College Alumni Updates

‘01–’09

Alexis Beavis ‘01 now resides in Surrey, B.C. and is currently working as a mental health caseworker. For Edith Leung ‘02, a “day in the life” of a financial planner has been interesting as she started working on a team that deals with healthcare professionals. She spends a lot of time helping them figure out how to pay off large student loans, while still being able to save for their future. This past year, she had the privilege of speaking to aspiring dentists at the Canadian Dental Student Conference about how to manage their finances and build their practice. They were happy to learn about real-life scenarios and that many of us in the world have debt. Edith is happy to have helped them realize that life just happens sometimes!

Laura Harding (Barclay) ‘04 and her husband Craig excitedly welcomed their daughter, Alexis Wynter Harding, to the world in November 2019. Her older fur-sibling, Kodi, is already protective of her, and Alexis will be sure to keep her two parents very busy. Being very outdoorsy, they went on their first camping trip with her in the spring, where they headed down to Yosemite National Park for some epic hiking!

Opps – our bad!

Page 35 – In last year’s edition, we incorrectly celebrated Kelsey Flower’s ‘08 nuptials when in fact it was his equally handsome brother Zach Flower '06 that tied the knot. Congrats Zach!

Page 18 – We did it again. We incorrectly thanked big sister Alex Horner ‘09 for volunteering at lovely sister Stephanie Horner ‘11 that gave her time to chat with our current students. Thanks Stephanie! Alex Horner ‘09 attended four years of veterinary school at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and graduated in December 2019 with her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. She highly encourages any student looking to pursue graduate

Rundle, when in fact is was her studies (vet, med, dental, etc.) to go abroad — it’s not just a degree but the experience of a lifetime!

Since graduating, Alex has returned to Calgary to join a new veterinary clinic, Healing Traditions Holistic Veterinary Clinic, as an associate veterinarian for small animals. Alex is also currently in the process of completing certification in veterinary acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine through the Chi Institute in Florida to offer a complete integrative service for all of her furry clients.

David Fahlman ‘11

‘11–‘13

Having played Gretl in Rundle College’s rendition of The Sound of Music in 2008, Jaclyn Hiebert ‘13 couldn’t resist visiting Salzburg while in Austria for the CEMS MIM graduation ceremony!

I started the Canadian University Shooting Federation (CUSF) as a non-profit in 2018 with the idea of creating a league that promotes competitive shooting sports between Canadian Universities and Colleges. We revived the Trap and Skeet Club at Carleton University in my last year of school and I loved going out every weekend to blast clays with my newfound teammates.

After having this amazing experience with the club, I knew that I wanted to give back and help other schools develop their own competitive shooting programs. I envisioned a league where every post-secondary institution in Canada could field a team and compete against each other in a variety of disciplines.

After contacting a variety of organizations, I pulled together a couple of passionate leaders and started the CUSF. Our organization has grown immensely since then, with a lot of interest from schools across Canada. There have been 15 new clubs started, the existing clubs have grown immensely, and we offer a national sport shooting league based on Olympic disciplines: trap, skeet, and rifle. It is an exciting time for the future of sport shooting at post-secondary institutions.

This year marked a big milestone for Christina Welch ‘11. She was called to the bar and achieved her dream of becoming a lawyer! Additionally, she travelled to Norway, Denmark and Sweden to experience Nordic culture. Christina is now working at a boutique wills and estates firm and is busy planning her next international adventure!

Since graduating from Rundle College in 2011 and joining the University of Calgary Dinos football team, my single pursuit has been the U SPORTS National Championship trophy, the Vanier Cup. After seven years of involvement (five as a player, two as a coach), I am proud to have finally been a part of this championship in November 2019. This is the first time the championship has belonged to the Dinos since 1995, and it’s one of my most cherished experiences to contribute to this collective accomplishment. Rundle Andrew Buckley ‘11 Cobras were represented on the field all season by running-back Alessandro Molnar, who’s leadership and efforts molded the championship culture of the Dinos.

Since graduating in 2013, Tyler Bull ‘13 has checked a couple things off his bucket list. ‘13–‘18 Topping his list was traveling to Australia and New Zealand for two months with Rundle alumnus Taylor Caldwell ‘13. He finally visited Hobbiton, climbed Mount Doom, and as Taylor can attest to, finding as many Lord of the Rings filming locations as possible. To continue the adventure, they also jumped out of a plane, went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, whitewater rafting, canyoning, and sailed around the picturesque Whitsunday Islands.

