Student Spotlight: Gracen Mahoney

Growing up surrounded by intelligent, hard-working, driven women, it was made clear to Gracen Mahoney that she could blaze any trail she wanted to. With a dream of working in health care, and a passion for helping and caring for others, Gracen hoped to one day follow in similar footsteps to her mom and become a nurse or a doctor.

When it came time to decide what her future held, Gracen was presented with many options, some of which included pursuing her academic dreams that would prepare her for a future in health care and continuing with her athletic passion of playing hockey. So, Gracen chose both. She packed up and headed to play hockey in the United States while working diligently to ensure her dream of working in health care would be met by working towards her Bachelor of Science with a specialization in chemistry.

Gracen loved her studies and was very successful in them, she was made team captain for her school’s hockey team and on top of that, she also worked as a don in her residence. However, in her second year, one of her close family members got sick and she decided it was time to come home.

Her options when she returned were vast, but she had made the decision that she no longer needed to pursue hockey and solely focus on her academics. At the time of her decision, Gracen was speaking to a friend who was a don at St. Paul’s who let her know that St. Paul’s was hiring for dons and with her experience, it would be somewhere she would fit in. She had landed on finishing her studies at the University of Waterloo, and knowing the schools focus on academics, she really didn’t see herself anywhere else. And so, she took a chance with her experience and a friendly recommendation and applied to be a don at St. Paul’s.

Since coming to campus, Gracen has had an amazing experience. She has been able to grow with her St. Paul’s community and make excellent friends in her program. On top of everything she is involved with at St. Paul’s, Gracen has been succeeding academically. She loves her courses and has had great opportunities to learn about things like aging, parasites and even marine biology.

Gracen appreciates that the Faculty of Science is diverse, and she gets to work under many other women in the sciences who have been role models and mentors. Gracen is finishing up her last semester in the lab, studying adaptive immune response with fish and learning from her excellent professors and mentors.

Still unsure what exactly the future holds but knowing her strengths and passions she has written and passed her MCAT and is in the process of applying to both nursing school and medical school and both remain options.

The St. Paul's community can't wait to see what comes next for our talented students!