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Jess Muha

Women's Basketball

STUDENT-ATHLETE STORIES: MUHA ON MAKING THE MOST OF HER TIME AT U OF T

(Pictured above: Jess Muha at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport during the 2018-19 season | Photo by Seyran Mammadov)
 
Each Thursday, varsityblues.ca will highlight a U of T student-athlete and their academic pursuits. Each of these students achieved first class honours with an AGPA of at least 3.50 in the previous academic year.  These are our Student-Athlete Stories.
 
When deciding what to study at the University of Toronto, Varsity Blues women's basketball veteran Jessica Muha took inspiration from her childhood as an athlete.
 
"Growing up playing competitive sports, I was always fascinated by the way nutrition could influence performance," said Muha. "Being a female athlete, I think the relationship women in sports have with food and nutritional habits is very complex. I initially decided to major in nutritional sciences to explore this relationship."
 
Originally hailing from Montreal, Muha came to Toronto with a clear goal of eventually going to medical school, but her time at U of T has opened her mind to many different options.
 
"Being a physician is still my dream as I enter my final year of my degree," she said. "However, my time at U of T has also sparked an interest in research and public health. There are so many interesting fields within medicine and health sciences that I have realized there are many pathways I can take to becoming a doctor, all while learning and growing in different areas of specialization. For instance, my research projects focusing on childhood nutrition has introduced me to the world of pediatrics and health policy."
 
Jess Muha
(L to R: U of T Vice-Provost, Students Sandy Welsh, Jess Muha, and Executive Director of Athletics & Physical Activity Beth Ali at the 2019 Academic Breakfast | Seyran Mammadov)
 
As a part of her program, Muha is a researcher at the L'Abbé Lab: Food and Nutrition Policy Research for Population Health.
 
"Not only have I been able to work with and learn from outstanding mentors, but being a part of the nutritional sciences research community has exposed me to the global presence and importance of nutrition research," she said. "It has allowed me to see the gap in knowledge about nutrition and other clinical areas such as obesity in the practice of medicine. The lack of accurate portrayal of food and nutrition presented to the public became very evident to me."
 
Research has been a big part of Muha's success at U of T and she even won an award for the best project of the 2020 Department of Nutritional Sciences Undergraduate Summer Research Opportunity Program (DNS USROP). Her work from this project was also accepted as an abstract presentation at the seventh annual Canadian Obesity Summit.
 
"This was my first exposure to conducting research and despite being in the beginning of the pandemic, the experience was extremely rewarding and educational," she said. "This program also allowed me to gain a mentor and work alongside a former Varsity Blues athlete in her PhD in nutritional sciences. Having exposure to a female athlete striving for such a prestigious degree was inspiring to see as well." 
 
Muha hopes to explore different areas of nutrition research this year as she joins Dr. Ahmed El-Sohemy's nutrigenomics lab, where she will study gene-nutrition influences on PMS in women.
 
Jess Muha
(Muha, left, at the Clubs Fair with the JDRF in 2019 | Photo courtesy of Jess Muha)
 
Muha, who was named a U SPORTS academic all-Canadian following the 2020-21 school year, has taken her passion to quite a few extracurricular activities as well. In 2018, she co-founded the U of T chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and served as co-president for the last three years.  
 
"We are a club committed to raising awareness about type 1 diabetes and fundraising for type 1 diabetes research," she said. "Unique challenges presented themselves last year through the online space, especially when it came to hosting fundraising events. However, I believe it also inspired my team and me to think creatively. I am proud of the work our team completed as we managed to raise over $2500 for type 1 diabetes research despite the challenges we faced."
 
In addition, Muha served as co-president of Varsity Board, a standing committee of the Faculty's Council of Athletics and Recreation and is made up with representation from each of the 42 Varsity Blues teams. She helped create a student-athlete study and wellness guide and developed a first-year connect series to help incoming Varsity Blues.
 
"Being able to provide support for the 800+ Varsity Blues athletes through various initiatives has been extremely rewarding and has allowed me to refine not only my organizational, leadership, and communication skills, but also enhance my ability to cater to the needs of others," she said.
 
Jess Muha
(Muha at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport | Seyran Mammadov)
 
Muha has also taken that leadership to Woodsworth College as a member of the e-mentorship program to help incoming students navigate their entrance into U of T student life.  She has found that the more she adds to her plate (pun intended), the easier it is to balance her schedule.
 
"It has actually helped me stay organized and focus on the task at hand," she said. "I also strongly believe that the relationships I have fostered over the last three years with coaches, professors, teammates, other varsity athletes and friends has allowed me to succeed in balancing all aspects of my life. I wouldn't be the person I am today without their guidance and support."
 
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