Since returning to normal life, Tyler has been working on the Product Development team at RS Energy Group, a rapidly growing oil and gas data analytics company. In September 2019, he went on his first solo trip to Greece, and raced in the original Olympic stadium. Tyler’s next major travel plan is to go to Africa!

Out of the blue one day back in August, I decided it would be fun to drive as far north as possible. So my dad, uncle and I drove from Calgary all the way to Tuktoyaktuk. We saw some amazing scenery, met a lot of really interesting people and saw a lot of really old, historic gold mining dredges and facilities. We also gazed upon some amazing sunsets (some of which didn’t occur until three in the morning), and only got one flat tire through several thousand kilometres of driving on the Dempster Highway — essentially just a gravel road.

The most beautiful place we visited, in my mind, was a small "town" (essentially just a strip mall and motel) called Eagle Plains in the Yukon. The last day of travel, we drove all the way from Watson Lake, Yukon to Calgary in one go — my dad drove the entire leg. It took 21 hours. Gavin Angman ‘15

In 2019, Mehtab Brar ‘18 launched a comedy podcast series called “The Brarcast”. By January 2020, he amassed thousands of viewers per episode. Mehtab also begun performing standup comedy throughout Calgary on a weekly basis, opening for popular comedians, and making sold-out crowds chuckle.

Mehtab also teaches and competes in world-level Hapkido as a second degree black belt.

He operates Brarhive Inc., a group that manages all of his media operations.

The Disadvantage Advantage Amman Adat ‘19

My first year since graduating from imagined, and in turn, I became However, over the past few months, Rundle College has been vastly a better climber than I had been the COVID-19 pandemic that has different than what I would’ve previously. profoundly impacted the lives expected, and I was fortunate of millions worldwide has also enough to have been asked to Throughout this experience, I’ve brought many of my endeavours share what I have been up to. I come to understand that the only to a grinding halt. I was laid-off graduated in 2019 with a plan to person you are truly competing from work, and have been unable pursue a Bachelor’s of Science in against is yourself. The important to continue my training for skiing, Engineering at the University of thing is to focus on how you can rock climbing, or hand cycling, Calgary. After much deliberation achieve the best version of yourself and all competitions and races and thought, I ultimately made the and give your best effort, rather were cancelled fairly early into decision to defer my admission than focusing on what is “unfair” or the season. Perhaps the most for a year to give myself the the “disadvantages” you have. disappointing of all was being opportunity to fully direct my unable to compete at a national focus and energy into physical I also had the opportunity to level due to the cancellation of this therapy before committing to four continue para-alpine skiing this past year’s para-alpine nationals. years at post-secondary. What I winter as part of a didn’t realize was that I would be development team training out Over the past few weeks, I have presented with a slew of other of Sunshine Village. Despite the come to realize that while it is opportunities during this past year. fact that this was only my second normal to feel disappointed and season sit-skiing, I was able to start upset, it is important to understand The vast majority of these competing against other parathe fact that the situation we opportunities were related to athletes. I was invited to compete are currently living through is athletics and competition, so I will at the US-Canada Para-Alpine temporary. start off by sharing a story about a Skiing National Championships sport I have been involved in for at Winter Park, Colorado, where I Things will go back to normal the past 12 years. Rock climbing would be racing alongside the top eventually, and many of these has always been a sport that I have para-alpine athletes in the country. missed opportunities will present been incredibly passionate about, Considering that this was only my themselves to us again. What won’t and this past year I had the chance second year in this sport, it was come back is another chance for to continue my training as part of a beyond overwhelming to have the all of us to show the world that we competitive team. chance to compete at a national can put our daily lives aside to act level. selflessly and protect those who My initial goals for the season were are vulnerable, while finding solace to work towards returning to the level I was at before becoming wheelchair-bound over five years ago. Through training and competing, I ( “The important thing is to focus on how you can achieve the best version of yourself and give your best effort, rather than focusing on what is 'unfair' or the ( and happiness wherever and whenever we can. Better days will come if we can come together as a global community during these unprecedented noticed that many people 'disadvantages' you have.” times. saw my physical condition as a disadvantage, considering the fact that every climber around Furthermore, I was able to continue me was fully able-bodied. Over working as a rock climbing time, however, I began to see it as instructor this past year. Being an advantage. The “disadvantage” able to teach a sport that I love to forced me to work that much families and children of all ages harder. It forced me to constantly has been incredibly gratifying. I think critically about how I could also continued training for hand adapt my technique and improve cycling this past year, and through upon my abilities in order to stay sponsorships and grants that I competitive. It allowed me to received, competing this upcoming succeed in ways I could have never season had become a possibility.