Medicine on her own terms

Class of 2009: Dalnews profiles some of the 2,700 graduates who'll walk across the stage of the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium during Spring Convocation, May 19 to 27.

Nermine Gorguy

Graduating with her third Dalhousie degree, Nermine Gorguy didn’t always plan on going into medicine. In fact, she remembers telling her mother – a psychiatrist – that she wasn’t planning to follow in her footsteps.

“I wanted to make sure that I was going to be happy with what I was doing for the rest of my life,” she says. “I had to come to medicine on my own terms.”

Ms. Gorguy, who was born in Cairo, Egypt and immigrated to Canada when she was 10, completed her BSc in biology and psychology and her Master’s in biology before deciding that her love of science and helping others could be best fulfilled with a medical degree. Four years later, she’s about to start her residency in family medicine in London, Ontario.

One of her most memorable experiences was as a medical student taking part in the Canada International Scientific Exchange Program as part of a pediatric emergency medicine elective. The course brought together medical students from Canada, Israel, Jordan and Palestine.

“For me, it was a reconnection of past with present,” she says, referring to her shared Canadian/Egyptian upbringing. “I felt like I understood where everyone was coming from, with medicine as the one thing we all have in common.”

It’s those personal connections – with her peers, her professors and her fellow participants in extracurricular activities like fencing – that defined her Dalhousie experience.

“I’m incredibly grateful to know the people I’ve been able to meet, who guided and advised me,” she says. “If it wasn’t for all of them, I wouldn’t be here doing what I love.”