Participants were selected based on demonstrated leadership in their community or student life, dedication to learning from multiple perspectives and to applying leadership for positive social change, and to leading in their future careers.

The PSLP is committed to the development of Manitoba’s future leaders by challenging the participants to collaborate with one another across disciplines, backgrounds and worldviews, and to think critically about solutions to complex leadership problems. Students complete cutting edge workshops with leadership facilitators, and learn about  current leadership challenges from some of Manitoba’s most renowned leaders in a wide range of sectors including business, education, healthcare, policing, government, and non-profit.

“The applicants were very impressive,” says Dr. Suzanne Gagnon who leads the program within her mandate as Director of the James W. Burns Leadership Institute at the University of Manitoba. “We are excited about the diversity of the group and to start learning and collaborating together. The ongoing pandemic presents us with a real-world leadership laboratory in which to observe, apply and challenge various models of leadership. It is a particularly important time to be both developing and contributing to leadership.”

The James W. Burns Leadership Institute at the Asper School of Business was created in 2019 with a mandate to launch the PSLP as a flagship, interdisciplinary and pan provincial leadership program for rising leaders in post-secondary education in Manitoba. The Institute has also developed leadership programming on a bilateral basis with other UM units and has created a new Minor in Leadership for Business and Organizations for non-business undergraduates whose programs permit a minor.

Congratulations to the following students who will participate in the program this year:

Chetachukwu Akaluka.  UofW/RRC, Bachelor Rhetoric and Communications/Sociology

Ameen Alnaser.  UofM, Bachelor of Science (General)

Daniel Araujo.  UofM, Masters in Kinesiology and Recreation Management

Chimdinma Chijioke. UofM, Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies

Jefferson Cook. UCN, Bachelor of Arts in Aboriginal and Northern Studies/English

Megan Crooks. UofM, Bachelor of Science in Psychology

Miray Eskandar. UofM, Bachelor of Health Sciences

Avery Hallberg. UofM, Masters in Sociology

Jennifer Javier. RRC, Diploma in Business Technology Management

Meycee Kalaw-Crevier. UofM, Master of Business Administration

Karamveer Kaur. UofM, Masters in Nursing

Sasha Kullman. UofM, Bachelor in Kinesiology and Recreation Management

Alixa Lacerna. UofM, Masters in Architecture

Jude Obidiagha. UofW, Masters in Applied Economics (Policy Analysis)

Kevin Oliver. UofM, Master in Education Administration

Viktor Popp. UofM, Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering/Management

Dhanvi Prajapati. UofM, Bachelor of Science (Genetics)

Kate Ann Reyes. RRC, Diploma in Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Eric Schillberg. UofM, Masters in Civil Engineering

Shawn Singh. UofM, Juris Doctor – Law

Mainak Singha. UofM, Doctor of Philosophy in Astrophysics

Guneet Uppal. UofM,    Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry       

Arielle Williams. UofM, Bachelor of Science in Animal Systems

For more information about the President’s Student Leadership Program please visit:

https://umanitoba.ca/asper/programs-of-study/presidents-student-leadership-program

The IHP offers two four-year degrees: the bachelor of health sciences and the bachelor of health studies. Established in 2007, it’s a joint program between the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Science and the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, with the latter administering the program. Students study on the Fort Garry campus.

The degrees are designed to give an interdisciplinary education to students who are interested in health careers, says program director Dr. Mark Nachtigal.

“Students are receiving a degree that is focused specifically on health, and within each program this includes both fundamental science and social science,” Nachtigal says. “This distinguishes the IHP from other UM programs.”

That distinction is what attracted fourth-year student Lexie Rea to the bachelor of health sciences program. When Rea started university, she knew she wanted to pursue a career in health care, but she wanted to learn more than just chemistry and biology in her undergraduate studies.

“I wanted a broader perspective on health care,” she says. “I’ve enjoyed that I got to learn about everything from policy and planning to health determinants to research methods, and everything in between. I also got to learn about economics, sociology and biomedicine. I just really enjoyed the broadness of the program, and that is what really drew me in.”

In addition to science courses like biology, anatomy and chemistry, students in the health sciences program take courses in economics, psychology, native studies and business.

“There’s so much more to health care than I thought there was,” Rea says. “While being in the program I have changed my mind probably a dozen times about what I’m going to do in the future, which I think really goes to show how much the program has to offer.”  

While Rea has decided to apply to occupational therapy, students graduating with a bachelor of health sciences have the base to enter other health professional fields, such as medicine, physiotherapy or dentistry. Graduates can also go into biomedical research, teaching or health-care administration.

While the bachelor of health sciences focuses on the science of health, the bachelor of health studies degree emphasizes the social science of health.

Like Rea, Brooklyn Gigolyk entered university with her eye on working in health care, but she’d always been stronger in the humanities than in the sciences, and her interests aligned with the social sciences.

“When I heard about the health studies program, I decided it was for me,” says Gigolyk, a fourth-year student. “The program is interdisciplinary, so it’s really opened my eyes to a lot of different material that I wouldn’t have been able to learn about if I was doing a straight science degree.”

Health studies students take courses in anthropology, psychology, sociology, family studies and native studies, as well as the sciences. Courses range from ethics and biomedicine, to sociology of health and illness, to native medicine and health.

(From left to right) Karen Holmes, IHP student advisor and program co-ordinator; Dr. Brian Postl, dean of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences; and Dr. Mark Nachtigal, IHP director. Dr. Postl takes a tour of the new IHP space on the Fort Garry campus.

Learners in the bachelor of health studies select one of three concentrations: health policy, planning and evaluation; health promotion and education; or family health.

Gigolyk isn’t yet sure what area of health care she’d like to pursue, but students’ possible paths include going on to graduate studies – for example, pursuing a master’s of public health – working in government to develop health policy, or educating the public for a charitable foundation.

In 2019, the IHP opened a new home in the Human Ecology Building on the Fort Garry campus. It features a reception area, five offices and space for Rady Faculty professors to use when they’re visiting from the Bannatyne campus or St. Boniface Hospital.

“It’s a bright, beautiful space that is welcoming for students, faculty and staff,” Nachtigal says. “It’s a recognizable space that our students can identify with to feel they have a comfortable home on campus.”

For Gigolyk, one highlight of being in the IHP has been connecting with like-minded people.

“It’s just great being part of this community,” she says.