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What do Stephanie Dennis and Jenna MacDonald have in common, aside from being Dalhousie medical students, varsity athletes and 2017-18 Academic All-Canadians?

They both stress that time management has been key to successfully balancing their academic, athletic and volunteer commitments. Here’s a closer look at the Faculty of Medicine’s two most recent Academic All-Canadians.

Jenna MacDonald

An outsider might think that being a varsity athlete could be detrimental to a student’s performance in the classroom, particularly in a specialty as demanding as medicine, but Jenna MacDonald is proof that that’s not the case.

MacDonald has been named an Academic All-Canadian four times, most recently during her first year of medical school. Also a Dean’s List student, she received the Dr. Lilyan E. White and Dr. W.K. Honig prizes, as well as the John Richard Freeman Warr Memorial research award, during her time in the undergraduate neuroscience program

Having been a member of the cross country team since her undergrad days, she says she simply continued with an established routine after starting her medical studies.

“Having a scheduled practice every day kept me more on track with school, if anything, because it made me manage my time. My studying was so much more effective when I had that designated break.”

While an injury has resulted in her being unable to compete on the varsity cross country team in 2018-19, she’s stayed in touch with the sport by coaching with Doctors Nova Scotia’s Kids Run Club, helping participants train for June’s Scotiabank Blue Nose Marathon.

MacDonald is also an instructor with Swimming With a Mission (SWAM), a not-for-profit student-led program that provides affordable and accessible one-on-one swimming lessons to children with special needs, and is an in-school mentor with Big Brothers, Big Sisters as part of her Service Learning Program.

Having worked at summer camps and a day care prior to entering medical school, MacDonald enjoys being around children. “Working with kids is very grounding, stress-wise.”

“The busier I am outside of school, the better the perspective I have in class. I’m able to focus my efforts on what really matters.”

Stephanie Dennis

“You will never know what you can do until you try, and you’ll regret it if you don’t.”

That mindset has inspired Stephanie Dennis to balance motherhood, a place on the varsity swim team and volunteer speaking engagements with the Canadian Armed Forces during her three years of medical school, despite encountering a steep “learning curve” as a Med 1 student.

“I quickly realized that I had to schedule everything, even downtime,” Dennis says. “When I started medical school, I thought I could do more than I was capable of, and had to load-shed after first semester.”

Dennis ultimately found a way to balance her academic and extra-curricular commitments, and even managed to compete at the 2016-17 AUS championship while five-and-a-half months pregnant with her daughter.

She considered giving up swimming ahead of clerkship, but was conscious of the benefits it provided. “It was a big part of my mental health and a stress release. It gave me the stability I needed.”

Being a positive influence on her teammates was also something Dennis valued. “My coach (Lance Cansdale) appreciated the leadership, maturity and professionalism I brought to the team and that I recognized it was a privilege, not a right to there.”

Despite all the benefits of staying on the team, Dennis describes her first semester of clerkship rotations as the “hardest thing I’ve ever done.” A typical day started with her waking up at 4:30 a.m. in order to arrive at the hospital for 5:15 a.m. She’d get home at 6 p.m., just enough time for bath-time, story-time and bed-time with her two kids before heading out to the Dalplex pool to swim from 7:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. After returning home, Dennis would study for an hour and then go to bed, ready to do it all again the next day.

Stephanie with her son, Eric, after finishing tied for third in the 200m butterfly final at the 2019 Subway AUS championships. (Photo by Scott Dennis).
 

Giving back and blazing a trail

A self-described “military brat,” Dennis joined the Canadian Armed Forces straight out of high school and is now on the path to becoming a medical officer. To her, the military “isn’t a career but a lifestyle,” one she grew up with thanks to her father, a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot.

“I’ve wanted to give back to my country, personally and professionally,” Dennis says.

“As a female, it’s important for us to blaze a trail and representing the Canadian Forces is a way for me to do that.”