For the third year in a row, a UBC student has been recognized as University Co-op Student of the Year by ACE-WIL, the Association for Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning in BC/Yukon.
The 2021 ACE-WIL University Co-op Student of the Year, Carly Pistawka, is an undergraduate Science Co-op student in the joint UBC-BCIT honours in Biotechnology program.
As a physically disabled student with chronic pain, Carly is passionate about pain research and clinical treatment approaches. Through research on her own condition, Carly found Dr. Caroline MacCallum, a physician specializing in medical cannabis, whose interests also include chronic and complex pain.
During her co-op work term with Dr. MacCallum, Carly worked on projects, presentations, and publications involving cannabis product safety, neuro-cognitive impairment, special populations, and opioid-cannabis synergy in chronic pain patients.
In 2020, Carly co-founded the non-profit project ‘Moon Time Sisters BC’, which fights against menstrual inequity by collecting and sending menstrual products to Indigenous communities. Last year ‘Moon Time Sisters BC’ raised over $20,000 in donations and collected over 55,000 individual menstrual products that were sent to 12 remote Indigenous communities in Northern BC.
Carly hopes to pursue genetic counseling or clinical research in pain after her bachelor’s degree.
Recent ACE-WIL Award Winners from UBC:
- 2020 - Anton Bondarev for his work term as a Financial Analyst with BC agricultural start-up AVA Technologies
- 2019 - Bashara Hussain for her work as an Economic Development Analyst with the Ministry of Jobs, Trade and Technology
About the ACE-WIL University Co-op Student of the Year Award
ACE-WIL BC/Yukon Student of the Year Awards honour students who display high levels of achievement throughout their work-integrated learning placement. There are four categories, including University Co-op Student. Students are selected based on impact to the partner organization, student (self), and post-secondary institution.