The quality of entries for our 2025 Student Essay Contest was so high that we decided to share them all. Here's an essay by Maria Paola Mendieta, a third-year PharmD student at the University of Ottawa.
It's not about overcoming disability—it’s about owning it, being visible, and recognizing disability as a natural and valuable part of human diversity.
Pharmacist Cynthia Leung shares the story of how her husband—a licensed physician from Kurdistan—came to Canada as a refugee and pushed through many obstacles to go from pulling pints at a pub to a cardiology subspecialty program at Queen’s.