ARRIVAL LOUNGE
ADOPTING CANADIAN VALUES MEANS STAYING CONNECTED TO YOUR ROOTS
By SHIPRA CHAUDHURY
Manpreet Kooner loves how everyone is treated with respect in Canada, irrespective of who they are.
“Values like honesty, humanity, equality, kindness, compassion, treating and helping people the way you want to be treated.
“To me, these are traditional values and I feel grateful to the healthcare system (despite all of its other shortcomings) and that I am able to offer the same kind of care to all my patients, despite their social or financial status,” says Kooner, a physician assistant in a family health team in Toronto.
Kooner was working as a house surgeon in India when she got married and immigrated to California in 2008. They moved to Canada in 2009 as her family was settled here.
“I belong to a farming community, but both my parents were teachers,” she says. “My grandfather was a hakim (doctor) and my main source of inspiration.”
Her parents treated both Kooner and her brother equally and wanted to empower her with education as opposed to keeping the money for her marriage.
They sent her to a convent school to get the best education and thereafter, with their support and encouragement, she went to Manipal University to complete her medical degree.
“My parents were very progressive and believed in hard work. Once in school, I had an assignment that was supposed to last 30 minutes and I wanted to stop a minute before the time was up, thinking I was done. My mom gave me an important lesson at the time. An aeroplane can travel a long distance in that one minute, she said, so don’t underestimate the value of a minute!”
While in Canada, initially Kooner’s focus was just to get back into the medical field.
So she cleared all Canadian medical license exams within the first year. Soon after her son was born she began working and volunteering at different clinics and research centres, the Canadian Cancer Society being one of them.
In 2012, she worked as research coordinator for McMaster University where she came across the physician assistant program.
“I applied, got selected in the first round and started the two-year program. In the next two years, I completed the program at the University of Toronto with a GPA of 3.87, and since 2015, I am in active clinical practice in a family health team. This job focuses on the care of the elderly and chronic complex care patients. There is no doubt I am learning a lot, but my foremost goal right now is to secure a residency spot at a Canadian medical school.
“I dream of securing a residency position in order to get a permanent place in the Canadian medical field. Every time I was rejected, I became stronger and learnt to figure out other possible ways to make my application even better. So much so that since the time I came to know of the slightest possibility of securing a residency position in Quebec, I started taking French lessons!”
What role did her family play in her struggles?
“Just like any other Canadian, I also feel that family is the first essential cell of human society and it should not be neglected,” says Kooner.
“But at the same time, I also believe that one should be passionate about their work.
“We must learn to strike a balance between the two and this can only be attained with family support.”
It was her privilege to take care of her in-laws when they needed her the most, she says, and her husband, an engineer by profession, always supported her. But her mental satisfaction comes from being able to help out with patients and at times it becomes difficult for her to decide who needs the most attention, she admits.
Kooner’s prescription for newcomers looking for ways to thrive in Canada?
“Work hard, be honest, try to adopt Canadian values and way of living, but at the same time don’t forget your roots.”
• If you’d like to share the story of your arrival in Canada, please write to desinews@rogers.com or call 416-695-4357.