Friday, January 22, 2021

A new and improved pathway to leadership development

A message from the Student Success Office.

The Student Leadership Program (SLP), originally developed in 2008, has evolved to reflect recent research, best practices and student feedback. The program, which aims to help students explore and enhance their leadership knowledge, has been redesigned to provide a more enriching and reflective experience.

The new program design acknowledges that leadership development also happens outside of the classroom and recognizes students for their on-campus involvement. The SLP now consists of three core elements:

• Six core workshops: Students will explore the building blocks of leadership in a series of six interactive workshops. We have revitalized some of our existing workshops and added new offerings, like Understanding and Developing Intercultural Competence (formerly Global Intelligence). All six workshops are available online for the winter 2021 term. Workshops are facilitated by upper year student leaders and staff.
• Leadership experience: Students will experience a leadership role and engage with the UWaterloo community. Participants must complete a minimum of 10 hours in a verifiable paid or volunteer campus leadership role or activity. Note that until regular campus activities resume, off-campus experiences will also be considered.
• Reflection: This is an opportunity for students to connect what they’ve learned to prepare for future leadership roles. Once students complete the six core workshops and practice their leadership skills, the final step is to reflect.

Students can complete all three components to earn the Certificate in Leadership Development.

Registration for February workshops opens Monday, January 25 in Portal. The SLP continues to be open to all current undergraduate and graduate students with a flexible pathway to completion. Campus partners and student groups can also request custom workshops. To learn more about the program, please visit our website.

Waterloo's latest wins from CASE

Several creative works by Waterloo staff were recognized by CASE District II this week.  This organization recognizes top achievements in alumni affairs, public affairs, communications, recruitment, marketing, fundraising and other initiatives that support the advancement of post-secondary institutions.

Congratulations to:

• University Relations/Advancement, who won GOLD for best general video for the citizenship judge Albert Wong (BSc '80) video used in the Spring 2020 issue of the Waterloo Magazine.

• University Relations/Advancement, who won SILVER for best video on a shoestring for the same video as above.
• Institute for Quantum Computing, who won SILVER for best institutional relations — president's reports and annual reports for the 2019 impact report.
• Advancement, who won BRONZE for best fundraising pivot for the Student Emergency Support Fund appeal.

All of these projects require creativity, strategy and multiple collaborators to pull them together, and they represent Waterloo well with our Canadian and American peers. Congratulations to everyone involved. 

Q and A with the experts: busting common myths about mRNA vaccines

The University of Waterloo has a number of experts available for comment on various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines have fueled both hope and falsehood. Here, Professor Kelly Grindrod debunks the most common myths she and her colleagues have heard about the new COVID-19 protection.

Professor Grindrod was named Canada’s Pharmacist of the Year and is an expert in vaccines.

Myth: mRNA vaccines change a person’s DNA 

Reality: They don’t. The vaccine has a short amount of code to build the spike protein from the virus. It’s useful to think of the vaccine like a post-it note someone gives you. You see the note, remember it, and throw it out. The note doesn’t change you, it just gives you some information to remember. Similarly, the mRNA vaccine gives the body information to recognize a piece of the virus. The body then gets rid of the note but keeps the memory. When your body sees the virus in the future it’s ready to fight it.

Myth: There are dangerous ingredients in these vaccines

Reality: These vaccines are generally considered to be “preservative free”. They have the mRNA, which is wrapped in a fatty layer for protection. There is also a common ingredient called polyethylene glycol (PEG) which helps to make the fatty layer, and salts, sugar, and water. There are no blood products, fetal cells, mercury, or formaldehyde.

Myth: The vaccines were developed too quickly

Reality: We are used to slow vaccine research. The slowness is largely due to delays in funding and in coordinating the various stages of research. COVID vaccine research has been much faster because of incredible cooperation, coordination, and investment around the world. This meant the stages of research were better streamlined, and these factors also allowed for the rapid recruitment of more people into large, well-designed trials. There is also a lot of virus circulating in communities, which meant people who got a placebo vaccine got sick faster than usual. All of these factors sped up the research on mRNA vaccines. 

