The UBC Northern Medical Program is celebrating its 13th graduating class, the Class of 2020. Their graduation ceremony is taking place today as part of virtual graduation at UBC.
The 34 graduating students are now moving into two to seven years of medical residency and fellowship training, depending on specialty.
Graduates from the class have matched to a wide range of specialties including anesthesiology, dermatology, diagnostic radiology, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, psychiatry and plastic surgery.
Fifteen graduates are entering family medicine residency programs, with most training in rural and smaller centres in B.C. and across the country. Three of those graduates will train in Northern B.C.
The Northern Medical Program is a distributed program site of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC), delivered in partnership with UNBC.
One of those graduates is Randi George. She grew up on a small reserve in northern B.C. After witnessing her family’s struggles with mental health challenges and addictions including the loss of her cousin to suicide at a young age, she was inspired to pursue a career in medicine. Having worked with Indigenous and other marginalized populations and seeing firsthand the health impacts of the painful history of colonization that still affects the health of many individuals, families, communities, and nations to this day, her hope is to help build connection and trust between Indigenous peoples and the medical community while continuing to be an advocate for mental health and Indigenous wellness.
George will soon be starting a psychiatry residency in the Vancouver Fraser Medical Program. Her home community is Hagwilget Village and Prince George.