What is your best memory from Elmwood?
Volunteering and being part of the Lab Rats club that Dr. Mahin held every week. It was inspiring to be able to teach the Junior School girls and promote their love for science with fun, interactive and safe experiments. It was not only a great way for us to get to know the girls more, but it was also a learning opportunity for the volunteers that put our chemistry knowledge to the test. One time we did an experiment where we picked up a handful of soapy water bubbles with our hands which were filled with gas and lit them on fire. It was a very amazing (and safe) experiment!
Which Elmwood teacher inspired you the most, and how?
The teacher that inspired me the most was Mr. Whitehouse. During the last days of Grade 12, we asked him what was his dream at Elmwood after we left? He told us that his dream was to make improvements to the school which would help students in their academics and daily lives. He knew that it would be hard since the school had a long history of headmistresses, but he still yearned for this dream. Little did we know at the last Assembly of the year Mr. Whitehouse was named the new Head of School. This instilled in me that I can also achieve any goal that may seem impossible to others as long as I work hard, dedicate my all to it, and believe in it with my whole heart.
When you reunite with your Elmwood classmates, what do you end up doing?
When I reunite with my Elmwood classmates, we go out to eat a nice meal at a restaurant and we talk about what the past year (or however time we have been apart) has brought to our lives. We talk about our accomplishments and our failures so that we can learn from each other. We also indulge ourselves in a little shopping.
After leaving Elmwood, what did you do?
I am now a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Ottawa studying a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Health Science in French Immersion. I also work as a patient service clerk at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in the Emergency Department, the Brewer COVID-19 Assessment Center, and will be soon joining the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. In my free time, I volunteer for the CHEO Research Institute in the Neurology Department, indulge myself in some coding JavaScript and C+ classes, and take Sunday classes for Japanese and Arabic since I want to broaden my knowledge of languages.
List three words that best describe you.
Kind, Strong-willed, Curious
Who is someone you admire, and why?
My mother Dr. Rosa Alicia Ramos Garcia is one of the people that I admire. She made the tough decision in 2012 to leave everything in Mexico (her medical practice, family, and friends) and come to Canada to build a family and offer her kids a better life. She went through a lot of obstacles and was faced with the tough decision to either re-study medicine in Canada or care for her children. Since it was only three of us in this new country, she chose her children. However, she didn’t let this put a stop to her future. To this date, she has more than three Masters degrees and two certificates in Canada, and she has worked for Health Canada, The Ottawa Hospital, CHEO, and many more! She was recently nominated for The 2022 Ottawa Awards in the category of Best Public Health Care Worker. I am so proud of her.
Name two things on your bucket list.
I want to go to work with Doctors Without Borders for a couple of years and be able to give aid wherever it is needed.
I want to have a cat.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
I am happiest when I’m reading books in the sunroom of my apartment with a nice cup of tea, some cozy blankets, and ambient music.
Finish this sentence. On Sunday mornings you can usually find me…
I can be doing one of three things: Working on assignments, studying or working/volunteering at CHEO, or playing some video games on my PC.
Which fictional character, book, or movie, would you like to meet in real life, and why?
I would love to meet Angelina Jolie. She is one of the most powerful and influential people in Entertainment. She is internationally renowned, and outside of her work as an actor, she focuses on her humanitarian work in Women’s Human Rights, child immigration, and more. If that wasn’t enough, she is also the mother of six children, which I find an incredible accomplishment itself! She is strong-willed, independent, courageous, outspoken, strong, and just an incredible woman who I really want to ask: How do you do everything?