Colette Lepage (BEng’99) woke up with a sense of dread on the morning of May 11, 2009. The Space Shuttle Atlantis was preparing to blast into space for the final servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope and Colette – a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engineer – would be there for the launch at the Kennedy Space Center.

“We’d lost two shuttles already,” she says, “so we could have lost all of our hardware and watched seven people die.” The Lakehead chemical engineering grad had been in the shuttle bay with the astronauts in the days leading up to the countdown “inspecting practically every centimetre of the hardware for contamination.”

Colette’s path to joining NASA’s team wasn’t the usual one. She is a small-town Canadian girl whose curiosity about the universe was sparked by the clear night skies over the outskirts of Sudbury, Ontario, where she grew up.

Not only did she finish her degree, Colette soon landed a job as a control contamination engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. By the time of the Hubble mission, she was managing one of the largest clean rooms in the world – the Spacecraft Systems Development and Integration Facility (SSDIF) – which keeps airborne and molecular contaminants away from aerospace components during assembly and testing.

Then from 2009 to 2017, Colette was part of a team of international scientists constructing the largest telescope ever built – the James Webb Space Telescope. “It will look back in time to capture the first light after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.” Colette, who’s now working as a NASA consultant, may be travelling to South America to support the telescope launch in 2019.

The James Webb will change how we understand the universe. Reflecting on her own experiences, Colette says, “Nothing about my life is what you would expect. I’ve learned that you never know how things will turn out, so just keep trying.”

View the Webb Telescope Milestone: Completion of Telescope Element Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ybe4yr2no

Last summer, Jason Epp (BEng’15, Electrical) descended 700 feet into the Atlantic Ocean to document a World War II battlefield that had never been seen by the human eye.

An embedded systems developer at 2G Robotics in Waterloo, Ontario, the Lakehead alumnus was part of a team of scientists and explorers assembled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Together, they embarked on a 15-day expedition surveying WWII shipwrecks lost in the Battle of the Atlantic. Watch the expedition highlights (2:02 runtime)

“It was the first time I’d physically gone underwater in a submersible,” Jason says. “Generally our underwater laser scanner systems integrate with remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and we’re in a command centre running our instruments from the surface – you aren’t actually sitting in a submarine exploring the ocean floor.”

The Battle of the Atlantic was a protracted naval campaign that changed the course of the war. The Allies blockaded Germany and the Germans retaliated by blockading Europe. One skirmish in the six-year battle took place in July 1942 when a convoy of Allied merchant ships bringing supplies to England was targeted by a German submarine off the coast of North Carolina. It torpedoed the freighter SS Bluefields before being destroyed by a depth charge.

Pictured right:  the two-person submersible that alum Jason Epp boarded last summer to survey shipwrecks can travel up to 20 km per hour and can stay underwater for 10 hours.

“Seeing the battlefield was surreal,” Jason says. “Because of the Gulf Stream, we had to descend in the submersible several hundred metres from the site. As we made our way closer to the wreck, we started seeing more and more fish, and then all of a sudden the U-576 submarine came into view. It was covered in barnacles and stood five metres off the bottom and you could see the whole hull from bow to stern.” Although weather challenges cut the mission short, it was an exhilarating experience for the amateur scuba diver.

Documenting the historic and ecological significance of the wrecks is just one highlight in Jason’s career. His job with 2G Robotics has taken him around the world, operating equipment on projects in Finland, the Netherlands, the United States, Norway, and even the Baltic Sea.

Originally from Ayr, Ontario, Jason enrolled in Lakehead’s electrical engineering program in September 2013. He’d already earned a diploma in electronics engineering technology from Conestoga College and was employed as an engineering technician at BlackBerry.

“I’d heard that Lakehead’s engineering faculty offered a college transfer option as part of their degree program,” Jason says. “Much of the department I was working in at Blackberry was disappearing, so it seemed like the right time to challenge myself further.”

The control systems engineering classes taught by Professor Abdelhamid Tayebi piqued his interest in robotics and within months of graduating with first class standing, Jason was hired by 2G Robotics. “No two days are ever the same,” he says. “The work never gets stale.”

For more details on the expedition click here.

Stephanie Seymour’s (MSCF'16) mother likes to tell her, “We gave you roots but we also gave you wings.” It’s advice that’s served Stephanie well. In July 2017, the Lakehead PhD student embarked on a career in natural resources. She now works for the Toronto branch of Ontario Power Generation (OPG) as a management and professional trainee in the Indigenous Relations Department.

Stephanie’s affinity for the outdoors emerged early in her life. A member of the Garden River First Nation, she grew up on St. Joseph Island – a small community about a 45-minute drive from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. “I spent most of my time in the bush hiking, camping, and hunting,” she says.

When Stephanie finished high school, she had some clear ideas about her future. “I knew that I wanted to work with Indigenous communities – especially in forestry.” In 2007, she took field naturalist courses at Sault College and completed a Forestry Technician diploma at Fleming College, but this would be just the first leg of her educational journey.

Stephanie then went to the University of New Brunswick and earned a Bachelor of Science in Forestry in 2013 before enrolling in Lakehead University’s Master of Science in Forestry program. She was attracted to Lakehead by the reputation of Professor Peggy Smith, who would become Stephanie’s thesis supervisor. “Peggy took me under her wing and encouraged me to persevere and grow as a young Indigenous professional,” she explains.

In December 2015, Stephanie received her master’s degree and entered Lakehead’s natural resources management PhD program. “Everywhere I went, I found a friendly face and support when I needed it. My Lakehead experience was exceptional!”

For her master’s thesis, Stephanie took the lead on a green energy research project, specifically, ways to reduce diesel consumption in small northern communities. “These places still rely on diesel-generated electricity to power their homes and offices,” she says, “which is a costly energy source that pollutes the environment.” Stephanie explored the feasibility of switching to biomass fuel – wood waste left over from the processing of pulp and paper products. Her work would garner her the 2016 Student Researcher of the Year award from the Biomass North Development Centre.

Stephanie combined her challenging academic schedule with volunteer work. One of the highlights was reaching out to young people through Lakehead’s Aboriginal Mentorship Program (AMP). “AMP increases Northwestern Ontario high school students’ interest in science and exposes them to educational and career paths,” she says. “I enjoyed watching students tackle science experiments and motivational challenges and seeing all the ideas they came up with – ideas I hadn’t even thought about!”

Now that Stephanie has launched her OPG career, she is excited to have an active role in stewarding Ontario’s resources and promoting sustainable energy solutions. “As a society, our values are constantly shifting and evolving. It can make managing natural resources and planning for future resource use a fascinating and dynamic landscape.”

Stephanie also has ambitions in the realm of policymaking. “I’d like to be the first Indigenous minister of natural resources and forests – we haven’t had one yet.”

In 2015, Stephanie was a speaker at an international conference hosted by Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo (ESPOCH) - a public university in Riobamba, Ecuador. The conference focused on resource development and the challenges and opportunities it presents for communities across the globe. This photo was taken on "The Devil's Nose" train trip - a stretch of the Trans-Andean rail line that climbs more than 500 meters in less than 12 km with steep ascents and descents. The excursion gave Stephanie a hands-on experience of responsible tourism that supports local communities and showcases local culture.

In 2015, Stephanie was a speaker at an international conference hosted by Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo (ESPOCH) – a public university in Riobamba, Ecuador. The conference focused on resource development and the challenges and opportunities it presents for communities across the globe. This photo was taken on “The Devil’s Nose” train trip – a stretch of the Trans-Andean rail line that climbs more than 500 meters in less than 12 km. The excursion gave Stephanie a hands-on experience of responsible tourism that supports local communities and showcases local culture. 

To find out more about Stephanie, check out this video interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=344&v=eVc7fVej7d0

Combining careers in medicine and the military has allowed Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Nugent to chart his own course and help fellow Canadians. Nathan joined the City of Belleville’s military reserve 25 years ago as an eager 18-year-old and he’s never looked back. “I enjoyed the camaraderie and being outdoors – it was an adventure. I was paid to go out with my friends on training exercises.”

Since then, Nathan has been a nurse in remote First Nations communities, served as the flight surgeon for the Snowbirds Air Demonstration Squadron, and participated in the medical screening of aspiring Canadian astronauts. “People are surprised when I tell them that – from a medical perspective – screening astronauts isn’t that challenging. The applicants are all extremely healthy.”

In 2015, Nathan was promoted to Head of the School of Operational Medicine (SOM) with the Canadian Forces Environmental Medicine Establishment. SOM trains flight surgeons – specialized medical military officers responsible for the health of pilots and air and ground crew on Canadian Air Force bases. Flight surgeons (who are doctors, but not necessarily surgeons) are responsible for preventing and treating health 
issues so that aviation personnel can perform at the highest level.

Nathan’s interest in medicine was triggered by a childhood spent struggling with debilitating asthma attacks. “I spent a lot of time in oxygen tents and I missed a lot of school,” he says. Determined to overcome this setback, Nathan became a high school track and field athlete obsessed with fitness and preventative medicine.

When he looked to doctors, however, for wellness strategies to cope with his asthma and sports injuries and to optimize his health and performance, Nathan ran into a brick wall. “The GPs didn’t know why I was there. Their medical model was centred on “health” being simply the absence of disease.” He discovered that nurses were more aware and helpful, prompting him to complete a nursing diploma at Loyalist College and then earn his Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Lakehead.

“Lakehead offered many electives related to First Nations and I was attracted to that more holistic approach to health,” Nathan explains. “I also knew that there was a pressing need for health care in these communities.”

He finished the RN program while working as a nurse at the Pikangikum First Nation on a Health Canada placement. “For a time, it was just myself and one other nurse, even though it was a six-nurse station. Lakehead prepared me for those challenges.”

Wanting to delve deeper into health promotion and illness prevention, Nathan took on a Heart Health Coordinator position at a Belleville health unit. From there he went on to earn a medical doctorate from McMaster University and a specialization in Family Medicine from Queen’s University. During medical school and residency, he had the opportunity to return to Northwestern Ontario for a number of community placements and electives. Through the Canadian Forces, he had the opportunity to obtain a Master of Public Health at the University of West Florida followed by an Aerospace Medicine residency with the U.S. Navy.

Nathan got into the aviation medicine field by chance. “There was an opening at the Cold Lake Air Force Base where Canada trains our F-18 pilots and I jumped at it.” To care for air crew, he first had to become trained as a Flight Surgeon. “If we have a pilot flying an F-18, with health issues – or even effected by something as seemingly benign as dehydration and their concentration and coordination is off – it can really impact the mission. They may be flying with bombs or doing air to air refuelling over the Atlantic Ocean.”

Nathan continues to push his own limits. He likes the idea of going on a UN relief mission to Africa or working in Iraq. When his military career is over, he plans to continue to have an impact on society as a family doctor or as a medical officer of health. “Officers of health are at the forefront of educating the public on health promotion and illness prevention issues, such as strategies to address the opioid crisis. These are the issues that really look at optimizing people’s health and that appeals to me.”

It wasn’t long ago that Andrew Petras (HBComm’13) was sitting in a lecture theatre learning about the fundamentals of economics.

In five short years, Andrew has made a name for himself in the financial world, becoming one of the youngest financial consultants in Canada to achieve the designations Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU). He spends his days handling large sums of money and generating substantial revenues for clients as a certified financial planner with Investors Group in Barrie, Ontario.

“Being responsible for a person’s retirement fund, estate, or personal wealth is a huge responsibility,” he explains. “It was also my motivation to achieve the gold standard within the industry.”

As a teenager, Andrew, a native of Simcoe County, wanted nothing more than to leave home at the end of high school. As the time came to decide on a university, Andrew and his family made the 30-minute drive from Innisfil to Orillia for March Break Open House at Lakehead’s Orillia campus. They left with a different perspective of Lakehead University.

“I was leaving my meeting with the chair of the business department when she handed me her business card with her cell number and said, ‘If you have any questions give me a call,’” he recalls.

A reassuring gesture for a 17-year-old trying to make such a significant decision, and an encounter that conveyed an unspoken commitment from faculty and staff to helping the university grow and be successful. “I knew that there were going to be growing pains coming to Lakehead Orillia, but I looked at it as an opportunity to put my footprint on the campus,” he said.

After graduating from Lakehead in 2013, Andrew put that tenacity and commitment into his own career. Today, he is managing a growing business with over 200 clients in Simcoe County.

Like many alumni, Andrew credits extracurricular involvement as contributing to his success. “I liked being able to have an impact on developing the Orillia campus. I helped start the Business Orillia Student Society (BOSS) club and had the opportunity to play on the men’s soccer team. Because Lakehead Orillia was such a new school, as a student I had the opportunity to develop and participate in clubs and activities.”

It was also an opportunity to build relationships with instructors and professors that would be of benefit once he left Lakehead. Not to mention that he met his own employer during a Lakehead networking event. “It’s definitely my No. 1 piece of advice to students currently at Lakehead: Put yourself out there, build relationships! Your name and reputation are important, and so are the relationships that you build at university and within the industry. You never know what’s going to come of a relationship, but maintaining it is very important.”

Marina Rupcic (née Mesic) grew up watching the soap opera The Young and the Restless with her grandmother. Marina’s favourite character, the glamourous Ashley Abbott, worked in the lab of her family’s company – Jabot Cosmetics – creating luxury perfumes and makeup. The show sparked a lasting fascination in the young girl from Thunder Bay.

Today, Marina is an R&D cosmetic chemist with famed makeup giant Estée Lauder and works in their M•A•C cosmetics division in Toronto. “Estée Lauder has always been my dream company – it’s not just a brand, it’s more of a feeling,” she says. “My mom used Estée Lauder and I spent a lot of time at that cosmetic counter.”

Marina’s family sometimes played an active role in her early chemistry experiments. “I loved to make potions – concoctions of salt and pepper. I would pretend that I was healing my uncle.” In high school, Marina became obsessed with creams and perfumes, mixing her mother’s mousses together and slathering them in her hair. “That’s probably why my hair was always knotted.”

High school chemistry courses cemented Marina’s attraction to this field and led her to study chemistry at Lakehead, giving her access to real laboratories for the first time.

A major turning point happened the day Marina asked her favourite professor, Dr. Christine Gottardo, if cosmetic chemistry actually existed. Professor Gottardo promptly gave Marina an overview of the R & D and quality assurance processes that go on at big cosmetics companies. She also steered the budding chemist towards what had seemed like an improbable career by helping Marina search for cosmetic chemistry graduate programs.

Marina successfully applied to ISIPCA (Institut supérieur international du parfum, de la cosmétique et de l’aromatique alimentaire) – a partnership between the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in France and the University of Padova in Italy.

She headed off to France in 2014 to earn a European Fragrance and Cosmetic Master degree followed by a Master of Business and Management degree (specific to the perfumery and cosmetic industry) in Italy.

Marina was impressed not only by the excellence of her programs, but also by Europeans’ approach to life. “It was very cool – they have a different mentality,” she says. “When you eat, you sit down and respect that time. Even though it’s not rushed there, there is time for everything.”

Since completing an internship at Nature Soap and Spa in Winnipeg and graduating in December 2016, Marina has gotten married, moved to Toronto, and landed her dream job at Estée Lauder after months of diligent online searching.

Marina has been on the M•A•C lip products team for almost a year now and she’s still euphoric. “I love bringing something to life and watching the reactions of excited consumers to a product our team has created. MAC lipsticks are the #1 best sellers in Canada – there’s a reason for that.”

Thunder Bay firefighter Stephanie Drost never lets the grass grow under her feet. “Even as a kid, I was very active,” she says. “I was a competitive cross-country skier from the age of seven.” Stephanie competed provincially and nationally and then as a member of Lakehead University’s cross-country ski team. She combined her studies in kinesiology, and later business, with a gruelling race schedule.

It all came to a sudden halt in her second year. The intensive training caused nerve damage to Stephanie’s elbow (she’d broken it in a childhood trampoline accident and it had never fully healed) that required surgery followed by a long recovery period. This setback wasn’t the devastating blow it might have been to another athlete. “It was a blessing in disguise,” Stephanie says. “The injury led me to firefighting by giving me the time to pursue other things.”

At the encouragement of friends working for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, she got a job as a forest firefighter in Dryden, Ontario, and began spending her summer breaks battling wildfires. After her third year at Lakehead, though, Stephanie was still searching for the right path to take. By chance, she heard about a three-month structural firefighting course offered by Texas A&M University.

It seemed like fate when she returned from Texas with her certification in April 2015 and discovered that the City of Thunder Bay Fire Department (TBFD) was hiring. Stephanie passed the written TBFD test and began preparing for the physical test – which is the same for male and female candidates and one of the most demanding in the country. “The toughest part for me was the stair challenge,” Stephanie says. It required her to wear ankle weights and a 50-pound vest while running up and down three storeys, three times in a row, carrying a weighted 85-pound hose.

Stephanie passed the physical test with flying colours and so did Ceilidh Boyd, a forest firefighter she’d met while working in Dryden. In 2016, the two women became the first female firefighters ever hired by the City of Thunder Bay.

“I was really fortunate to go through training with Ceilidh,” Stephanie says. “The guys were very welcoming but it’s intimidating anytime you start something unknown, so it was good to start with a friend.”

Stephanie hasn’t looked back since joining the Thunder Bay Fire Department. “I’ve never felt like I was so much in the right spot before. I love the different situations firefighting throws you in and the adrenaline rush it gives you. When people think about firefighters, they think about fires and rescuing cats, but we literally go to everything – car accidents, medical calls, fires, public assists.”

She also enjoys working with police officers and paramedics. “We all come together to help someone in trouble. I see people on their worst days. Knowing that you can help them – even if you’re just comforting them – is so rewarding.”

Even when she’s not firefighting, Stephanie doesn’t slow down. She and two friends opened a strength and conditioning gym called Industrial Athletics in 2017. It’s been so popular that they had to expand a few months after it launched.

Despite Stephanie’s innate grit and resolve, she says she couldn’t have gotten to where she is without her parents. “My mom and dad are very supportive. When I told them I wanted to be a firefighter, they didn’t question my decision. They just said, ‘Go for it Steph.’”

Photo credit: Della Robbins

In the unforgiving North Atlantic, the hulking wreckage of the Titanic rusts in gloomy silence on the ocean floor. Until 1991, no one – except a handful of scientists – had seen the ‘unsinkable’ ocean liner since it collided with an iceberg and disappeared into the frigid waters.

That all changed when Lakehead grad and documentary filmmaker Stephen Low (BA’74) released his feature-length IMAX® film – Titanica. Stephen took moviegoers along with him as he and his expedition team descended 12,500 feet before reaching the once splendid ship. “More people have gone into space than into the deep ocean,” Stephen says.

IMAX® is the largest film format in existence and it enables audiences to be fully immersed in previously hidden worlds. Capturing the spectacular scenes that set IMAX® documentaries apart demands ingenuity, persistence, and courage.

“We’re not working on a set, we’re working in real environments,” Stephen points out. “On the way to the Titanic, we were caught in gale force seas and later on we were actually trapped inside the vessel. Many of my contemporaries – documentary directors and cameramen – have died making their films.”

Every IMAX® movie Stephen has directed pushes him to develop new technologies to capture the images he wants and overcome the challenges of extremely heavy cameras. In the case of the Titanic, Stephen’s team designed a lighting system that illuminated an area the size of a football field. “James Cameron used our film as the model for his famous Hollywood film, Titanic,” he says. Stephen was also pivotal in developing 3D IMAX® techniques, beginning with his film The Last Buffalo.

“We’re not working on a set, we’re working in real environments.”

In 1998, Stephen once again headed into the abyss for his film Volcanoes of the Deep Sea (2003). His destinations were the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East Pacific Rise at the bottom of the world’s two largest oceans – inhospitable and strange realms populated by giant tubeworms and luminescent shrimp that live along hydrothermal vents spewing toxic black chemicals.

Stephen hasn’t confined his explorations to the water - he’s also strapped audiences into an Indy 500 car, taken them on a breathtaking steam engine journey across Canada, and traced humans’ attempts to soar into the heavens in Legends of Flight. Right now, he’s working with sub-atomic particle physicists unravelling the mysteries of the universe at Switzerland’s CERN Large Hadron Collider.

“I’ve met astronauts, fighter pilots, Russian submariners, scientists of all kinds, the Rolling Stones, and Jane Goodall, to name a few,” Stephen says. “It’s been marvellous.” And because of his films, millions of moviegoers have met them too.

Read more stories about fascinating people and discover how our students, researchers, and over 63,000 Alumni in 97 countries are opening the world. Visit Lakehead’s 2017-18 Annual Report at openyourworld.ca

The Trolley trailer:

https://player.vimeo.com/external/223846080.hd.mp4?s=122f09b66805e4dfbb7...

Volcanoes of the Deep Sea Trailer:

http://www.stephenlow.com/project/volcanoes-of-the-deep-sea/

A few years ago, any international student arriving at Lakehead Orillia had a very different university experience than they do now. Their homesickness was intensified because there were almost no other overseas students on campus.

Things began to change when Bolu Fabanwo decided to do his commerce degree at Lakehead. “I’ve been fascinated by banking since I was a little kid,” he says. “My parents hoped I’d be a chemical engineer like my dad – he worked for a large oil company – but I’d made up my mind.”

The autumn day Bolu stepped out of a taxi and onto Orillia’s campus, though, was a shock. “I didn’t realize Lakehead was in the countryside. I wasn’t used to such a small population – my hometown of Lagos, Nigeria, has over 20 million people.”

He felt an overwhelming loneliness. Then, as he sat in the silence of his dorm room, his roommate Eric knocked on the door and introduced himself and his parents before taking Bolu around the entire floor to meet the rest of the students. “I became friends with them all,” Bolu says. “That wouldn’t have happened if I’d gone to university in Toronto.”

