Introducing the CSRF Student Mentorship Program! (Coming September 2015)

Student development has always been very important to CSRF and given our large and growing student membership, your student representatives wanted to bring you a program aimed at fostering peer mentorship and academic guidance. We are pleased to introduce the CSRF student mentorship program. Senior students and early professionals will have the opportunity to mentor more junior students on a variety of topics or areas of their choosing (i.e., answer questions, brainstorm ideas, help with networking). Junior students will be matched with a mentor based on research interests and career goals whenever possible. The hope is to create a supportive and working network of peers and colleagues.

To be eligible as a senior student mentor you must:

  1. Be a member of CSRF
  2. A graduate student or post-doc at a recognized institution (university or clinical/research setting within Canada or the United States).
  3. Preferably supervised by (or previously worked under) a faculty or professional member of CSRF
  4.  Must have attended CSRF previously

To be eligible as a junior student mentee you must:

  1. Be an undergraduate student at a recognized Canadian university (or a Canadian student at an international university), and/or a new CSRF member
  2. Preferably working under a faculty/graduate, Post-doc/professional member of CSRF
  3. Membership to CSRF is NOT required at this time but is strongly encouraged

If you are interested in being a senior student mentor or a junior student mentee please contact your student representatives!

Student members, please also watch for our upcoming CSRF Student Video Series where videos will be posted from various CSRF student members and early professionals on tricks, tips, and advice on numerous different topics, such as:

  • Professionalism (e.g., How to correspond with faculty & TA’s)
  • Successful grant writing
  • Applying to graduate school (e.g., Writing a letter of intent)
  • Statistics & Methodology
  • Tips on presenting at conferences
  • Tips on writing a manuscript
  • How to create/edit a curriculum vitae
  • And many more!

Student News from the 2013 Conference

This year’s meeting in Charlottetown, PEI was a huge success with approximately 100 attendees! The plenaries given by Dr. Cindy Meston as well as Drs. Jacqueline Gahagan and Mary Bryson were very well received. They were definitely a significant contribution to the success of the meeting! Approximately two-dozen students made it out to the student dinner at a local brewery. The dinner was a great time for students to talk to each other about their research and make new connections. This year students also got the chance to take an afternoon bus trip to explore wonderful Prince Edward Island.


Special congratulations to our two presentation winners:

  • Samantha Dawson - Queens University
    Gender Specificity of Solitary and Dyadic Sexual Desire Among Opposite- and Same-Gender Attracted Women and Men
  • Ashley Thompson - University of New Brunswick
    Three’s Company: Predicting Young Adult’s Interest in Mixed-Gender Threesomes

As well as our poster winner:

  • Shayna Sparling - University of Windsor
    Motivation and Sexual Self-Efficacy Among University Students

 

Farewell to Nathan Lachowsky
Sadly, Nathan’s time serving the Executive Council has concluded. His contributions to the Canadian Sex Research Forum and his commitment to students are to be admired. Nathan has been an active and contributing member of the Executive Council these last two years. Of particular note is his leadership on the major update and revisions to the organizational bylaws last year and the implementation of online systems for abstract submission, membership application, and conference registration this year. Nathan continues to be a part of several advisory boards/projects related to the field of sexology while at the same time completing his PhD in epidemiology at the University of Guelph. Although his time as a CSRF Executive Council member is over, we hold no doubt that his contributions to the organization and its students will continue in upcoming years. Best of luck finishing up your PhD Nathan!
 

Raymond McKie

Raymond McKie

Introduction to Ray McKie
Raymond McKie was elected as the new Junior Student Representative at this year’s student meeting. Ray completed his undergraduate degree from the University of Guelph under the supervision of Dr. Robin Milhausen and is currently in his first year of his MSc at Trent University under the supervision of Dr. Terry Humphreys. Ray has been actively involved within the field of sexology since 2008. His research thus far has looked at the positive and negative aspects of technology use among gay men. Ray’s more recent research is looking at sexual consent and boundary setting in both convicted sexual offender and gay male samples.

Student News from the 2012 Conference

Thank you to all the organizers and attendees (over 100!) of this year’s Annual Meeting in Ottawa. It was a lovely conference with excellent presentations and lots of social activities. Over twenty people attended the Student Dinner at Mambo Latino. Many new connections were made across research labs, schools, disciplines and topics!

Congratulations to Megan Sawatsky (University of Lethbridge) and Tonje Persson (Concordia University) the two best student presentations award winners and to Jackie Huberman (Queen's University) the best student poster award winner.

After two years on the Executive Council, Krystelle Shaughnessy is moving on from her role as our Senior Student Representative. She has been a strong advocate and voice for students on the Executive Council. Her dedication to this organization and fostering student involvement is commendable. She has worked hard to improve and modernize the processes in place at CSRF. We wish her all the best with the rest of her PhD!

Morag Yule was elected as the new Junior Student Representative at the student meeting at the Annual Conference. Morag is a second-year PhD student in clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr. Lori Brotto. She has been conducting research in the area of female sexuality since 2005, with a focus on asexuality.

Nathan Lachowsky will be staying on another year, transition from Junior Student Representative into the Senior Student Representative role.

Student News: 2011/2012

Our goals for the year continue on the same strong foundation that has been laid by Student Representatives of the past. We want to ensure the presence of a strong and student-centred voice in CSRF Executive decision-making. Improving the online and electronic nature and function of CSRF will continue to be a main focus (ie. online registration, student member networking, improvements to CSRF’s website, improving our Facebook page’s usability and traffic). We will also continue to foster and improve student involvement in CSRF activities and governance.

With these goals in mind, we have made a few adjustments to our Facebook group. If you are not already a member of the group, please note that to join you will now need to provide a brief reason for your interest in the group. This is meant to keep out spammers, not to deter interested students, researchers, academics, etc. Please do not hesitate to join us: http://www.facebook.com/groups/2453762346/ or search Canadian Sex Research Forum.

One last message to our student members, current and future: if you have not paid your membership dues, or have yet to become a member, please consider doing so ASAP and before the end of the year. Not only will you benefit from a reduced membership rate if your renew before 2012 is upon us; BUT, your email address will be added to the student listserv ensuring that you have the opportunity to be involved in our new initiatives and updated on conference planning! Don’t hesitate, the benefits of a student membership are vast!