this year! Ash has helped out with many different youth events – from in-person visits to our monthly virtual career panel. Ash has done an excellent job of communicating their research with youth and sharing their passions for STEM - grateful to have them on the team!
June 2023 - Melanie, a research director and scientific associate at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, has been an invaluable member of our team this year! Melanie has given talks to high school students, participated in an after school visit and helped represent PM at Science Rendezvous! We're grateful for Melanie's dedication to youth outreach.
May 2023 - Tony, an undergraduate student doing research at Krembil, has been a fantastic member of our team this year! In addition to helping out at multiple in-person events, he has also done a virtual class visit for a local high school. Tony always shows up with enthusiasm for workshops and is a great help to us during our events. Grateful to have him on the team.
April 2023 - Kaylie, a research trainee at KITE, has been involved with youth outreach at UHN for many years. In addition to creating activities for our repository, she has participated in many youth outreach events. She has facilitated tours, classroom visits and more! Grateful to have her on the team.
March 2023 - Chi Yhun is a Research Associate who has participated in multiple youth outreach sessions for us, both in-person and virtually. He has spoken to many different students about his experiences in research and how music and science can intersect. We are grateful for Chi’s commitment to outreach and support of our program.
February 2023 - Babitha, a research sonographer at UHN, was integral to our PA Day at UHN series, organizing a fascinating cardiology workshop for high school students at TGH. She put together a session on cardiac sonography and youth got to hear all about the field from members of her team. Students left excellent feedback and we’re grateful for her support of youth outreach at UHN.
January 2023 - Michelle is a TGHRI trainee who has been an important part of our outreach initiatives in the local community, visiting a local high school twice to facilitate fun STEM sessions. She also designed a fun hands-on activity to teach youth about lungs and respiratory diseases. Students loved hearing from Michelle and we are grateful for her dedication to STEM!
December 2022 - Mack is a Krembil trainee and he was a panelist for our Sports and Rehab STEM Talk. He's also created a fantastic educational video on concussion awareness. Guijin is a KITE trainee who has been involved in outreach at KITE for years. She recently acted as a tour guide for both CAGIS Toronto and CAGIS Oakville visits. She is also currently planning in-person classroom workshops.
November 2022 - Adriano and Rachel are both KITE trainees. They have each developed an amazing hands-on activity for youth to understand the work being done at KITE's Winter Lab. They've facilitated these activities together for visiting classes at UHN. They've each also hosted virtual interactive activities (Build Your Own AI System, ART of Graphing) to help youth explore STEM from home.
May 2024 – Lianna Montanari, a research trainee at KITE, has played a vital role in our programming. She has been instrumental to facilitating lab tours for students of all ages and has done an excellent job communicating her research work. We are grateful to have her on the team!
October 2022 - Matheus is a TGHRI trainee and our first Volunteer of the Month! Matheus was a part of an exciting panel held in honour of World Heart Day. He facilitated an activity where youth learned how to tie a surgical knot from their homes. This activity has since been viewed on Youtube by over 400 people!
[Image Alternative Text: Gallery features headshots for Volunteers of the Month - in order of appearance: Calaina Brooke (August 2024), Matthew Chang (July 2024), Echo Jing (June 2024), Lianna Montanari (May 2024), Foram Vyas (Apr. 2024), Carla Kulcsar (Mar. 2024), Majed Abdul-Samad (Feb. 2024), Shaghayegh Chavoshian (Jan. 2024), Elizabeth Chee-Hing (Dec. 2023), Natalie Won (Nov. 2023), Aarushi Gupta (Oct. 2023), Michael Daly (Sep. 2023), Lovisa Cheung (Aug. 2023), Ash Hagerman (Jul. 2023), Melanie Powis (Jun. 2023), Tony Geng Li (May 2023), Kaylie Lau (Apr. 2023), Chi Yhun Lo (Mar. 2023), Babitha Thampinathan (Feb. 2023), Michelle Alejandra Espinosa Hernandez (Jan. 2023), Mack Hancock and Guijin Li (Dec. 2022), Adriano Nella and Rachel Cohen (Nov. 2022), Matheus Saraiva de Moras (Oct. 2022). Headshots are within polaroid graphic pasted onto pale blue background, with UHN STEM Pathways logo and ‘Volunteer of the Month’ written above. Two yellow stars are sketched next to the lower left of the polaroid.]