Tag Archives: Grad speech

Congratulations November 2012 Grads – MRSc Valedictorian Speech

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On November 22, 2012, faculty, instructors, staff, learners, colleagues from the rehabilitation community and families joined together to congratulate the graduates of the rehabilitation science graduate programs.

Doctor of Philosophy graduates include:

  • Shalini Lal
  • Mineko Wada

Master of Science graduates include:

  • Allison Ezzat
  • Stephanie Glegg

Master of Rehabilitation Science graduates include:

  • Kim Mullens
  • Mireille Delorme
  • Tammam El-Khodor

The Vancouver Yacht Club decorated for the holidays added to the celebrations which were enriched through carefully crafted speeches by the graduates, graduate program directors Dr. Lara Boyd and Sue Stanton, and Faculty of Medicine Vice Dean Academic Dr. Frederick Mikelberg. Dr. Mikelberg’s speech is also posted on this blog.

The November 2012 MRSc valedictorian speech humorously and thoughtfully captured what it’s like to study for a master’s while working full-time and balancing life’s other commitments. MRSc Program Director Sue Stanton completed the evening’s celebrations with some simple but very wise advice that she received from her grandpa.

Please listen to these speeches. Unfortunately at the present time the speeches work best using a recent version of Internet Explorer. We are working to correct this.

In the first few minutes Sue recognizes all the 2012 MRSc graduates with special acknowledgement of May 2012 grad Rebecca Shook who won a peer-nominated research award.

The Master of Rehabilitation Science (MRSc) graduates’ research abstracts and those from previous graduation classes are available on the program website.

Please join us in congratulating our November 2012 graduates.

Valedictorian Speech of May 2012 Master of Rehabilitation Science Grads

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Spring 2012 Grads: L-R: Physical Therapist Rebecca Shook, Physical Therapist Sarah Strickey and Occupational Therapist Sabrina Li

On Wednesday, May 23 these three therapists joined the growing number of Master of Rehabilitation Science graduates. Although only Vancouver-based Rebecca Shook was able to cross the stage at convocation, her colleagues Sabrina Li in Hong Kong and Sarah Strickey in Cary, North Carolina in the U.S. were in touch to share the occasion and prepare the traditional joint valedictorian speech. Please join us in congratulating these graduates and enjoy their celebratory words.

It is both thrilling and surreal to be submitting these remarks as we complete our MRSc journey! This program has followed us all through a multitude of life changes from new jobs to new babies to new countries. This program has remained the constant through all these events. It goes without saying that the nature of this program has allowed us to balance the other aspects of our lives while providing us with an invaluable way to stay current, grow as professionals, and develop practical skills to apply to our clinical practices.

Collectively, we have learned some valuable lessons throughout the course of our studies that are worth sharing.

  • Organization pays off
    Without good organization of notes, journal articles, to-do lists and references lists from the beginning, we’re not sure we would be completing this now- at least not with our sanity relatively intact!
  • No man (or woman) is an island
    Completing research in isolation without input from others may seem attractive at first (I get to do it my way, all the time!), but it makes for an inferior product in the end.
  • Research’s spill-over effect
    Through the process of completing this degree we have also internalized knowledge on evidence-based practice, literature searching, writing and referencing and have gleaned a much greater appreciation of what is required to support new ideas and initiatives in practice.
  • Research is fun
    There is an inherent thrill in discovering new information (or confirming your own hypotheses) and then writing about it in a manner that makes it accessible for other clinicians. And the fun doesn’t stop there; research findings lead to more questions which drives us all to keep studying!
  • Research is challenging
    As novice researchers it is easy to underestimate the complexity of conducting research. The amount of discipline and planning that is required to ensure that the integrity of the research is maintained cannot be under-valued.
  • Research takes time
    It is not a process that can be rushed. Allow more time than seems reasonable for every step and attempt to plan for every foreseeable obstacle
  • Buy-in is essential
    When developing or improving rehabilitation services, research is important, but ‘buy-in’ from stakeholders is also important! We need to ‘think outside the box’, then try to understand the stakeholders’ needs and use ‘their’ language.
  • It’s a small world after all
    The greatest advantage of this program is that it can be literally completed from anywhere in the world. The three of us are a testament to that as we cover three countries and two continents. The value of learning from colleagues around the globe has been paramount to our experience.

