2022 Award Recipients

Master of Science, Medical Science

Danica Chang demonstrated academic excellence, exceptional initiative, and thoughtful leadership throughout her academic studies. Her many accomplishments in the classroom, lab, and in the community — including her advocacy for a more inclusive campus — make her an ideal recipient for the President’s Award for Student Leadership.

As a graduate student, Chang developed, organized, and moderated a weekly journal club for undergraduate summer research students, while collaborating with five research institutes at the Cumming School of Medicine. This experience then led her to take on a leadership role with the Clinical Cardiovascular Research Journal Club, helping graduate students practise how to critically evaluate cardiovascular health literature.

Chang was selected to serve as the voice of all trainees on the Libin Cardiovascular Institute Education Committee. In this role, she worked with a team of clinicians, researchers, and support staff to make recommendations to the Libin institute’s executive committee to ensure all educational activities align with the institute’s research plan.

Chang was also a peer mentor to undergraduate science students, a clinical research mentor, and was chosen to represent the graduate student body within the Chancellor Search Committee that selected UCalgary’s newest chancellor.

In addition, Chang served as the Chair of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance Subcommittee with the Graduate Students’ Association, where she was able to combine her personal experience with her passion for 2SLGBTQ+ advocacy. She was successful in leading a team of likeminded peers to organize inclusive events for all graduate students to ultimately foster a thriving environment for gender and sexually diverse individuals.

In the academic realm, Chang wrote five first-authored peer-reviewed papers and presented at numerous local, national, and international conferences. She has also received many awards for her research on female reproductive health in kidney disease, including three prestigious American Society of Nephrology Kidney STARS (Students and Residents) Awards in 2020, 2021, and 2022 and the highly competitive Canadian Institutes of Health Research Graduate Scholarship.

Outside of the university, Chang held numerous volunteer roles. They included preparing and serving meals at an emergency shelter, reading to children at a local library, caring for rescue animals at a shelter, starting a self-directed volunteer tutoring service for French immersion students, socializing with elderly individuals in long-term care, and mentoring girls who recently immigrated to Canada.

Currently, Chang is furthering her studies in medical school at the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, where she hopes to incorporate her clinical research experience, mentorship, queer advocacy, and passion for volunteerism.