UVic’s newest Rhodes Scholar

For Shaeleen (Shae) Mihalynuk, there are three things in life that matter most: community, health and joy.

There has certainly been joy in Mihalynuk’s life recently. On Nov. 18, the microbiology alumna was announced as BC’s Rhodes Scholar for 2025.

I think the news is still sinking in. I feel totally honoured and overjoyed to be named a Rhodes Scholar. I owe so much to my support system, and I’m grateful for the people in my life who were able to look at a student who was quiet and find skills and potential.” 

—Shaeleen (Shae) Mihalynuk, UVic microbiology alumna and 2025 BC’s Rhodes Scholar

Mihalynuk is one of 11 young Canadians, and the only one in BC, chosen for the prestigious scholarship, which provides two fully funded years of post-graduate studies at England’s Oxford University. She is UVic’s 13th Rhodes Scholar, and the third recipient in the last six years. Three of the last four Rhodes Scholars from UVic have come from the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, and all four have been from the Faculty of Science.

Shae has a remarkable knack for enriching the experiences of those around her. It is rare to find someone who, while demanding so much of herself, has the empathy and capacity to raise others up from wherever they happen to be. I am thrilled that Shae has been selected as a Rhodes Scholar and am excited to see what amazing accomplishments she will make in the future.” 

—Caren Helbing, UVic biochemistry professor and Mihalynuk’s honours supervisor

The Rhodes Scholarship is awarded to young people with proven academic excellence who also show exceptional character, leadership, the energy to use their talents to the full and a commitment to solving humanity’s challenges.

Driven by community and culture

A throughline of all Mihalynuk’s achievements is a passion for community and a desire to support others. As a child, Mihalynuk spent time living in Vanuatu, where her mother, a physician, was working as part of a global health project. Mihalynuk identifies this as the first really strong community she walked into and it set an example for the future. 

Back in her hometown of Victoria, Mihalynuk found that same sense of community among her fellow Ukrainian-Canadians. She joined the Veselka Ukrainian Dance Association and has been an active member ever since. While Veselka is primarily a dance studio, they also seek to create community through cooking traditional foods and hosting cultural events such as Malanka (Ukrainian New Year’s Eve).

“I stepped into the Ukrainian-Canadian community through dance, but it’s been so much more than that,” she says.

Mihalynuk has also taken on leadership roles at Veselka. She helped create a semi-professional dance ensemble focused on innovation, mentorship and the promotion of Ukrainian culture, and has taught ballet classes for youth and a Ukrainian dance class for seniors. She spent a year as a director-at-large for the Veselka Ukrainian Dance Association Board and used this position to advocate for a bursary program for dancers requiring financial support. Mihalynuk has also fundraised for humanitarian aid to Ukraine and danced in benefit concerts. Feeling as though she wasn’t doing enough, she also began teaching English to Ukrainian newcomers helping them to have a voice and ensuring they know they are not alone.

Creating solutions to antimicrobial resistance

Mihalynuk has also found community at UVic, where she excelled as a microbiology student, graduating with distinction in June, and became involved in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. As part of the PeptAID project, a collaboration between researchers, industry partners and farmers, she has been conducting research to identify alternatives to current antibiotics to fight disease in poultry. The antibiotic alternatives use naturally occurring proteins, called antimicrobial peptides, that are produced by a number of species to fight microbial infections. 

“Antimicrobial peptides have multiple mechanisms of action,” says Mihalynuk. “Beyond their ability to directly kill bacteria, these peptides can also harness the immune system to deal with infection. The problem of antimicrobial resistance is going to continue to worsen, but I believe it is something that we have the ability to combat.”

Mihalynuk has had the unique experience of working on both the chemistry and microbiology side of the project. She first got involved through the Department of Chemistry’s research experience course, working in Fraser Hof’s medicinal chemistry lab to create and analyze different antimicrobial peptides. She was so invested in the project that even after completing two semesters of research experience courses, she continued to return to the lab whenever she could to assist on the project, supporting both undergraduate and graduate students and helping maintain the peptide synthesizer.

Mihalynuk later moved into Caren Helbing’s biochemistry lab to test how various antimicrobial peptides impact the immune system. She completed a directed studies project, received the Science Undergraduate Research Award to fund a summer of full-time research and then carried on with the project through a Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research award and her honours project. Mihalynuk has stayed on as a research assistant in Helbing’s lab post-graduation, hoping to see her current project through to completion.

A budding biotech entrepreneur

Mihalynuk has also displayed an entrepreneurial spirit during her time at UVic, coming up with an idea for a new point-of-care medical diagnostic device that would detect cavity-causing bacteria. Mihalynuk spent some time pursuing her idea, and her experience opened her eyes to how difficult biotech entrepreneurship can be, and the challenges that students face in getting started. After spending co-op terms helping entrepreneurs at the Centre for Advanced Materials and Related Technology (CAMTEC), UVic and Vancouver Island Life Sciences’  BioInnovation Hub and the Coast Capital Innovation Centre, she used her experiences to advocate for ways an entrepreneurship co-op could operate that would engage science students and provide the knowledge and supports they need.

“My experience showed me that being an entrepreneur in the biotech space isn’t easy,” says Mihalynuk. “You have to go in with funding and back-up plans, it can take a lot of time, and it can be an expensive labour of love. I wanted to use the struggles I had to try and help others, and I saw the opportunity to try and create something that could support other students.”

Future focused on health

Mihalynuk’s next community will be built at Oxford, where she hopes to continue to be involved in the fight against antimicrobial resistance and already intends to teach Ukrainian Dance. She isn’t sure what graduate program she intends to pursue quite yet, but is currently interested in studying global health, genomic medicine, and translational health sciences. Whatever she chooses, you can be sure she’ll be pursuing her keen interest in health, creating strong communities and helping to foster a more joyful world.