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Giving back – around the world: U of T grad supports fellow international students during COVID-19 An international student from Tajikistan, Zarina Mamadbekova fostered personal connections for other international students, welcomed new undergrads and created virtual programming to promote physical well-being (photos courtesy of Zarina Mamadbekova)
Zarina Mamadbekova’s grandfather was a role model, teaching her lessons she would live by while studying at the University of Toronto. Always be kind to others. Get a good education. Volunteer. Use your knowledge to help others.
As the U of T Mississauga graduand prepares to receive her degree in psychology and political science this year, Mamadbekova says her grandfather’s guidance helped her achieve academic success and prompted her to give back to the international student community.
May 19, 2021 – GMHC CEO Kelsey Louie will step down as the organization’s chief executive officer on June 25 for a new role as CEO for The Door, a New York City-based nonprofit that provides comprehensive youth development services.
During the first surge of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, David F. M. Brown â chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital â moved out of his home for more than three months in fear of transmitting the virus to his family.
âAt that time, my daughter â who was in our Covid pod â was pregnant, and I was convinced that I was going to get infected, and I didnât want to infect her or my wife,â Brown said.
Though moving out âseemed like the right thing to do,â Brown said his isolation came with personal challenges.
âI didnât move back in until sometime in June â that was kind of a tough time for me to stay upbeat,â Brown said. âI remember that weekend moving out of the house and feeling kind of down and then there was that 15 weeks of isolation.â
Born in Ellaville, Ga., Ben Hamilton served his country in the Air Force from 1963 to 1967 as an airman second class. But Airman Hamilton almost never made it to his current age of 77 as he almost suffered a tragic accident at the age of 3. We were visiting relatives in Tampa, Fla., and I fell three stories out of a window. I m still here, he said laughing. He enlisted with a friend in Springfield through the Buddy Program, which allows small groups to enlist and train together, at 19 and was sent to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Bexar County, Texas.
But little did her family know that the “Hope” on the horizon would be a Labrador retriever.
In the months after the diagnosis, Ollie lost his sight because of the disease. A short time later, he received a stem cell transplant from his older sister, Abby.
Feeling overwhelmed navigating cancer treatments and Ollie’s blindness, Dawn looked for resources to help her son and was pointed towards the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) and, more specifically, its Guide Dog program.
“When we heard about the program, it really did actually give him hope,” Dawn said. “It’s really hard when you have a seven-year-old, who’s that sick, to try and keep them motivated to want to go through all the pain and all the treatments.” Ollie knew he had to get better to take care of a dog, though, and that was the motivation he needed.