The University of Toronto International Health Program (UTIHP) is proudly hosting the second annual the Ontario Model World Health Organization (OMWHO) Conference!

OMWHO aims to simulate General Assembly committee sessions held by the World Health Organization to promote debate and discussions around current global health topics. Additionally, the Conference features keynote speeches and panel by preeminent field leaders, as well as opportunities to network with delegates from across the province and beyond.

If you are interested in knowing how decisions in the WHO are made, learning about the hot topics in the current global health arena, or networking with other university students with similar passions, OMWHO is the event for you! Awards will be given to the top three delegates; all delegates will receive a participation certificate.

Register today at www.omwho.org and get your updates at @omwho.

NEW!
OMWHO is now able to offer the first part of the Conference to the public to include a panel and documentary film.

The panel, focusing on issues related to access to medicines, includes:
Aria Ahmad (graduate student at the University of Toronto)
Richard Elliott (Executive Director at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network)
Jonathan Smith (epidemiologist and documentary film director of They Go To Die

After the panel we will be showing the first portion of Jonathan’s documentary, which focuses on human rights concerns in the South African mining industry, following four former mineworkers who were sent home after contracting drug-resistant tuberculosis with no prospect of treatment or care.

Please join us!
Friday, November 11 at 2:30-5pm
Music Room, Hart House, University of Toronto
Space limited. Price: $5.00
RSVP to omwho@utihp.ca

Post written by Shakeera Baker, President.

One Love is a Ulife-recognized student group that seeks to raise awareness of, and help, the impoverished families of Riverton Meadows – a shantytown in Kingston, Jamaica – through cultural fundraising events on campus. As stated on the group’s website, ‘Riverton is situated next to a landfill from which scraps are scavenged and used as building materials for many of the dwellings in this community. Although hundreds of families in Riverton live without running water and sewage disposal, the people of Riverton have great pride in their strength and resilience to adversity. ONE LOVE seeks to not only promote these strengths, but to additionally help provide the funds necessary for the development and advancement of the community.’

In fostering a general atmosphere of helping others, we hold regular volunteer outreach sessions in the community, in which all group members are encouraged to participate. Also, every year, members of ONE LOVE have the opportunity to volunteer in Jamaica and work with people living in Riverton with the support of our parent organization, Students Crossing Borders.

For more information, check out the group’s Facebook page or official website, or email the group at onelove.uoft@gmail.com.

Post written by Josephine Chou.

Do you sometimes wonder when and where you can apply the concepts that you learn in class? Well, that question – which often distracted me – is no longer a mystery since I discovered Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) at U of T. Unlike any other student group, SIFE gave me the opportunity to apply what I learned in the classroom to real world situations. I never thought that I’d be connecting with business professionals from different industries regarding business ideas, team management, and other business-related issues, but this is my NOW.

SIFE U of T is much more than the gathering of students to participate in good causes. Actively participating in the various projects in the organization triggers all the synapses in your brain and compels you to grow as a business leader and an even better person. It provides opportunities to work with leaders in business and higher education to mobilize university students to make a difference in their communities while developing the skills necessary to become socially responsible business leaders. Our projects aim to ignite entrepreneurship, teach financial literacy, and encourage environmental sustainability. We are currently running seven projects. The adVenture Business Plan Competition provides an opportunity for students to realize their entrepreneurial dream. SIFE₂O promotes sustainability within our university community by engaging students on residences to compete in a water-saving competition. TYP empowers students by introducing them to the basic concepts that will allow them to manage their finances effectively while developing entrepreneurial skills. For more details on our 2011-2012 projects (we have 7 in total), please click here.

And it gets even more exciting! Each year, SIFE teams from across Canada get together and compete in three categories: entrepreneurship, financial education, and green and water sustainability. This year, our team won first place in the TD SIFE Entrepreneurship Challenge and Scotiabank & SIFE Go Green Challenge during the Central Regional Competition. All SIFE teams are also invited to attend the national competition where SIFE teams across the country compete for the national cup. The National Competition was held in Toronto this year and, next year, it will be held in Calgary. The winning team from the national competition represents Canada in SIFE World Cup (in Malaysia this year) where SIFE teams from across the globe get together and compete. Although we didn’t win the national competition this year, it was an amazing experience and we had lots of fun meeting other SIFE teams from across Canada, as well as business professionals who were excited to meet with us!

If you’re interested and would like to know more, or would like to join us, feel free to email us at sife@utoronto.ca .

Post written by Stephanie, VP External Affairs.

The U of T Chapter of Students for Medicare (UTSFM) is a student group that works in collaboration with the Ontario Health Coalition to advocate for Medicare (Canada’s national health insurance program) and educate the public about what is currently happening to the health care system in Canada*.  We believe that health care is an extremely important topic of which all Canadians should be well-informed. We believe that health care is a right and that the Canadian government needs to do it’s best to ensure that acceptable health care is accessible to all Canadians.  We are concerned with ongoing issues regarding Medicare including, but not limited to, privatization, cuts in services, and lowering taxes. We run events and fundraisers, as well as distribute newsletters, aimed at spreading the word.

This school year, UTSFM will continue to attempt to spread the word about Medicare. Sometime this year, we hope to organize a public debate with MPs from the Conservative, Liberal, and New Democratic parties; unfortunately, this event had to be postponed last year due to the election.

As a new group, we hope to involve more students and get more members. We welcome anyone who is interested in what we do to come to our meetings, events, and fundraisers.  Educating the U of T community is a huge task and we need your help!

If you are interested in learning more or joining us, check out our Facebook page or send us an email.

*To learn more about the development of Medicare, click here. To learn more about the current debates surrounding Medicare, click here.

Post written by Wilson.

