Today on the pod, we have Camilo Garay. He is a Chem & Bio Alumni coming back to the Ryerson Community as one of the newest members of the Board of Governors! Finished Undergrad and Grad school at Ryerson University, his career and life journey was definitely not one without hardships.Having always been characterized as a certain persona because of where he grew up and how he looked liked, and experiencing racism, poverty, and gang life, he was able to rise above adversity to help others in need. He is now part of Visions of Science Network for Learning (VoSNL) which aims to provide educational STEM-based programs for low-income & marginalized youth. For more information, visit their website at https://www.vosnl.org/. Some highlights of the conversation were:1:02 - Brief introduction of who Camilo Garay is.3:02 - What Visions of Science is & does.12:36 - His experience, struggles, & fears pursuing the sciences as he distances from gang life.29:08 - Life after grad school & his experience growing Visions of Science.33:33 - Rapid fire round.36:42 - What factoid do my colleagues know least about me?45:28 - Who is/was your favourite role model?46:48 - What is your greatest achievement?48:19 - What is your biggest failure?51:51- What is one piece of advice you would give to your 2nd year self?

On today's pod, we are switching things up. Instead of interviewing faculty and students at Ryerson, Lean In has decided to have a new segment that interviews parents of students at Ryerson. So today we have myself, Steph Davies, interviewing my own mother, Robin Davies. My mom talks about the challenges of becoming an adult at a young age. She also describes the struggles and rewards that come with parenting. It was also quite refreshing to learn so much more about my mother that I thought I already knew and I encourage you all to ask your parents the same questions. So please lean into today's conversation with myself and my mom.

On today's pod, we have Sahana Sritharan, a Ph.D. student soon to graduate in Bryan's lab. Sahana shares her journey to graduate school and how it wasn't a linear path directly to a Ph.D. She had other initial goals but realized her passion for chemistry and research throughout the years. She talks about her future plans for after graduation and what's on the horizon for her next. She also shares her secret behind her study habits and what got her to where she is now. Please lean in and enjoy my conversation with Sahana.

On today’s pod, we have Chemist and soon to be Ryerson professor, Dr. Darius Rackus. Many of you may not be familiar with who he is because he is yet to officially join Ryerson! However, like a number of my junior colleagues, this is an opportunity to get to know them in advance of him coming to Ryerson this January. 

Currently based in Basel, Switzerland, he is working as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich. He shares his personal journey from being born in Kitchener, Ontario, moving to New Jersey, to finishing a Ph.D. at Durham, England! 

Mainly interested in combining electrochemistry with microfluidics, he further dives in what he will be researching when joining Ryerson's FOS department. He's interested in building tools that contain miniature electrochemical sensors to monitor what is going on inside and outside of cells! What he’s looking on doing is building chips that will automate all of that and allow you to monitor, in real-time, what's going with the cells themselves! 

He further discusses how he appreciates process and the little things in life, and why he decided to pursue an academic career. So, please lean in, & join my conversation with Dr. Darius Rackus!

On today’s podcast, you are going to meet Alia and Sanaa. This podcast is a bit of a pivot for us as we are expanding our Ryerson community reach even farther by chatting with students from the Ted Roger’s School of Management. Alia and Sanaa are student leaders in Enactus Ryerson. Enactus Ryerson is doing some really cool things by supporting projects and student-driven ventures that make a real social change on our planet. So please Lean In to learn a little bit more about Enactus Ryerson and the people in it, and enjoy my conversation with Alia and Sanaa.

On today's pod, we have Maurice Fernandes. Maurice and I have done a number of different events together. Whenever I need him to do career counselling or assist in the programs that we offer at the SDZ, he is always the first to help. He is truly a people person, although not a guy with a science background, he loves to help connect the dots for students in their career development. So please lean into this conversation with Maurice Fernandes.

On today’s podcast we have Anna interviewing Stephanie Davies. While Steph is normally asking the questions as the interviewer on the pod, in this episode we get to learn a little more about her. We hear about her transition from high school into Ryerson, what drove her to choose the Food and Nutrition Program, as well as what her current research entails. So please lean in, and enjoy this candid and captivating conversation between Anna and Steph.

On today's pod we have Steph interviewing Tristan. Tristan is now entering the Molecular Science Graduate program at Ryerson and is apart of Bryan Koivisto's research group. He gives excellent advice on important skills to have and shares his journey throughout undergrad. Please lean in and join this conversation with Tristan.

Today on the pod, we have Anna! She is a master's student studying environmental science and is the new addition to Bryan's research group. Anna recently graduated from the Medical Physics program and took off a year to travel. With no clue what to do after graduation, it was her immense passion for science and travelling that ultimately inspired her to go into environmental science. So please, lean in and join my conversation with Anna.

On today's pod we have Steph Davies interviewing Reeda Mahmood who is a graduate student in Bryan's lab currently in the process of transferring into the PhD program. Reeda reveals the surprising fact that she actually hasn't liked chemistry since the tenth grade and it was only 6 months into her master's that she began to enjoy chemistry. She gives tips for how to survive school and other important skills to have such as getting involved in non-academic activities which actually pushed her towards becoming a business owner. So please lean in and enjoy this conversation with Steph and Reeda.