A woman of conviction and commitment, Megan Landes aspires for nothing less than to contribute to the improvement of women’s health, not only in Canada but throughout the world. Since obtaining a bachelor’s degree in arts and science from McMaster University in Hamilton, she has been a medical student at McGill University since 2000 and next year will pursue her studies at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to perfect her knowledge and skills in order to work as efficiently as possible with sick women living in very difficult socio-economic conditions. In fact, since her first experience as a Volunteer Development Worker in 1999, when she participated in the construction of an aqueduct system in a Costa Rican village, Megan has felt a great concern for world health and has subsequently increased her involvement. She has thus, among other things, carried out volunteer work for the McMaster Sexual Assault Centre, Medical Students for Choice and Student Action for Refugees Montreal, has travelled to Burkina-Faso to work in a children’s clinic, organized lectures on world health at McGill University and lobbied for aid to developing countries in their fight against Aids.
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Guillaume Charbonneau, a fifth-year medical student at the Université de Montréal, believes that there is no better way of ensuring progress than by being committed, heart and soul, both socially and politically. As early as the first year of his studies, this young man gave concrete expression to his social commitment by working with a social and international action committee (CASI) with which, among other things, he organized integration activities for immigrants. He then departed for Lima, Peru, where he followed a training course in humanitarian assistance. On his return, he established and then held the position of bioethics manager on the campus and set out to heighten awareness of this discipline in the university community. At large these activities have led him to take a greater interest in the debate on the health system and he thus contributed to a written summary addressed to the Clair Commission and a memorandum presented to the Romanow Commission. A stream of political actions then followed. In turn administrator, vice-president and president of the Fédération des associations étudiantes en medicine du Québec, he further increased his participation on numerous committees with the Collège des médecins, his university’s faculty of medicine and the MSSS.
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Since early adolescence, Christine Renaud, a student in secondary education in ethics and history at the Université de Montréal, has distinguished herself through her creativity, positive leadership and strong abilities, not only for developing projects but also for bringing them to life. As early as 1991, at only eleven years of age, she participated in the establishment of the L’Entracte youth drop-in centre. A few years later, she embarked on an extensive period of travel and international cooperation which included visits to Guatemala, Ecuador, Vietnam, Wales and El Salvador. At the same time Christine was involved with Amnesty International, organized a collection of second-hand books for underprivileged children in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood, developed a workshop on social commitment which she presented during a colloquium for students and teachers, and coordinated a one-day symposium on educational reform and its implementation at the secondary level. Moreover, she created and supervised the Teranga project which offers students in education at the Université de Montréal the opportunity to follow an introductory course in international cooperation in Senegal. Her strong commitment also prompted her to represent the Marche 2/3 organization during the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2003.
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Recipient of an award for excellence from the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, Yves Plourde has the profile of a man who is actively committed to his community. An undergraduate student in business administration with a specialization in international management at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, this young man seizes every opportunity to put his assets in mutual aid to good use, a sense of commitment and dedication he inherited from his family. Since the beginning of his university studies he has been, among other things, the president of the Club GRH, an administrator of the Mouvement des associations générales étudiantes committee, the host of a student radio program and the representative of his fellow students in the administrative sciences student association. In addition to having participated in the 2004 Jeux du commerce in Sherbrooke as a member of the UQAC debate team, Yves has taken on the role of leader of the delegation representing his university at the 2005 Jeux du commerce which will be held in Rimouski and is in charge of the first UQAC delegation to take part in the Symposium GRH to be held this fall in the Ottawa region.