Further, before the pandemic, the mRNA vaccines were already being studied for ebolavirus, zikavirus, cancer, and other illnesses. The technology could be quickly adapted to COVID-19. mRNA vaccines are also much faster to manufacture than traditional vaccines that typically have to be grown in a lab. 

Myth: We still need long-term data before we know the vaccines are safe

Reality: The vaccines are safe — that was one of the main questions answered by the clinical trials. Vaccine side effects usually occur within days of a vaccination, but some rare side effects may occur up to 6 weeks after the vaccination. At the time of approval, both mRNA vaccines had at least 6 weeks of data in most participants. Now, we need data on a much larger group of people to identify any rare side effects that may occur in 1 in a million people. With millions now receiving the vaccine, there have not been any major concerns, but regulators continue to monitor adverse event reporting programs around the world. 

We are waiting for some long-term efficacy data, however. While we know the vaccine protects most people in the short term, we still need data to know how long that protection lasts (months or years), and if the vaccine will continue to be effective when the virus mutates. We also need to know if a vaccinated person is exposed, can they be contagious even if they don’t get sick. The ongoing trials will help us answer these questions.

Kelly Grindrod is associate professor; programmatic assessment officer; and Ontario College of Pharmacists Professor in Pharmacy Innovation at the School of Pharmacy. Dr. Grindrod's research focuses on using digital technologies to improve how we manage medications. She is currently examining how patients, physicians and pharmacists share medication information. She is also interested in how digital technologies can be used to change clinician practice.

Grade 10 Family Night coming up in February

A message from Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment (MUR).

Grade 10 students and their supporters are invited to attend our virtual Grade 10 Family Night information session to learn more about applying to university and what they can do now to prepare. Our university experts will share information on topics like admissions and finances while current students will share what it was like to go from high school to university. Associate Professor Christine Logel will provide helpful tips on things university students wish they knew before applying to university.

Grade 10 may seem a little early to be talking to students about their future plans, but they’ll soon be selecting courses for Grade 11, which will greatly influence their pre-requisites for university.  This information will be helpful regardless of which universities or programs a student is interested in, and will not focus on Waterloo’s faculties or academic programs, but a live Q&A is available throughout the event.

Grade 10 Family Night takes place on February 18, 2021 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. over Microsoft Teams Live Events. For details and to register, visit uwaterloo.ca/future/grade-10.

Shortlist for German Studies Book Prize announced

A message from the Waterloo Centre for German Studies (WCGS).

The Waterloo Centre for German Studies (WCGS) is pleased to announce the shortlist for its annual Book Prize.

The WCGS Book Prize was established in 2017 to recognize first-time authors whose scholarly work contributes substantially to our understanding of any aspect of German-speaking society. The prize foregrounds good writing, scholarly relevance, originality, and the ability to reach audiences beyond the academic sphere.

This year’s shortlist, drawn from books published in 2019, demonstrates once again the vitality and broad scope of the research being done in German studies today. The finalists for the prize are:

• Matthew Birkhold (The Ohio State University). Characters Before Copyright: The Rise and Regulation of Fan Fiction in Eighteenth-Century Germany (Oxford University Press).
• Kata Gellen (Duke University). Kafka and Noise: The Discovery of Cinematic Sound in Literary Modernism (Northwestern University Press).
• Seth Howes (University of Missouri). Moving Images on the Margins: Experimental Film in Late Socialist East Germany (Camden House).
• Richard N. Lutjens, Jr. (Texas Tech University). Submerged on the Surface: The Not-So-Hidden Jews of Nazi Berlin, 1941–1945 (Berghahn).
• Philipp Nielsen (Sarah Lawrence College). Between Heimat and Hatred: Jews and the Right in Germany, 1871-1935 (Oxford University Press).
• Zef M. Segal (Open University of Israel). The Political Fragmentation of Germany: Formation of German States by Infrastructures, Maps, and Movement, 1815–1866 (Palgrave).
• Tyler Whitney (University of Michigan). Eardrums: Literary Modernism as Sonic Warfare (Northwestern University Press).

The winner, who receives a CAD $2,000 prize, will be announced the week of January 25, 2021. For inquiries, please contact the Waterloo Centre for German Studies. For further information, please go to the WCGS Book Prize page.