Q&A with Demi Callisto

My name is Demi Callisto (He/Him) and I’m a third year student in the Health Sciences Program at McMaster. Throughout highschool I was always fond of chemistry and biology as those were some of my favorite courses. At the same time I was also interested in working in healthcare and so that is what inspired me to apply to this program. As of now, my plan is to work towards a career in healthcare administration or healthcare consulting. Besides working hard at school, I enjoy playing soccer and watching Marvel movies!

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to work for St. Michael’s Hospital as a Keenan Research Summer Student or KRSS for short. It lasted from June-April and was a paid research position. Specifically, I was working with a professor on identifying new therapies to prevent opioid overdose through experimentation on larval zebrafish. I was working in a lab with the professor’s team and assisting them however needed.

I was sent the link to apply by a friend. This year was the first year that they included a BIPOC stream and so since I am a black man I applied through that stream. This year they reserved 10 spots for the BIPOC stream and so if you identify as a BIPOC I would highly recommend applying through this stream!

Some of the highlights of this experience included the workshops and competitions they held in case you wanted to learn new skills or if you even just wanted to meet fellow research students! I personally enjoyed getting to sit in on the work of other researchers, one of which included performing a brain surgery on a mouse. At one point I was able to even assist on this surgery! It was a really nice experience working in a lab and learning lab techniques that I haven’t had the opportunity to master in school. 

While this experience has not yet led directly to any other opportunities, I may highly consider re-applying to this program again next summer whether it’s to work on the same project or another project. I would definitely like to spend another summer as a KRSS.  

If you would like to learn about this program, here is a link with lots of information!

research.unityhealth.to/future-students-trainees/summer-student-krss-program/information-for-students-3/

I think to summarize, if you are a university student looking to refine your research and lab skills in a safe and encouraging environment then you should definitely think about applying to become a KRSS. As well, if you identify as BIPOC then you should definitely apply through this stream. I learned quite a lot and I’m very excited to encourage next year’s cohort of students to apply as well!