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Tenacity and discipline are definitely two qualities that distinguish Simon Grondin, a mechanical engineering student at the Université de Sherbrooke. Simon had already made his mark on elite sports teams at an early age, distinguishing himself in both tennis and table tennis. He participated in the Canadian Junior Golf Championship in 1997 and was a member of the Vert et Or golf team in 2000 and 2001. His fighting spirit and entrepreneurship then led him towards student commitment. In turn a member of Relève PME, the Association générale des étudiants en génie, Junior Team Canada and the Club entrepreneur étudiant at the Université de Sherbrooke (vice-president and president), this young man also recently participated in an Engineers Without Borders economic mission in Chile. Furthermore, he has completed a trimester at the Virginia Tech University in the United States as well as a training course on cooperation in Germany, and co-developed the Université en affaires project. This project, which won the 2003 Concours québécois en entrepreneurship in the university students category, enables students from the business administration and engineering departments to acquire concrete experience in entrepreneurship and product development.
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A graduate in business administration at the École des hautes études commerciales de Montréal, Charles Lambert defines himself as the Obélix of social and student involvement, saying he fell into this role at an early age. What he hopes for above all else is to make a difference through his commitment. As early as during his secondary studies at the Pierre-de-Lestage high school, he held the position of president of the student council for three years. Next, at the Collège Maisonneuve, he acted as the pre-university students’ representative on the institution’s board of directors and became the president of the Coop Maisonneuve’s board of directors and executive council for which he elaborated a sponsorship policy and improved member services. Charles also pursued this course of action at HEC Montréal where he became executive vice-president of the Comité sports et loisirs, administrator for the Student Association of Management Faculties of Eastern Canada, and president of the establishment’s student association. His duties led him to contribute to the outline of a memorandum addressed to the parliamentary committee on the Québec university system and having the hours devoted to student involvement acknowledged by HEC Montréal.
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The makings of a true entrepreneur. This sums up, in a few words, an important facet of the personality of Antoine Azar, who recently obtained his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the École Polytechnique Montréal. In 1999, at the age of eighteen, with an international bachelor’s degree from the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, he founded his own Internet development company as well as a Web site for the sale of second-hand textbooks which today brings together over 70,000 Québec students. The editor of a student science journal from 2003 to 2004, a member of the Polymage computer graphics team at the École Polytechnique Montréal from 2000 to 2001 and of the Polytechnique team which participated in the international virtual reality competition held in France in 2004, Antoine also led the Polytechnique team, as captain, to a sixth place at the North American Computer Science Games in 2004. Actively involved with Amnesty International from 1998 to 1999, he also, as a volunteer, passed on his love for karate to children aged 5 to 10. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in medical imaging.
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After discovering her true vocation as a “protector of the environment” and armed with a certificate in psychology and a bachelor’s degree in biology completed at the Université Laval in the fall of 2003, Mélanie Carrier now travels the world with the firm intention of informing and heightening awareness of different environmental problems in the various communities she visits. As early as her first year of studies in biology, Mélanie participated in an ecological and humanitarian project which took place in India and Nepal. The young woman then headed for Réunion Island where she completed her professional training while carrying out an environmental project aimed at comparing Québec’s national parks with those of Madagascar. The recipient of numerous scholarships including one from the ACDI and more recently the Adrien-Pouliot Award, she recently directed an environmental awareness documentary in Mexico. A member of the Sierra Canada environmental group and a volunteer for both Saint-Vincent-de-Paul and the Red Cross, she perseveres and acts with conviction and passion while holding on to the absolute certainty that she will gradually be able to help change the world.
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Clive Chang, who was born in Hong Kong and arrived in Canada at the age of five, is simultaneously pursuing undergraduate studies in business and music. While maintaining an exceptional grade point average, he still finds time to teach in the management department, participates in the McGill New Residence Hall committee and acts as musical director for both the McGill Savoy Society and the McGill Soustice A Cappella, and is thus responsible for over 75 musicians. In addition to having received numerous scholarships and awards in the last few years, including the Students’ Society Award of Distinction of McGill, Clive was winner of the Goldman Sachs Global Leader Award earlier this year. This distinction, awarded by the Institute of International Education, honours the academic excellence and social leadership of students from all over the world. Finding fulfillment to the rhythm of music, he dreams of travelling the world to promote, through his musical talent, the emancipation of young people while inspiring different communities to evolve in mutual respect.
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