重口味SM

U of T graduate builds community at Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy through volunteer work

Portrait of Giovanna Schver
Giovanna Schver held various positions in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Student Association and has been active in U of T鈥檚 student chapter of the聽American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences (photo courtesy of Giovanna Schver)

Giovanna Schver says she spent more time at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy than at her home during the six years she spent working on her PhD in pharmaceutical sciences.

On top of her academic work, she volunteered and participated in student government activities, helping to build the graduate student community at the faculty. She was recently recognized for her efforts with the 重口味SM Student Leadership Award (formerly Gordon Cressy Award).

鈥淭he Faculty of Pharmacy was my home for six years, so receiving recognition from U of T was amazing,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like being recognized by your family.鈥

Schver first visited U of T for a four-month research trip while was working on her master鈥檚 degree at the Federal University of Pernambuco in her hometown of Recife, Brazil. She later decided to come back to the faculty and work under supervision of Professor Ping Lee for her PhD, which focused on developing new strategies to enhance the delivery of poorly soluble drugs so they can be more effectively absorbed by the body.

While Schver took on small volunteer roles early in her PhD, she began getting more involved a few years into her degree when she was elected to student government. She held various positions in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Student Association (PSGSA), including social director and president, leading a team that organized many social, fundraising and education events. She also developed two successful new initiatives: a mentorship program that paired graduate students with mentors based on their career goals and a series of lunch-and-learn events that allowed students to learn more about professors鈥 careers in an informal environment. Both programs helped boost students鈥 interactions and created a greater sense of community in the faculty.

Most recently, Schver has been active in U of T鈥檚 student chapter of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences. On the committee, she established a research collaboration between U of T, Universit茅 de Montr茅al and the University at Buffalo (The State University of New York), which led to joint research days and free workshops for U of T students.

Schver says that volunteering has many benefits. She says it helped her develop skills that she can use in her future career, including managing a large team of volunteers. 鈥淵ou can develop a lot of transferable skills while volunteering that you can鈥檛 just by working on your PhD project,鈥 she says. 鈥淎ll the opportunities that I had to be involved helped me develop personally and made me more prepared to join the work force.鈥

In April, Schver successfully defended her thesis virtually and, only a week later, she found a position as a pharmacokinetic scientist at a research organization.

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