Today, in a partnership with the Okanagan Mental Health Task Force initiative at McMaster University, we at MacPFD are excited to bring you the first of three interviews in the BOUNCE series!

BOUNCE will introduce different real-life vignettes of people's experiences with mental health in higher education. This episode features special guest speaker Zeinab Khawaja.

Follow Zeinab as she describes how she puts different parts of her identity together during her time as an undergraduate student at McMaster. Zeinab had a great time at 'Welcome Week' and would make some close friends in her first year. Eventually in first year, she would open up to a few people about what had happened a few days before Welcome Week - her wedding for her arranged marriage. Zeinab’s story highlights how the act of sharing your story is healing, “even if you don’t feel like you deserve it, even if you’re not sure what will come of it, even if it might end up being bad and hurtful. The trying is what matters. Knowing that every time I tried to tell someone, I was telling myself, you deserve to be heard."

MacPFD Spark is excited to feature the first three BOUNCE episodes over the next three weeks - be sure to check back often for more content to help you grow and enhance your career and mental well-being in academia!

Featured Guest(s) - Zeinab Khawaja

Interviewer(s) - Dr. Catharine Munn