These people haven't even graduated and they have accomplished a lot more than most other students: once again your flaunting your ignorance bud. Haha. Quest Current Students
Ally Just (4th Year)
This past summer, Ally had the incredible opportunity to work in the psychiatric department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School where she conducted original research involving the role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in morphine addiction. Ally worked on two different projects, each exploring a different aspect of the 'addiction cycle.' Her first project explored the initial acquisition stages of drug addiction while her second project focused on the withdrawal and relapse stages of addiction. Each of these projects utilized animal models of morphine addiction and relied on both behavioural and molecular techniques to help elucidate the behavioural effects of morphine, as well as the neural substrates of addiction. Her research yielded exciting results, which she hope will contribute to the development of treatments and therapies relevant to morphine addiction in humans.
Leah Kirchmann (4th Year)
When not attending university classes at Quest, Leah is a professional cyclist who races for the Canadian National Cycling Team. She just raced in the Tour de l'Ardeche in France in a six-day 'Tour de France' style race with sprint stages, time trials, mountain stages & team tactics. After six days of racing, Leah placed ninth overall. In addition, Leah also won the coveted Maillot Blanc, which goes to the highest-placing rider under 23 years of age. Leah was also selected to represent Canada at the 2012 Cycling World Championships in Limburg, the Netherlands, from September 15th to 23rd.
Krista Caldwell (3rd year)
In her third year at Quest, Krista was selected to participate in The Next 36, a program designed to launch the entrepreneurial careers of some of Canada's most promising undergraduates. Through the program, Krista and her partners founded Fleetbit, a tech company that builds smartphone apps for booking taxis. Last January, Fleetbit raised its second round of financing from investors. To keep business cost low, Krista, her co-founders, and their two full-time employees work out of downtown Toronto in an office that doubles as their apartment.
Jill Carlile (4th Year)
This past summer, Jill worked with a University of Alaska Fairbanks MESAS (Marine Ecosystem Sustainability in the Arctic and Subarctic) PhD student in northern Iceland for two months on two different projects. The first project included assisting the grad student with her doctoral research on fisheries management and the coastal culture in rural Iceland. The second project included researching marine tourism opportunities on the Bay of Hunafloi and presenting her findings at a conference.
Cameron Sutherland (2nd Year)
Cameron has just left for Salt Spring Island to do a one-month permaculture course. This course will teach permaculture concepts and fundamentals along with other skills such as wildcrafting medicines, eco-forestry, and seed harvesting, among others. Cameron will then leave for the small village of Butula in Western Kenya where, for one month, he will be teaching and implementing permaculture practices at the local primary school. Instead of their current sustenance crop, maize, they will be planting a variety of fruits and veggies that will not only provide the children with a more nutritious diet, but will make for a good return at market. The additional source of income will help to buy school supplies, stabilize the community, and provide economic sustainability.
Zeeshan Rasool (3rd Year)
Zeeshan was recently part of a film crew that submitted a film to the AVAAZ'12 speed filming competition at the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences in Pakistan. Representing Quest University Canada, Zeeshan and his team managed to win first prize in the speed filming category. There were over 20 teams that participated in the competition. Watch the film online at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGakwi9jzw. As the film is in the Urdu language, remember to turn the English subtitles on!
Dylan Kular (2nd year)
For the past year and a half, Dylan has been involved with STAND, the student-led division of United to End Genocide organization. STAND aims to empower individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide. This summer, Dylan spent one month in Rwanda representing STAND and helped conduct a Genocide Awareness Project. While in Rwanda, he analyzed organizations that supported genocide survivors to determine if their work was efficient. He also did volunteer work with genocide victims.
Lindsay Eastwood (4th Year)
As part of research for her Keystone project, Lindsay spent three and a half weeks exploring the culture of Mongolia's capital and nomadic people. She was able to attend Naadam in the capital and spend some time living with nomadic families in the steppes. Next, Lindsay headed to northern India to participate in a month-long medical internship with Child Family Health International (CFHI). She worked with a cardiologist, an OB/GYN, a naturopath, an ayurvedic practitioner, and other talented healers in a variety of western and traditional practices.
Ellie McCallum (4th year)
Ellie spent the summer working at the University of Lethbridge, in the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience. She was working on studies related to learning and memory under Dr. Robert Sutherland, a leading Canadian neuroscientist. Ellie's project for the summer was to build a molecular probe for Protein Kinase M zeta, a molecule involved in long-term memory maintenance. This probe will allow researchers to visualize PKMz, and will no doubt be an incredibly useful tool that will lead to new insights about the process of memory consolidation and storage. She was really excited to hear recently about experiments using the probe that she built!
Olenka Forde (4th year)
As an active member of the Right To Play organization, Olenka won a scholarship to attend the Right To Play Global Youth Summit in Rwanda this past August. The Global Youth Summit was an opportunity for youth from around the world to engage in a week-long leadership conference on Sport for Development and Peace. Throughout the summit, Olenka participated in experiential workshops on service learning, public policy in both global and local contexts, and global action planning. These leadership workshops were also complemented by site visits to local Rwandan partners to increase understanding of partnership development and implementation.
Olivia Morgan (4th year)
In the spring of 2012, Olivia travelled to Bogota, Colombia for an experiential learning block. She taught English in Soacha (a suburb of Bogota) and volunteered at an orphanage in the North of Bogota. At the school in Soacha, she taught grades 1, 5, and 6, as well as a group of students in the free after-school English program. This was by far the hardest teaching experience she has ever had. The language barrier, as well as the lack of organization, structure, and support in both the organizations she volunteered for and at the school, all contributed to the challenge of teaching. Despite the difficulty, she was able to teach some English, but in the end she learned far more from the kids and this experience as a whole (both at the school and the orphanage).