Life After Mac: Real Stories of alumni finding their way — Jessica

Growing up, I wanted a career where I get to help people. Assuming medicine was the only avenue, I joined the keen cohort of premed hopefuls in the McMaster Health Sciences Class of 2010. I followed the expected path — long hours at the Health Sci Library (let’s be real, for socializing more than anything…), extracurriculars to round out the med school application, sprinkled with a healthy dose of parties. Influenced by the show House, my plan was to become a doctor, then transition to administration and be like ‘Cuddy’ running hospitals.

Nothing prepared me for the devastation in the summer of 2010 (at Disney World, the happiest place on earth no less!) when I learned I was waitlisted for med school. Being among a sea of brilliant med school hopefuls, and the stereotype imposed on you as a ‘Health Sci’, you get swept up in the frenzy of getting into med school; everything else — grad school, other paths — felt like inferior options.

I didn’t get off the waitlist, and I moved back home to Vancouver and pursued a Master of Health Administration at UBC. I was still thinking I’d get back on the medicine path, but then I started working with a community-based organization and learned about social determinants of health. Healthcare is just one factor that dictates health and wellbeing, and the more I had time to consider it, the approach of western medicine contradicts my personal philosophy to wellness. That opportunity opened my eyes to how many meaningful paths there are to help people — many of them outside medicine.

Since then, I’ve worked across many human-serving systems from different angles, like administering grants that seeded social innovation and cross-sector collaborations to improve community-based mental health supports, or coordinating social planning to address early years programming for families across a municipality with a booming birth rate. Working with the urban Indigenous community in Surrey deepened my commitment to social justice and led me to later serve Tsleil-Waututh Nation to expand their member services across childcare, family programs, education, income support and food security.

After over a decade of resisting, I finally stepped into healthcare last year. I’m currently the Indigenous Engagement Specialist for Capital Projects at Providence Health Care. I get to be a small part in moving the big system towards decolonization, working closely with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers to ensure Indigenous perspectives are reflected in the design of physical spaces. It’s a unique blend of my varying interests and experiences that I never could have imagined would come together in a role. I’m thankful for the different nuggets of experiences I’ve gathered to date because it’s led me to exactly where I’m supposed to be… for now.

I loved my years at Mac — it was truly one of the best times of my life. I think back to what I enjoyed most — leading the BHSc Student Society, creating the first BHSc yearbook, and being part of the fashion shows and musicals… If I’d taken stock of what I actually enjoyed and was good at back then, I might have realized sooner that my gifts lie elsewhere and medicine wasn’t my path.

My advice to grads?

Lean into new experiences — you never know what’ll come in handy and how it’ll position you for success in a future position.

Flow like water — the most interesting paths aren’t linear, and that’s okay.

Jessica Pan

Bachelor of Health Sciences ‘10

The Office of Alumni Engagement will be featuring recent grad’s career stories to show career paths are anything but linear. If you graduated in the last 10 years and are interested, share your story.

If you are looking to get started on your own journey, take advantage of the resources available to recent graduates through our partnership with the Student Success Centre.