The race is on for the Vice-Presidential (Professional) seat in the upcoming Society of Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) election.
The Vice-President (Professional) position is up for votes in a five-way contested election. This role involves championing the needs and interests of professional students, both within the SGPS and on key University committees.
Candidates Destine Lee, Law ’27, Megan Roth, MD ’27 and Rit Nanda, a PhD candidate in environmental studies, spoke with The Journal regarding their platforms—with collaboration being at the forefront of the three candidates’ minds. Amir Shetaia, MASc ’26, and Jacob Brozyna, Law ’26, are also up for the position but didn’t respond to The Journal‘s request for interview.
Destine Lee
Lee comes from a background of student government, having served as Vice-President (Academic) during her undergraduate business degree from the Ivey Business School at Western University.
She believes in the importance of representing professional students in law, medicine, and education separately from graduate students, citing the two “might have different, unique needs.” However, she emphasized the key to these representative roles is their ability to collaborate through the SGPS.
Highlighting the challenge of accessing academic and professional resources, Lee notes professional students often feel overwhelmed by having to navigate multiple platforms to find what they need. To address this, she plans to increase her accessibility through open-door office hours, QR codes for feedback, and community-building initiatives like study spaces.
Rather than reinventing the wheel, Lee seeks to consolidate student resources into one platform, making them more accessible and streamlined. She referenced the idea of a virtual “home base” where a singular page can direct a student to multiple websites and resources.
A key focus of her platform is “legacy,” which aims to help students feel a sense of belonging at Queen’s by fostering the growth of professional students. Her second priority is ensuring the University supports students in maximizing the value of their degrees.
“I think what’s really important at this role, the VP of professionals, is how can I make sure you can get everything you can out of this experience, because Queen’s is so open to it,” Lee said.
Megan Roth
Roth has an extensive healthcare background, combining experience in clinical pediatric research with her current role as a registered nurse (RN) at Millhaven Institution. Now in the School of Medicine, she hopes to emphasize interprofessional collaboration among graduate and professional students.
“It’s a little bit frustrating to not know the best way that you can collaborate with your colleagues or know how to best integrate them into your care plan,” Roth said.
Roth’s experiences lead her to advocate for the joint representation of both professional and graduate students, explaining the importance of facilitating student collaboration “based on interest and motives as opposed to these more restrictive definitions.”
To facilitate this collaboration, she plans to create more events between departments across both groups, similar to the Med Law Games—a games-based initiative that integrates students from the School of Medicine and Faculty of Law.
“There’s clearly a shared interest in athletics and building social relationships,” Roth said.
A challenge Roth anticipates in the role is establishing a connection between the three professional faculties—law, medicine, and education. To achieve this, she plans to establish clear lines of communication with existing student governance in law and education.
Roth remains excited about the opportunity to facilitate student interest and passions, hoping it would be both fulfilling and rewarding.
Rit Nanda
Nanda values the interdisciplinary nature of his studies as a PhD candidate—however, he’s running for Vice-President (Professional) due to the lack of synergy and the need for expansion between graduate and professional studies.
When it comes to synergy, Nanda believes in the importance of connecting various graduate and professional faculties to foster education.
Expansion refers to incorporating other faculties into the professional student network through support and representation. Nanda further emphasized the importance of support for all professional students and backgrounds, mentioning career fairs.
Nanda aims to remain accountable through transparency, especially emphasizing his priority of becoming completely financially transparent. He plans on achieving financial transparency by working with the Vice-President (Finance and Services) and prioritizing a written chain of communication within his role.
When asked about potential challenges in the role, Nanda noted a minimal sense of community across graduate faculties on campus, saying this is the biggest issue SGPS students face.
“Often, graduate studies [and] professional studies can be very lonely,” Nanda said. “I hope whoever comes in isn’t looking to do this for any personal motive, but rather to genuinely change in very challenging times the way the student body is represented.”
The Journal reached out to Oishik Bhattacharya, the candidate for Vice-President (Finance and Services), but did not receive a response to the request.
Tags
SGPS, SGPS elections, Vice-Presidential (Professional)
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.