Wintana Mokonnen was 17 when she first heard the term “respiratory therapy” (RT) while volunteering at Health Sciences Centre (HSC). Today, at 21, she is a passionate advocate for the field that she’s chosen. 

A second-year RT student at the College of Rehabilitation Sciences in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, Mokonnen runs a student Instagram page for the program, with help from some first-year students, to “spread the word” about the profession. 

She also works at HSC’s Women’s and Children’s hospitals as an RT assistant, a role that was created for students during the COVID pandemic to address the need for more respiratory therapists.