Embracing the pivot, scholarship winner shifts from medication to legislation | Information

Kate Bartel was going to be a physician. 

She excelled in her sciences programs in highschool, went to Queen’s College to pursue an undergrad diploma in life sciences, and even wrote the MCAT. 

Then the pandemic hit, and life was confined to the partitions of her home again in Calgary. Bartel discovered herself with lots of time to assume. And she or he began to surprise if she was on the best path. 

“I began questioning if medication was what I truly wished to do, or if it was simply the following step within the funnel as a result of I’m good at science and was drawn to the perceived status of the occupation,” explains Bartel.

“Plus, my mother is a lawyer, so I’ve had extra publicity to the authorized occupation than the medical occupation and had skilled what an fascinating and rewarding profession legislation may be,” she provides.

With motives shifting, Bartel took a philosophy of legislation course in her third yr. She beloved each facet of the course — studying the circumstances, the vital considering — and confirmed that she was extra excited about legislation than medication. 

She wrote the LSAT the summer time of third yr, whereas additionally volunteering as a analysis assistant for Dr. Ranita Manocha, MD, at UCalgary’s Higher Mobility Lab serving to on a scientific assessment analyzing secondary accidents ensuing from using strolling aids. 

First-year legislation pupil Kate Bartel has returned house to pursue legislation faculty

Kate Bartel

Open home helped make choice

Regardless of the obvious path to a profession in medication, Bartel utilized to 4 legislation faculties in Ontario and Alberta. She attended UCalgary Regulation’s Dean’s Open Home for Admitted College students in March and preferred what she heard.

“The small class sizes, the close-knit courses, the good professors — everybody was pleasant and had nothing dangerous to say about UCalgary Regulation.

“Even with the open home being on-line, UCalgary Regulation felt open and approachable, that it will be a group the place I’d really feel welcomed. That was totally different than the opposite legislation faculties I utilized to.”

Campus chief winner of legislation faculty’s greatest scholarship

Bartel is the 2022 winner of the Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP Entrance Scholarship, a renewable scholarship price $20,000 for annually of her authorized research. 

“I acquired the discover in early summer time that I gained the scholarship. I used to be at work, and I instantly known as my mother. She cried, I cried,” she says. “It’s arduous to fathom the sheer measurement and worth of the scholarship and the way a lot meaning to have the ability to attend legislation faculty with out debt, to have the ability to begin a profession with out that burden.

“It’s validation that I’ll be okay, that coming from a science background, and never having a lifelong dream of being a lawyer, that I’ll succeed.” 

Along with educational benefit, the scholarship is awarded to somebody who demonstrates group management.

For Bartel, that management got here as a volunteer with Pupil Educational Success Companies at Queen’s. This system facilitates workshops for college students on educational success, a program she used herself in her first yr. 

“It’s so nice to see first-year college students depart a workshop barely much less terrified than after they got here in, and I bear in mind having that feeling as effectively.”

Kate Bartel spent this previous summer time working for Gear Up!, a social enterprise that promotes sustainable transportation by promoting inexpensive used bicycles.

Kate Bartel

Bartel spent this previous summer time working for Cycle Kingston, as this system supervisor for Gear Up! Recycled Bikes. Gear Up! is a social enterprise that promotes sustainable transportation by promoting inexpensive used bicycles. The group additionally employs a number of of Kingston’s youth of their first jobs, giving them useful work expertise early on. 

“I like the group and its mission, so I used to be excited to affix the workforce for the summer time. It was my first time in a managerial place, and I loved doing one thing I wasn’t accustomed to whereas supporting the younger staff and seeing their confidence develop over the summer time,” Bartel says.

Excited for legislation faculty expertise

For Bartel, beginning at UCalgary Regulation additionally marks a return to the town the place she was born and raised, with a useful assist community. Whereas she doesn’t know but what kind of legislation she desires to practise, there’s a standard thread all through her journey. 

“If I might do one thing that makes use of my science background not directly could be great, however I don’t know what that appears like but.”

Whereas figuring it out, she’s wanting ahead to the entire expertise.

“I’m excited to get into it and absolutely immersed,” she says with an enormous grin. “Regulation faculty might be totally different from my undergrad, however in a great way, and I can’t wait to begin.”