Cohort of 2025
Hello! My name is Melanie and I’m from Peterborough, Ontario. I graduated from Trent University in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science Honours in Biomedical Science with a specialization in health sciences.
I learned about genetic counselling in grade 12 and was excited to find a field that combined two interests of mine: genetics and supporting others. As I learned more about genetic counselling, medical genetics, and patient care throughout my undergrad and other experiences, I knew that it was the career I wanted to pursue.
While finishing my undergrad and following graduation, I volunteered with a distress hotline, providing emotional support to individuals in distress, which helped me to expand my interpersonal skills and gain an understanding of challenges that people may face. I also volunteered with the Bhalwani Familial Cancer Clinic at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, which gave me my first hands-on experience and exposure to genetic counselling. Most recently, I worked as a Genetic Assistant at Kingston Health Sciences Centre, where my responsibilities included facilitating genetic testing by creating requisitions, arranging sample collection, and communicating with patients, family members, and laboratories. I was also involved in a research project investigating the impact of upfront genetic testing (“Mainstreaming”) on patient wait times; this project was something that I worked on throughout my time as a GA and deepened my understanding of research and quality improvement in genetics healthcare, which I will take with me into my career as a genetic counsellor.
Over the years, I had the pleasure of observing many genetic counselling sessions, which taught me about different genetic conditions, the structure of genetic counselling sessions, and more. Each case that I observed solidified my decision to become a genetic counsellor because of my longstanding desire to support others and my fascination with genetics.
In my spare time, I enjoy spending time outside, exploring new places, camping, reading a suspenseful book, and baking! I’m so excited to be a part of the UBC Genetic Counselling cohort of 2025 and look forward to furthering my education and contributing to the field.