Sister Lesley Sacouman, co-founder of Rossbrook House, speaks after receiving her honorary doctorate.
Compassion for patients, dignity for all celebrated at Medicine Convocation
A Catholic nun who has dedicated her life to helping vulnerable and marginalized people called on UM’s newest class of graduating doctors to “see the person” in every patient and recognize that we are all interconnected.
“We are the sum of all our relations,” Sister Lesley Sacouman told the Max Rady College of Medicine Class of 2025 at Spring Convocation on the morning of May 15. “We are one – one spirit, one body, one song.”
Sacouman received an honorary doctor of laws degree from UM for her leadership and devotion to the dignity of all, and for embodying the values of justice, equity, compassion and hope.
In accepting the honour, she paid tribute to the bravery and resilience of her “lifelong teachers,” the Winnipeg children, youth and women who have “made her rich” as she has worked to give them sanctuary.
In the 1970s, Sacouman co-founded Rossbrook House, a safe place for children and youth in Winnipeg’s inner city. She has also helped to establish an educational and employment training program for Indigenous youth, a home for women recovering from addiction, and housing for newcomer women and children.
At the Convocation ceremony in the Brodie Centre on the Bannatyne campus, Sacouman shared a story of being at her brother’s bedside as he neared the end of life in a Nova Scotia hospital. There, she witnessed the compassion of a doctor who took the time to connect with the dying man about his passion for the Winnipeg Jets.
“He not only practised good medicine, he was good medicine,” she said about the physician. “He didn’t see the disease. He saw the person.”
The Medicine Class of 2025 included 101 graduates. Of these, 75 will undertake their residencies in Manitoba. The class included 13 students of Indigenous ancestry and one French-speaking student who was in the college’s bilingual stream. Thirty-three members of the graduating class have rural attributes.
Dr. Angela Zwaagstra
One student with a rural background, Dr. Angela Zwaagstra, is a 42-year-old mother of four teenage and young-adult children who drove in from Steinbach every day for medical school.
Zwaagstra overcame the challenges of growing up in foster care and went back to school in her 30s, determined to become a physician.
“I wanted to use my skills to help people,” she said. “For anyone who’s out there thinking, ‘I’m too old, or I’m from a bad background, or I’m from a small town,’ that doesn’t matter. You can go and accomplish amazing things.”
Zwaagstra received the Katherine Klassen Memorial Award for her compassion, humanism and patient-centred approach to care. Her goal is to practise as a family doctor in Steinbach.
During the graduation ceremony, “there was a point where I almost cried, when they were calling us doctors for the first time,” she said. “It’s just mind-blowing and humbling and honouring and wonderful and exciting, all at once.”
Dr. Abigail Meadows
Dr. Abigail Meadows, 27, is a Métis grad from Winnipeg who is passionate about Indigenous health.
“When Sister Lesley talked about her experiences, what she’s done and her experience with her brother, I found that really impactful and inspiring,” Meadows said.
Meadows will do her UM residency in psychiatry, with an interest in addictions. “I want to address health disparities and advocate for people to feel heard and have autonomy over their health,” she said.
Dr. Emmit Hameed
Dr. Emmit Hameed, 25, also grew up in Winnipeg. After serving in student leadership roles during medical school, he is headed for a UM residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation, aiming to help patients recover from brain injury, spinal cord injury or stroke.
“Being a physician — somebody patients can turn to when they’re struggling or in their darkest times — is a big privilege,” Hameed said. “It’s a way that I can use my skills in the service of humanity.”
Watch an Instagram reel recapping Medicine Convocation.