Growing Together in the Harry G. Schaefer Mentorship Program

June 1, 2021

By Kendall Bistretzan

Godi Jibi is a busy man. The full-time student just completed the health science program at Mount Royal University and will convocate this month. In addition to his studies, Jibi was also a member of the Cougars’ men’s volleyball team and sat on both the MRU Student-Athlete Black Lives Matter Committee and the Faculty of Science and Technology EDI Committee. Despite having heard about the Harry G. Schaefer (HGS) Mentorship Program in his third year, he simply didn’t have the time to commit. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic came the cancellation of organized sports. Suddenly, Jibi found himself with extra time on his hands and decided to take a leap of faith by signing up to be a student mentee. 

The HGS Mentorship Program connects senior MRU students from all credit programs to professionals in their field to discuss career aspirations and options, develop new skills, and gain new insights into their future careers. The program aims to be a transformative experience for students and mentors alike. 

Mentors are primarily MRU alumni, but oftentimes community members will feel called to mentorship. That’s exactly what happened with Rami Zeinab. Following an extensive run in academia, Zeinab decided to branch out and try his hand at a career in the pharmaceutical industry. Zeinab’s friend Eduardo, who was employed with the MRU mentorship programs at the time of recruitment, was impressed with Zeinab’s openmindedness and suggested he sign up as a mentor. 

“He was a big fan of that,” recalls Zeinab. “He’s like, ‘you’re doing what everyone might be scared to do.’” 

Having been impacted by mentors in his own life, Zeinab felt as though it was time to give back to the community. Be it through fate or a deeply compatible match on the part of MRU mentorship staff, Jibi and Zeinab were paired as mentee and mentor and began a journey that w

ould teach both of them valuable lessons about themselves, and their respective career paths. 

“He wanted everything, which was like me in my early 20’s. I wanted everything. I wanted to be good at everything. I wanted to explore everything. And I saw myself in that, in terms of being confused. He knows there’s a lot out there, but doesn’t know how to approach it.”

According to Zeinab, Jibi was “very receptive” and “wanted to learn it all,” which he feels is a hugely important quality in mentees. 

The two would meet several times per month at varying intervals due to their respective busy schedules, where Zeinab says that their time was split between developing a personal relationship and going over weekly goals. The time between meetings was not without value, either. Despite not being a requirement of the program, Zeinab went above and beyond to provide Jibi with supplemental learning during their time apart. Jibi completed all sorts of tasks, including setting up a LinkedIn account, catering his resume to different industries, learning how to apply for research funding, and more. According to Zeinab, Jibi was “very receptive” and “wanted to learn it all,” which he feels is a hugely important quality in mentees. 

Jibi already knows he wants to be a pediatrician, a life-saving surgery from his childhood secured that ambition. But working with Zeinab allowed him to take a look at the world around him, and evaluate what sort of doors could open in the future. Better yet, Zeinab’s willingness to change his own career taught Jibi that it’s okay to take things one day at a time. 

“I think a lot of students, especially within the sciences, believe they need to get a job immediately,” he says. “But Rami told me I have time. So, think about broadening your skills, going to different fields, doing different things, and then use those skills to help you better yourself into your medical field job for being a pediatrician.”

Jibi’s current plans are to travel to England to do a master’s program, either in exercise physiology at Newcastle University, applied sports and exercise medicine at Nottingham University, or public health at Burna University. 

“I want to go to a new place, kind of give myself some new versatile skills and really just immerse myself in a different culture, so that I understand how they practice their medicine, and then come back to Canada and really meld both worlds so that I can be the best doctor that I can be.”

Despite the mentor/mentee labels and hierarchy inherent in the roles, Zeinab sees his and Jibi’s relationship in far simpler terms: 

“I look at it as a mentorship. It doesn’t matter who it’s about, sharing experiences. I might have more experiences than him, but he might actually share something with me that might have a huge impact on me as well.”

Both Jibi and Zeinab encourage like-minded individuals - whether it be current students, MRU alumni, or community members wanting to make a difference - to consider enrolling in the Harry G. Schaefer mentorship program. 

For more information on enrolling in the program, click here.  

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Kendall Bistretzan was born and raised in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and now resides in Calgary, Alberta, where she has just obtained her Journalism degree from Mount Royal University. She will be spending her summer working as a full-time investigative reporter and a part-time barista, after which she hopes to pursue a future in creative writing by completing and publishing a novel. She has previous work published in Polar Expressions, Blue Marble Review, Understorey Magazine, This Might Help, and more. You can follow her creative journey on Instagram @kendallbistwrites.