A5

Adam Huras
Telegraph-Journal

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

A Mount Allison University student has been named to Youth in Motion's national top 20 under 20 list for 2009.

Enlarge Photo

Photo Courtesy Mount Allison University

Fredericton resident and Mount Allison University student Laura Stymiest has been named to Youth in Motion’s national top 20 under 20 list for 2009.

Laura Stymiest, 19, of Fredericton, was the only New Brunswicker to make a short list of young people on this year's crop of future leaders in Canada.

The top 20 under 20 is a national youth award which seeks out young Canadians who demonstrate significant innovation, achievement and leadership.

It is presented annually by Youth in Motion, a national charitable organization.

"This definitely gives me a big push and the motivation to keep going," said Stymiest, a third-year honours biology student at the Sackville campus. "It is all kind of adding up to my hope to be a doctor someday."

Stymiest co-founded the first Atlantic Canadian division of Global Medical Brigades, a student-led organization that provides communities in developing nations with solutions to improve quality of life.

In February, she embarked on a medical mission to the rural communities of Honduras.

Leading a group of about 35 Mount Allison students, Stymiest co-ordinated travel plans, recruited health professionals and translators while also securing $35,000 worth of donated medication and supplies.

The team medically treated 1,520 children and adults, while also providing dental treatment for another 200.

She is currently on an internship in Toronto with Doctors Without Borders.

"I'm getting a picture of what it looks like to work in the field and I think it is something I want to do eventually," Stymiest said. "I would like to do some work in Canada for sure and then maybe someday do some policy-related work.

"What definitely drives me is the big divide between access to health care in developing versus non-developing nations."

Stymiest has also founded We Propose Clothes, an annual clothing drive that distributes clothing to shelters, schools and community centres across the Maritimes.

She plans to go to medical school after university in New Brunswick and may pursue a career with Doctors Without Borders.

"If Laura has certain aspirations to do particular things she will meet those goals and our world will be a better place because of it," said Gayle Churchill, manager of student affairs at Mount Allison University. "She is a leader at this university and someone who divides her time over a number of activities while being highly respected by her peers."

Stymiest joins a list that includes a 17-year-old stem cell researcher, an 18-year-old committed to delivering an anti-cancer compound to rural China and a 12-year-old website designer who focuses on environmental and social problems in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.