From our first (admittedly tentative) posts to our final assignments the faculty and staff associated with the MRSc program have encouraged and motivated us to succeed. Without their unwavering support, it would not be possible to complete a program of this magnitude from afar. We would specifically like to thank our major project supervisors, Dr. Lesley Bainbridge, Alison Gerlach, and Sue Stanton, whose guidance and encouragement were instrumental to the success of our major projects. Finally, we wish to thank our families, our friends and our colleagues who supported us in countless ways throughout this experience!

While we have looked forward to completing this degree for quite some time, we also know that we will greatly miss the stimulating discussions we have shared over the years with our fellow learners. Their enthusiasm has continually pushed us to think beyond the boundaries. To all our colleagues who are considering embarking on this journey – go for it; it is a challenging, yet rewarding experience.

Best of luck to all current and future MRSc learners; may you continue to set goals that inspire you!

Sabrina Li, Hong Kong

Rebecca Shook, Vancouver, BC, Canada,

Sarah Strickey, Cary, NC, USA

Congratulations to the 30th MRSc Graduate Lori Marsh

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Although Lori was not able to attend this Spring’s convocation, she takes a special place in the history of the program as our 30th graduate. Lori is a physical therapist on acute orthopaedics at the Ottawa Hospital – Civic Campus. Her reasons for taking a master’s were to be ready for new opportunities created by the expanding scope of physical therapy practice.

At the grad reception held on Tuesday, May 24, Lori’ s research supervisor Dr. Lesley Bainbridge read the following message sent by Lori who is currently on holidays in Ireland.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say a few words while I’m out of the country.

From my very first post in my first course, Evaluating Sources of Evidence, to sending off my final revision of my major project, this has been an amazing journey. As with any journey, there have been challenges, both academically and personally. Since the fall of 2007 when I started, deadlines have come and gone, and courses were completed, one by one. I have watched two children graduate from high school and one from college. I have said goodbye to my grandmother, a nephew and my father-in-law, and celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary. In addition to my very patient husband, the one constant throughout the four years has been my laptop. While not occupying half of our dining room table, it has traveled to England, France, and New York City. Now on its last legs, it has been replaced by a much lighter, cooler iPad.

In addition to all that I learned through the course of my degree, I learned a few truths.
1.    Don’t leave submissions until the last minute: the server may be down!
2.    Having tech support in the guise of teenagers is invaluable.
3.    Back everything up-twice! USB sticks do die!
And finally,
4.    What an amazing world we live in, where I can sit in my pajamas in my dining room in Ottawa and discuss common issues with a classmate in Hong Kong!

I would like to thank Lesley Bainbridge for her invaluable support and guidance over the past year while I completed my final project.

Thanks must also go to Sue Stanton who regularly checked in during the final course even when she was south of the equator and to Andrea Walus who answered questions no matter how silly they seemed. Finally, I would like to recognize all the learners and instructors I met, worked with and learned from during this degree.

It has been an amazing four years and I have highly recommended this program to my colleagues. One actually listened to me and began her own journey in the fall of 2010!

Lori’s research entitled Isolation and the Older Adult: Best Practices for Physiotherapy Interventions suggests that physiotherapy intervention should be frequent, aimed at preventing loss of function, and started early within a patient stay to prevent de-conditioning in older adults on isolation in acute care. For the full abstract, visit the program website.

Congratulations Lori – may you seize, as a master of rehabilitation science, the new opportunities that await you.

November 2010 Grad Reception and Speech

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MRSc Grads: Clare Faulkner, Claudia Hernandez Riano, Jennifer Stephenson and Maureen Duggan. Unable to attend: Caroline Jones, Meg O’Brien and Peter Rowe

There was great debate at this year’s reception: which is harder to overcome — the horizontal sheets of rain that characterize November in Vancouver, or the 6 inches of snow and slush that covered Vancouver during Convocation week? For the graduates who had planned to attend the reception, and had slogged their way through master’s and doctoral programs, the weather was nothing in comparison. For the online Master of Rehabilitation Science graduates, the desire to meet their fellow learners face-to-face overcame any worry about the weather.

