Friday, March 7, 2025

Dr. Nardine Nakhla, associate professor at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy and community pharmacist, has been honoured with the 2024 Pharmacy Practice + Business, Business Innovation Award. This award is presented to a pharmacist that has created a unique practice or business that benefits patients, pharmacy practice and/or the healthcare system.

Her interest in minor ailment management, patient self-care, and non-prescription medications led to her appointment on the Minor Ailments Advisory Group (MAAG), an expert advisory group brought together by the Ontario College of Pharmacists. As a key contributor, she helped shape the regulatory changes that enabled pharmacists to prescribe for minor ailments in Ontario.

"Receiving this award is truly an honour," says Dr. Nakhla. "It reflects the collective efforts of my two co-founders, our incredible team, our dedicated MAPflow users, and the many pharmacists, educators, patients and advocates who believe in the power of pharmacists to innovate, create new pathways to enhance access to care and drive better health outcomes while alleviating pressures on the healthcare system."

New Future Ready program for high school students launching this summer

A message from Renison University College.

The Future Ready program is designed for students aged 15 to 17 who are interested in developing the 21^st century skills that will help them to address some of the world’s most challenging problems. Students will be inspired as they experience lectures from a variety of disciplines and explore the University of Waterloo’s renowned innovative culture. 

This three-week summer program offers students the opportunity to live on-campus and engage in critical thinking, creative problem solving, and collaborative communication as they apply design thinking to ideate solutions to a specific global challenge. Students will benefit from core program components focusing on communication, innovation, culture, and project-based design that will provide the foundation as they begin to unpack themes of global sustainability emphasized by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The application deadline is April 15, 2025.

Friday's notes

Tomorrow, March 8, is International Women's Day,and the University community is marking the occasion with a number of events in the coming days. An International Women's Day landing page contains a message from President Vivek Goel, a roundup of events, and people profiles.

Events include the 5^th International Women's Day High Tea Social held virtually by the Faculty of Science at 11:30 a.m. on Zoom, and a Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) panel discussion webinar on Tuesday, March 11 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Alumni Relations has prepared profiles on a number of notable Waterloo women to celebrate their achievements and inspire others.

There's still time to enter the annual weather station contest run by the ED Soulis Weather Station, but time is running out.

Today at 2:00 p.m. is the deadline to submit your guess for the date and time that the station's temperature reading will go above 20C this spring.

The weather station has been operating on UW's north campus since 1998 providing 15 minute updates of the current weather readings.

Find out more about the contest and enter it on the weather station's website.

The Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies and the SILC Lab are hosting a public lecture entitled “Competing concerns and undoing harm in language and intercultural education” on Monday, March 17.

"Janice will be sharing her research on university students' study abroad experiences, focusing on tensions that arise from misconceptions about language and intercultural education," says the talk's abstract. "In particular, she addresses how students challenge but also reinscribe ideologies grounded in monolingualism, native-speakerism, and neoliberalism."

The lecture takes place on Monday, March 17 at 12 noon in MC 109.

Information Systems & Technology (IST) has published the latest in the Atlassian blog series entitled
Managing Restrictions in Confluence: Why It Matters and How to Do It.