As global collaborations play an increasingly more prominent role in student culture, a student group based at the University of Toronto has been encouraging teamwork among graduate students across the country. Health Science Inquiry (HSI) is a Canada-wide student-run journal that was established in 2009 at U of T, and now has membership from over 10 Canadian universities. What sets this journal apart isn’t just its expansive Canadian membership (and being the only Canada-wide graduate student publication to date), but its ability to provide students with a platform to express their thoughts through commentary-based writing.

To date, the group has published two issues of its journal (June 2010, June 2011) and has developed partnerships with internationally recognized journals. Rather than publishing research-based articles, HSI publishes commentaries on a specific theme each year. In 2010, the H1N1 pandemic was selected as the topic of interest and 13 submissions were selected for publication. The journal also introduced a competition aspect by partnering with The Lancet Infectious Diseases, which ended up publishing one of the submissions as a Reflection and Reaction piece in an August 2010 issue of the journal.

The theme in 2011 was cancer, and a similar partnership was established with the Canadian Medical Association Journal, which has selected an HSI submission for publication in the upcoming fall journal. In addition, the 2011 issue was expanded to include an Artistic Images section, a News section and Dialogue Pieces.

This is certainly an exciting time for the journal, as it continues to grow and attract participation (from both students and faculty) at a national level. HSI is currently recruiting members for its 2011-2012 team, and an application package with full details on how to apply can found on the group’s website. If you’re a graduate student who’s interested in getting involved with a Canada-wide student publication, a peak at the application package is definitely encouraged. Available positions range from editorial-based positions to roles in layout and design.

Post written in collaboration with Tian-Yuan Zhao.

Marshall McLuhan, an alumnus of our university, once stated that ‘the medium is the message’. But did you know that he was also a graduate of the same high school as Tian-Yuan Zhao, the founder of Tales of Harmonia? Amongst the many reasons Tian had for starting his own choir, the most important one stemmed from the knowledge that McLuhan had passed down. Tian felt that, because a choir is the medium whereby the message of a song is portrayed, it doesn’t matter if there’s variety within the genres of music that each choir at U of T specializes in. The only thing that matters is the medium – if, for example, jazz is the only genre of music performed by a choir, their performance can become stale. Tales of Harmonia intends on showcasing music from all genres. Its slogan is:

Whether it’s Accompanied or A Cappella, Arranged or Artistic, Occidental or Oriental, Sacred or Secular, as long as there’s a fire burning from deep within the song, we’ll be there to dish it!

Through practicing what they preach, Tales of Harmonia intends to generate a more personal, intimate, and special experience not only for their choral members, but for their audience.

Tales of Harmonia is a mixed 30-voice auditioned choir that aims not only to provide talented musicians with the opportunity to pursue excellence in music within a friendly, focused environment, but to do so alongside others who share the one other commonality that unites us as one – our collective power to geek* out about the various insanities of life.

*’Geek’: A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest. This definition is very broad but, because many of these interests have mainstream endorsement and acceptance, the inclusion of some genres as ‘geeky’ is heavily debated. Persons have been labelled, or have chosen to identify, as physics geeks, mathematics geeks, engineering geeks, sci-fi geeks, computer geeks, various science geeks, movie and film geeks (cinephiles), comic book geeks, theatre geeks, history geeks, music geeks, sport geeks, art geeks, philosophy geeks, literature geeks, historical re-enactment geeks, video game geeks, and role-play geeks. – Wikipedia

The group is built on the following tenets to provide all choral members with:
1) A more holistic musical experience.
2) A more heterogeneous (diverse) musical experience.
3) A geekier musical experience. In this context – ‘geeky’ isn’t a derogatory term as it refers to anything and everything from all mediums whereby art is expressed, such as movies, TV shows, books, anime, video games, math, history, engineering, and so on and so forth. I hope you get the gist.
4) A more ‘underground’ musical experience. While some songs are widely recognizable, most of the showcased songs are less popular amongst the masses. ToH’s repertoire draws from all genres.
5) A more innovative approach to musical groups as a whole. Now what does this mean? ToH not only intends on revolutionizing ‘what’ will be performed at concerts, but ‘how’ they’ll be performed as ToH intends on having multimedia concerts in the future, collaborating with other musical organizations as well as hoping to all ToH to grow into something more than just a choir into an entire musical/artistic experience for all who’s involved with it. Expect great things to come of this.

Tales of Harmonia dares to explore strange new worlds and to seek out new life and new Civilizations (I, II, III, IV, V, etc.). They boldly go where no choral ground has gone before. So join them for the ride – I assure you, you won’t ever regret it!

Here’s a sneak peek of the lists of songs ToH will be singing this year:

Star Wars – John Williams is the Man
Baba Yetu, Ipharadisi, and Parismaalase Lauluke
Nintendo A Cappella
Zelda Medley
Still Alive – Basix
I Will Derive
Rent
Pi Song
Avenue Q
5 Chinese Songs songs, including Jasmine Flower, Yellow River Cantata, and The Butterfly Lovers
3 Korean and 3 Japanese Folk songs
I Love the Whole Wide World
The Grand Fonic Hymn
Tshosholotza
The Legendary Sorcerer and Guiding Star
Le Ali Del Principio and To the End of the Journey of Glittering Stars
Zulu Mama
Les Misérables
Engineering Songs

Auditions for Tales of Harmonia will be held in the second or third week of September. One audition time/place has already been confirmed (September  12^th, 3PM, Bickersteth Room at Hart House), and another time/place has yet to be confirmed, but expect it to be in the Engineering Complex a day or two after the first day of auditions.

If you have any questions about the group, please don’t hesitate to email Tian-Yuan, check out their website at http://talesofharmonia.sa.utoronto.ca/ and/or check them out at the UTSU Clubs’ Fair, as well as the Engineering Clubs’ Fair.