Geneive (Charisma) Walker came to Canada from Jamaica six years ago hoping to find a new career beyond nursing. A combined honours degree in Social Anthropology and Psychology, plus time working as a health coach, has confirmed her gut feeling that she'll continue in a career focused on helping people through counselling or supporting marginalized groups.

Stacy Hanninen gave up her successful 17-year career as a dietician to pursue a medical degree at HÂþ»­, taking on a delicate balancing act between the responsibilities of student and family life.

For Samantha Addario, law school was as much about what happened outside the classroom as in it. She made an impact on the Weldon community — and beyond — through her activism and work with a number of student societies.

Originally from Cape Breton, Brent Young comes from an Ojibway background and was the first person from his family to attend university. Inspired by his own family doctor, he has seen first-hand the impact and unique insights a family physician can provide a community.

PhD student Martha Paynter is among a very select group of "audacious, original, and forward-thinking" scholars picked from a pool of hundreds of candidates from universities in Canada and abroad as a 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar.