Business Grad Rechal Parmar is Always Ready to Rise to a Challenge

Rechal Parmar, an Honours Bachelor of Commerce student, has been a formidable presence on campus since arriving at Lakehead Orillia four years ago.

During that time, she's evolved into a leader that fellow students can reach out to for support and encouragement.

"When I started my degree, I was more drawn to accounting, but I now plan to make human resources my major focus because I like to solve people-centric challenges," Rechal says.

"I've always loved community work, but hearing the phrase 'When your community grows, you grow,' gave me a new purpose!" she says.

"It became my motivation for doing more campus work and volunteering."

Rechal's diverse contributions have earned her the 2026 Lloyd Dennis Award for Outstanding Citizenship.

"Being recognized for what I've done for the Lakehead and Orillia communities really means a lot to me—it shows that I belong here and that I'm valued," she says.

"I'm always keen to collaborate and make a difference."

A Natural Entrepreneur

For Rechal, coming to Lakehead presented a steep learning curve.

"English is my second language and I'm from a small town in India where the culture is very different from Canada's," she explains.

Rechal with her parents and her brother. Rechal's parents were a big influence on her decision to earn an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree.

Despite these seismic changes, Rechal found her footing with the help of a Lakehead International (LUI) peer mentor.

"My mentor really had an impact on me," she says. "She made me feel at home."

With her growing confidence, Rechal joined Enactus Lakehead—part of a global network of Enactus clubs that empower youth leaders to create positive change through entrepreneurship.

"Enactus allows college and university entrepreneurs to pitch their business proposals to companies," she says.

As co-president of the Lakehead Enactus Social Entrepreneurship Club, she and her fellow Enactus members applied their commerce skills outside the classroom to help Simcoe County businesses.

A Friend You Can Count On

On campus, Rechal fostered an appreciation of Indian and American culture through annual presentations at the Welcome the World Fair and became a warm and welcoming face as the president of Lakehead University Christian Fellowship Club.

Rechal spent one semester as an exchange student in Indianapolis, Indiana, while attending Lakehead.  

But perhaps the moment she knew she was truly an integral part of campus life happened in her second year.

"A LUI staff member asked me to become a peer mentor," Rechal says. "Now, it was my turn to help international students adjust to university and navigate cultural differences," she says.

"I also helped students with practical things like how to use the transit system and shop at grocery stores."

Getting Ready to Fly

As Rechal's graduation day approaches, she's already jumped feet first into the world of commerce.

She's doing an internship at an Orillia camping centre where she is busy learning different aspects of the business.

"Although I've completed four years of university, I still have so much more to learn," Rechal says.

When her placement ends in October, she'll return to her hometown—where her love of business was born—to begin charting her future. "My parents have owned a trading and metal manufacturing company since I was a child," she says.

"My dream career path is to build a purpose-driven business that aligns with my Christian faith and values," she adds.

Rechal is also reflecting on the academic and campus experiences she's had, and the foundation they've given her to succeed.

In the end, she says it's the people who've had the greatest impact on her.

"What has stood out most is the warmth of the university community and their willingness to help. That's a big advantage of studying at Lakehead."

Rechal shows her Lakehead spirit by wishing Wolfie a happy birthday.

She urges other graduating students to tap into this community and not go it alone.

"You have this fantastic support network that you can always rely on.

Once a Thunderwolf, always a Thunderwolf!"

The Lloyd Dennis Award for Outstanding Citizenship is presented to a full-time student at the Orillia campus to recognize their contributions to the welfare of the university. The award is named in honour of the late Lloyd Dennis, an Officer of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario as well as a highly respected educator and proponent for the creation of the Lakehead Orillia campus.

This Gifted Scientist and Artist Loves Unlocking their Mysteries

A YouTube video changed Kate Solbakk's life.

"The 'Story of Stuff' documentary exposed society's cycle of buying stuff and throwing it away and then buying more stuff and throwing it away," explains Kate (HBASc'14).

"As I was becoming a young adult, I didn't want to participate in that destructive loop.

Plus, I've always loved nature. I spent my childhood catching frogs and minnows, so learning that the animals I loved were under threat made me want to protect them."

