Student of the Year Award: Alanna De Mello (Combined Majors in Science)

Alanna recently completed a 16 month Co-op placement with BC Children’s hospital in the Division of Nephrology, where her colleagues, peers and mentors considered her to be “one of the strongest research students that our Division has ever seen”. In addition to Alanna’s outstanding performance as a Co-op student Alanna also brings the same passion and commitment to her role as a figure skating coach, mentor and advocate for SCOOPS (UBC Science Co-op Student Association).

During Alanna’s time with BC Children’s Hospital division of Nephrology she became an integral part of the research team. Initially hired on for an 8 month Co-op term Alanna was offered the opportunity to extend her Co-op for an additional 8 months. During that time, she was involved in several research projects on acute kidney injury. Alanna was able to hone in on her presentation and leadership skills by presenting her findings to hospital staff including both doctors and nurses in both the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at BC Children’s and Women’s Hospital. Alanna was also involved in a project on “Social Determinants of Health” where herself and colleagues presented at the Advances in Pediatrics seminars hosted at BC Children’s Hospital. However, one of Alanna’s greatest achievements was writing an abstract as first author for a team of world class doctors across Canada. Alanna’s abstract won a Student Subspecialty Award for the top submission in her category. She presented her results at a conference in Carmel, California to leading nephrologists in Western U.S. and Canada.

Alanna brings the same hard work and motivation to her role as a certified professional figure skating coach, peer wellness mentor and champion of Co-op at UBC. Alanna’s ability to time manage has allowed her to remain very active as a figure skating coach in her hometown of Richmond, BC. She is also a volunteer skating coach for Special Olympics, BC. Alanna actively contributes to UBC student health through the Peer Wellness Coaching Program where she provides individual coaching to UBC students seeking to improve their mental, physical and social well being. Alanna has shared her own co-op experiences to her peers through the UBC Science Co-op Student Association SCOOPS and participated in their 2015 Mentorship Program where she was a mentor for a new co-op student and provided one on one support to help enrich the student co-op experience. Alanna has also participated in various Science Co-op bootcamps in 2014-2015 where she shared her co-op experiences as a student panel member to about 300 new co-op students. In addition to the work Alanna has done in her own community she has also spent time in Kenya on various outreach projects.

Alanna is a “stellar” candidate who exhibits all the qualities of an outstanding co-op student. Alanna will undoubtedly continue to succeed in whatever endeavor she tackles with her determination, hard work and motivation. It has been a pleasure to have her as a UBC Science Co-op student.