“Two weeks ago, I went to Ottawa for a week to attend a program called Encounters With Canada. EWC is a program where students from all over Canada go to Ottawa for a week to learn about a certain theme that they selected while applying. The theme that I attended was Medicine and Health, where we learned a bit more about the medical field and the jobs in that field.
Now I’m just going to get it out there: it was an AMAZING experience. Going to the capital of our country and just being there was cool enough on its own. But there was so much that the program offered and being able to meet other teens from around the country was on another level. I got to meet people from the prairies, from Eastern Canada, and from the Maritimes. I also got to meet people that live in a city over from me that I never would have known existed had it not been for this program.
During this program, we also got to learn more about our identity as Canadians, as we got to visit Parliament, several museums, and learned more about Canada’s role in peacekeeping from an accomplished veteran. Learning about what our country’s veterans went through for us and the possibility to live in a peaceful country is heartbreaking and makes me appreciate them more.
As I said, the week that I attended was Medicine and Health which meant that we got to explore the different career options in the field. It turns out there is a lot more to the medical field than just doctors, surgeons, and nurses. For example, the specific field that I focused on personally during the week was cancer research. I, with approximately thirty other people, was able to visit Ottawa’s cancer research lab where we got some firsthand experience of what cancer researchers do every day. Although we only scratched the surface of what they do, it still helped me widen my perspective and broaden my view immensely.
Overall, this was an unforgettable experience that helped me to pinpoint a bit more about what career that God wants me to pursue. This is a great program that I would wholeheartedly recommend to any teenager that has an interest in a specific career field.”
Joseph K, Grade 10