Kate grew up on a vegetable farm in Simcoe County, now she lives on a hobby farm with chickens outside the town of Drangedal in Norway.

A Young Environmentalist Finds Her Calling

Armed with this resolve, she joined the first group of students in Lakehead Orillia's Honours Bachelor of Arts and Science in Environmental Sustainability program.

When this degree launched in 2010—the year Kate enrolled—it was the first of its kind in Canada.

"There were just six students, which made us feel like collaborators," she says. "The faculty were always asking what we thought of various aspects of the program."

"I became fascinated with the incredible diversity of protozoa," says Kate Solbakk (née Weel). "They play beneficial roles in many ecosystems including encouraging plant growth, promoting soil formation, and stimulating plants' defense mechanisms to protect them against disease. Artwork Credit: Kate Solbakk

It was through her Lakehead studies that Kate found her professional path.

She was hired as a work-study research assistant for a project led by environmental sustainability professors Dr. Sree Kurissery and Dr. Nanda Kanavillil.

Her job was to analyze microscopic organisms in Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching.

"That's where I fell in love with protozoa—the charismatic megafauna of the single-celled world," Kate says. "They do all the things that animals do, but with just one cell."

An Adventure in Norway

The end of her third year at Lakehead marked another turning point for Kate.

It happened in Norway, where she'd travelled to visit her now-husband.

"While we were walking around a farmer's market at the Bygdøy Royal Farm in Oslo, I saw microscopes and a poster of protozoa in a display for the VitalAnalyse research company," she recalls.

VitalAnalyse studied how human activity affected microorganisms in agricultural soil. Their goal was to develop better fertilizers to feed the soil and prevent it from being depleted.

Kate became the only scientist in northern Europe doing microscopy to help farmers and researchers understand agricultural soil ecology.

"I asked if they needed help for the summer and they hired me as a field technician."

In September, she headed back to Lakehead to complete her degree but returned to Norway after graduation to build a career at VitalAnalyse.

Revealing an Invisible Universe

Kate spent much of the following years peering into a microscope, but in 2016, she embarked on a journey that took her in an unexpected direction.

She had begun creating illustrations of protozoa to help bring attention to VitalAnalyse's public outreach efforts.

"There was a demand for illustrations because microscopy photos can be hard to understand. Images of the same creature look dramatically different in different lighting.

"My husband encouraged me to do microscopy illustrations when he found out that I could draw," Kate says. "He was also interested in digital art and had bought a stylus pad. To create my illustrations, I use a stylus to draw on the computer in a process similar to oil painting." Everything is hand drawn, there's no AI involved."

As a kid, Kate was constantly drawing, so illustration work allowed her to reconnect with this part of herself.

"People started telling me they loved my drawings," she says. "They'd say, 'Ooh, it looks like it's from outer space!'"

In 2019, Kate started her own company, called Mikroliv.

Initially, Mikroliv offered both soil testing for researchers and microscopy illustrations, but she soon shifted exclusively to illustration.

"My drawings have appeared in gardening books, research papers, presentations, and websites. People can buy them as art prints and schools sometimes use them."

The popularity of Kate’s illustrations led to an important commission to create soil life illustrations for the Levende Matjord (living soil) research project. After finishing the commission, Kate continued to create drawings and eventually expanded her subject matter to include pond life. Above, Kate at an exhibition of her illustrations. Artwork Credit: Kate Solbakk

Immersing Videogamers in the Micro World

Videogaming has always been a huge part of Kate's life. Now it's become the latest way for her to merge the worlds of art and science.

She's been developing Cellscape—a fun arcade-style survival game—which she hopes to release in late 2026.

Developing the Cellscape videogame has tapped into Kate's imaginative powers. "You play as a protozoa in a soil ecosystem where the creatures around you eat and divide depending upon who has eaten who," she says. Artwork Credit: Kate Solbakk

"It's the culmination of the last decade of my work," Kate says. "I want to make microbes more relatable and approachable."

Or in the words of Cellscape:

"Experience life as a microbe in a dynamic, living ecosystem. Hunt bacteria, dodge hazards and predators, and divide as many times as you can!"

Download a demo of Kate's Cellscape videogame and try it out for yourself.