Instructors, faculty, family, friends, fellow students and alumni joined the graduates to celebrate their accomplishments. Sue Stanton welcomed everyone and began the formal presentations by suggesting to the graduates that their convocation become another anniversary, “to reflect on, to celebrate, and to recall upon in the future.” Dr. Ross MacGillivray the Vice-Dean, Academic Affairs, Faculty of Medicine brought greetings from the Dean of Medicine Dr. Gavin Stuart, and recalled his various graduations of the past while congratulating those who would cross the stage on Friday. Dr. Lyn Jongbloed recognized both the Doctors of Philosophy Allan Kozlowski and Marc Roig, and presented flowers to Master of Science graduate Rochelle Stokes who was able to attend. The Urban Poling Activator Award was presented by Mandy Shintani and Graham Watts to Sarah Neil. This new award recognizes students who are researching rehabilitation and cancer research.

MRSc Grads’ Speech
Four graduates Maureen Duggan, Clare Faulkner, Claudia Hernandez Riano and Jennifer Stephenson spoke about the online master’s and were also the voices for the graduates who were unable to attend, but of course, sent their messages online. They concluded their speech with:

On the logo of the Online Master of Rehabilitation Science learner’s guide three key concepts are highlighted: Connect – Learn – Succeed. The Fall MRSc 2010 Graduates have all travelled slightly different paths to get to this day but it can be honestly said “we’ve connected, learned and succeeded!”

Click here to listen to the entire speech.

More information on the MRSc Winter 2010 graduates can be found on the MRSc program website.

MRSc May 2009 Valedictorian Speech

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Nancy Wellwood delivers message from November 2008 and May 2009 MRSc Grads

Nancy Wellwood delivers message from November 2008 and May 2009 MRSc Grads

In November 2007, our first graduates delivered a joint valedictorian speech which has now become a tradition in the Master of Rehabilitation Science program. At this year’s graduate reception, Nancy Wellwood spoke on behalf of both the Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 graduates. Their speech follows:

I’m privileged to be given this opportunity to say a few words on behalf of the MRSc graduates recognized here this evening. The graduates, Astrid St. Pierre, Alyssa Barrie, Deirdre Thornton, Colette Widmer Leu and myself held a little online collaboration of our own in anticipation of this evening, so what you are about to hear represents all of our heartfelt wishes and thanks to those who have supported us in our studies.

Before proceeding further the graduates have asked that I share with you a few words about our program, and the transformational ‘ah ha’ moments it has afforded us all. An ‘ah ha’ moment is defined as a brilliant jewel of an idea or insight or a moment of clarity so inspiring and mind altering that it makes the individual having this moment say ‘ah ha!’ Our program has transformed each of us with the following ‘ah ha’ moments:

Ah ha moment #1: I can understand this research paper, I can appraise the level of evidence and I can distill relevant messages and apply them to the current context of practice!

Ah ha moment #2: It is vitally important to include peers into a project as a means of enhancing acceptance!

Ah ha moment #3: I can navigate WebCT! I can contribute to and benefit from the virtual learning environment which brings a diversity of learners together from different geographical areas, disciplines, and areas of practice. This adds richness to many online discussions and generates many more ‘ah ha’ moments.

Ah ha moment #4: Research can be a complicated process, fraught with more loose ends than could ever be imagined! It takes perseverance to discern step-by-step each stage of the process and wrap- up these loose ends to achieve a comprehensive result.

Ah ha moment #5: A cautionary note for prospective graduate students, beware; that which you choose to study with the intent to change for the better will end up changing you for the better and in so many ways you never though possible.

On behalf of the MRSc graduates I’d like to thank each of our respective faculty advisors for their tireless dedication to our learning and academic development

Christine Carpenter
Liisa Holsti
Patricia Mortenson
Cheryl Beach
Sue Stanton

You have each served us as valuable examples, mentors, and coaches with wise sage advice that we will take with us where ever we go and apply in all that we do. Thank-you.

We would also like to thank each and every one of our respective employers, agency sponsors, managers, and professional practice leaders who have supported our research projects. Your dedication and commitment to us and to the people we serve is the inspiration for us to strive for better practices that change lives. Thank-you.

Finally, thank you to our families for supporting us and picking up the pieces at home while we endeavored to complete coursework, assignments and projects. Were it not for you all we could not have arrived at this day; in many ways, this is your graduation too. Thank-you.

To read more about our Fall 2008 and 2009 graduates, and the abstracts of their research projects visit our main program website