From competitive athlete to award-winning research presenter

As a former provincial figure skating champion, Aislinn Ganci knows about hard work and determination, and where it can take you. Ganci is graduating with a bachelor of science in kinesiology degree and won best oral presentation at this year’s Research Revealed! Undergraduate Forum for Kinesiology, Exercise Science, Sport Studies and Recreation.

As a lifelong athlete Ganci was naturally drawn to a program that focused on the human body and how it works. But after trying to juggle both competitive skating and university for two years, Ganci knew she had to make a choice.

“I didn’t want to keep sacrificing school for skating, so I just made the transition. But a lot of what I learned in skating has transferred over into my academic and professional life. I now coach skating as my job and I hope to learn even more from the skating world, just from a different perspective.”

COVID-19 came along halfway through Ganci’s undergraduate degree. When classes switched to fully online, she missed the interactive aspect, but was able to adapt. What she found challenging was the inconsistency of the hybrid model, when some classes were in person and others were online. “Luckily my practicum semester was all on campus.”

Ganci didn’t expect to write abstracts going into her practicum at U of A’s Spine Research Lab this past year, but her supervisor, Eric Parent, encouraged and supported her to write an abstract on an inter-evaluative reliability study. “He kept coming up with ideas and really pushed us. I thought it was great that he was willing to let us do the research and he really helped us a lot,” she says. Parent also made sure Ganci was well prepared for her first time presenting research in front of a crowd.

At Research Revealed! Ganci ended up presenting the results of graduate student Brianna Fehr’s Spine Research Lab team — of which Ganci is a member — on the effect of different arm positions used during radiography of the spine. They found that the higher patients raise their arms, the more curve is produced in their lower back. So it’s important to avoid that position to get an accurate reading, especially when monitoring the progression of scoliosis in children.

“I wanted to present the results in a really digestible way that made sense to people. With a seven-minute presentation you don’t get a lot of time to explain what everything means. I wanted to make sure I got across the clinical impact of the work that we were doing, and I think I did that successfully.”

The next step in Ganci’s academic career is to study for and pass the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). When asked about what area of medicine she’d like to pursue, Ganci says she’s interested in sports medicine and anesthesiology, but is open to possibilities. Pursuing a master’s of science in kinesiology is also an attractive option. “Now that I’ve got my practicum, maybe I’ll see what research I can do.”