Students
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Katherine (Kasia) Babyn
MD Student
Class of 2026
University of Alberta
Kasia (she/her) is currently a third year medical student at the University of Alberta, class of 2026, in Edmonton situated on Treaty 6 territory. Prior to medical school, she worked as a pharmacist and is excited to expand her scope of practice in medicine.
Kasia is passionate about women’s health research and increasing accessibility to care, especially in rural areas. In her free time, she loves to spend her time outdoors, such as hiking in the summers and skiing in the winters.
Jessica (she/her)
MD Student
Class of 2028
University of British Columbia
Jessica (she/her) is a medical student at the University of British Columbia, Class of 2028, in Prince George situated on the traditional territory of the Lheidli T’enneh. She holds a BSc in Neuroscience from Dalhousie University and an MS in Community Health and Prevention Research from Stanford University. Before medical school, Jessica worked in the field of mental health and addictions.
Jessica is interested in the intersections of health system structure, workforce management, and its impacts on rural, resource-limited and marginalized populations. Outside the classroom, she enjoys coaching speed skating, learning various fibre arts, and spending time outdoors.
Current active subcommittees under the SRPC Student Committee:
Communications Subcommittee
The Communications Subcommittee ensures that the SRPC Student Committee has a media presence. This includes updating the SRPC student webpage, creating and sharing promotional material for the SRPC, as well as providing school liaisons with material for distribution.
Outreach Subcommittee
The Outreach Subcommittee collaborates rural medicine interest groups and medical schools nationwide and internationally. Areas of focus for the committee include populating and promoting a rural blog, enhancing our rural toolkit, and fostering connections between the interest groups and other partners.
Rural Residency and Electives Catalogue Subcommittee:
The Rural Residency and Electives Catalogue Subcommittee collects information about rural residency and elective programs across Canada and the communities they are based in. We aim to update the catalogues annually based on available information. Links can be found below. Please note: these catalogues are informal summary documents that serve to only inform readers. The SRPC does NOT set up electives.
Rural Outreach and Mentorship Initiative (ROMI) Subcommittee
The Rural Outreach and Mentorship Initiative (ROMI) Subcommittee was started during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, ROMI’s goal has evolved from initially educating young adults about COVID-19 and encouraging youth to make healthy choices during the pandemic, to now providing mentorship to young adults in rural communities interested in medicine as a potential career.
Environmental Health Subcommittee
The Environmental Subcommittee takes on student-specific initiatives and projects focused on environmental and planetary health.
Mentorship Subcommittee
The Mentorship Subcommittee works alongside the SRPC to run the the SRPC Mentorship Program (originally launched in 2021). The program matches medical student mentees with rural physician mentors. Sign up is facilitated through the SRPC management team through info@srpc.ca.
Rural Specialists Subcommittee
The Rural Specialists Subcommittee was developed in response to increased interest in rural specialist professions. The purpose of this committee is to develop projects and resources to encourage medical students to consider working in rural communities as specialists and supporting such career choices.
Rural & Remote (R&R) Medicine Student Subcommittee
The R&R Medicine Student Subcommittee (also referred to as “R&R Ranchhands”) assists with the planning of the Rural & Remote Medicine Conference, held annually in the Spring. Planning includes liaising with local medical schools of the host city/province, conference presentations, social events and many other conference-related tasks/activities!
Rural Research Subcommittee
The Rural Research Subcommittee encourages, promotes and advocates for rural-based research initiatives for medical students, with opportunities to collaborate with the SRPC physician and medical resident research committees.
In addition to the above subcommittees, there are also medical students who represent and advocate in areas such as Indigenous Health, and 2SLGBTQ+ and International Medical Graduates (IMGs) interested in practicing rural & remote medicine in Canada.
Medical Students on the SRPC Student Committee have opportunities to sit on various SRPC steering committees to provide medical student perspective and representation. They act as the liaison between the SRPC and the larger medical student voice.
If you have any ideas or initiatives that you believe the SRPC Student Committee can take part in or explore in the future, please connect with the Medical Student Co-Chairs at chairstudents@srpc.ca.
Keeping up with the SRPC Student Committee
Members can request to join the RuralMed Listserv for general SRPC communications, and or the Rural Med Student Listserv to stay connected with us via email.