Once he started making friends, Bolu began transforming the culture of the campus. “He possesses great empathy for anyone who feels alone, judged, or out of place,” says Katie Fraser, international engagement specialist.

“I used to be shy but now I go out of my way to connect with people.”

He helped get the University’s varsity soccer team off the ground and while in his first year, the outgoing president of the Lakehead University Multicultural Association (LUMA) approached Bolu about becoming the new president. Under Bolu’s leadership – and with the hard work of the executive team – LUMA grew from four members to 39 members.

He also inaugurated a multicultural day that soon expanded into a multicultural week. Strolling through campus, students, staff, and professors enjoyed chai tea, got henna tattoos, and sampled snacks from different countries. The vibrant atmosphere fostered greater pride in Lakehead Orillia. “Being an international student at Lakehead changed my life,” Bolu says. “I used to be shy but now I go out of my way to connect with people.”

Bolu continues to be a force to be reckoned with. He’s planning to do a master’s in finance and some job opportunities have come his way. One, at a local bank, is a chance to fulfil his childhood dream. “I’d start at the bottom and work my way up.”

Read more stories about fascinating people and discover how our students, researchers, and over 63,000 Alumni in 97 countries are opening the world. Visit Lakehead’s 2017-18 Annual Report at openyourworld.ca

A high school co-op at a Thunder Bay radio station turned out to be the first step on a journey that’s taken 24-year-old Matt Pascuzzo to the Prime Minister’s Office.

The co-op gave the aspiring journalist the chance to cover city council news. “It really opened my eyes to how much politics affects everybody’s daily life,” Matt explains. It was there that he first met Patty Hajdu, now the MP for the Thunder Bay—Superior North riding and the Minister of Employment, Workforce, and Labour.

“Patty came to council when she was the director of Shelter House,” Matt says, “She had practical solutions to problems like homelessness and poverty.

A few years later, Hajdu was running as a candidate in the 2015 federal election and Matt was a second-year Lakehead student majoring in political science and minoring in Indigenous studies. He was also becoming an active member of the Liberal Party, prompting Hajdu to ask him to be her youth director.

Pictured right:  Matt Pascuzzo is one of three press secretaries in the Prime Minister's Office. "It's very high pressure because you are in the epicentre of federal decisions," he says. "My first email comes in about 6 am and then I read through the daily newspaper clippings."“I decided that I could sit on the sidelines and criticize or get in the middle and make a difference,” Matt recalls.

He excelled in his role and was promoted to campaign director. “I’d go to class in the morning, then go door knocking for the campaign, go back to school, eat supper, and go door knocking again.”

It was a lot to take on, but Matt’s mother Carol, a vice-principal, and his father John, Lakehead University’s AQ and PQP Education Manager, were supportive – although a little nervous.

“Throughout the time leading up to the election,” explains Carol, “Minister Hajdu would say to us, ‘When I go I’m taking him with me,’ and we would respond, ‘Well, he has to finish school.’”

When Patty Hajdu won her seat and was appointed the Minister of Status of Women, Matt moved to Ottawa as her executive assistant. A year later, he became her press secretary. “Working on Parliament Hill is exciting,” Matt says. “Regardless of your political affiliation, people are trying to do the right thing for their communities.” He also kept his promise to his parents and finished his degree by taking online courses.

Everything changed again in 2018 when he was recruited as a press secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office. “Matt asked if we would look over his résumé but never mentioned why,” his father says. “When he told us he’d secured a position in the Prime Minister’s Office we were extremely surprised and ecstatic.”

How does Matt handle the pressure? He follows the top two rules of being a staffer – eat when you can and sleep when you can. “It’s an incredible opportunity,” he says, “especially when we travel across the country. People are genuinely excited when the prime minister visits their town, even if they disagree with him.”

Matt feels honoured that his career is allowing him to witness watershed moments in Canadian history – including the G20 summit in Argentina where the NAFTA trade bill was signed. “It was a surreal experience being with the world leaders of the 20 largest economies in the world.”

Pictured below: On March 22, Matt returned to Lakehead University for a town hall with Prime Minister Trudeau. “My family was excited that they had the chance to meet the Prime Minister,” Matt says, “especially since they helped out on the 2015 election campaign.”​

 Pictured left:  On March 22, Matt returned to Lakehead   University for a town hall with Prime Minister Trudeau. “My   family was excited that they had the chance to meet the Prime   Minister,” Matt says, “especially since they helped out on the   2015 election campaign.”​