“If you really want to be a good doctor, you have to be compassionate and you have to be passionate about what you’re doing,” she says. “If you have those two things, and your heart and soul is in it, and you can be compassionate to people when they’re most vulnerable, when they’re suffering the most.” Becoming a doctor is something Alisha always aspired to do. Without fail, every Halloween, she bypassed the witch and princess outfits and pulled together a doctor’s costume. “There was no other option,” she remembers.
Bermudian mentors. It was also while working summers in Bermuda that Alisha spearheaded a project to reduce infections at the hospital by studying the use of stethoscopes. “It’s great that the hospital is so supportive of medical students and also medical students doing research,” she says.
Another example of Alisha’s
research was a summer project through the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, where she attended medical school. At this time, she worked for an organisation called SODIS that works to clean water in developing countries. The process involves bottling the water and exposing it to the sun. Alisha’s research involved developing a tablet to speed up the process.
Alisha says she can’t predict where her studies will take her, but her “ultimate plan” is to return to Bermuda to practice. She compares the atmosphere at King Edward with other hospitals.
“If you really want to be a good doctor, you have to be compassionate and you have to be passionate about what you’re doing.”
- Alisha Gabriel 2012 Rhodes Scholar
Alisha credits her mother, Charlene Gabriel, as being her backbone. “She’s really the reason I’ve done as well as I have. It’s mainly her, ” Alisha says. Alisha attended Bermuda High School in Y9 before moving to Canada. Although her stay at the school was brief, its high standards left a mark. “The teachers were excellent. They really inspired you to want to do the best work you could do,” she remembers.
Like her BHS teachers, Alisha also pushed for excellence. One example is the Bermuda Medical Students Society, which she founded as a summer student at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. The society brings together medical students with
In London, for example, where she recently worked for a month as part of her residency, people rush up and down the wards, rarely stopping to greet a colleague. In Bermuda, “You say good morning to people, even if you don’t know them,” she says. Having that kind of work environment, where you stop in the hall and chat for a bit, is especially important in easing stress for on-the-go doctors. “To have even those few minutes of people talking to you, saying good morning, it makes a difference,” Alisha says.
P
olitics is not just a field of interest for Eleanor Gardner, but a powerful tool to make things happen. Politics touches all of society, she says, not just government, and a background in political theory can help uncover new ways of thinking, values or ideas. Eleanor graduates from Johns Hopkins University this May with a major in political science and philosophy. In her thesis, she will take what she’s studied to examine possible change in Bermuda.
And later this year, she will
continue her studies at Oxford University, having recently been named Bermuda’s Rhodes Scholar for 2013. She attended The Bermuda High School beginning in Year 1, eventually earning the honour of Deputy Head Girl. “How I see the Rhodes Scholarship, more than anything else, is that you are an ambassador for Bermuda no matter what you do,” Eleanor says. “And that’s how I’ve seen it even when I’m at college. You have these roots.” Eleanor, whose parents are John and Judith Gardner, is not just an outstanding student, but a top collegiate swimmer and campus leader.
As a leader at Johns Hopkins, she served as both associate and executive directors of the university’s Foreign Affairs Symposium, an annual lecture series that brings influential speakers to campus. As a swimmer, she captained the varsity team. This spring, she qualified for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Division III Championships.
Eleanor says her busy athletic schedule - long practices, early mornings - helps her manage her intense academic schedule. “Because I’ve been swimming since I was 6, it’s natural for me to have that balance in my life and working to make sure I get my homework done,” she says. Just as her swimming career began in Bermuda, so did her interest in politics and political science. During her IB years at BHS, Eleanor took Peace and Conflict Studies. That course coincided with an opportunity to travel to India for the Round Square International Conference. The IB programme “brought it all together” for her, she says, citing the passion of teachers like Mrs Kate Ross and Mrs Gretta O’Kelly-Lynch.
“One of the best things about BHS is that the teachers really care about the students,” Eleanor says. “And they put so much into making sure you excel as a student. Having that personal investment from the teachers is really inspiring to a student.” Eleanor’s research of racial conflicts was prompted by a photography project chronicling life at a skate park in the
“How I see the Rhode Scholarship, more than anything else, is that you are an ambassador for Bermuda.”
- Eleanor Gardner '09 2013 Rhodes Scholar
Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore. With a professor’s encouragement, Eleanor’s study evolved into an examination of the park as part of the wider Hampden community. This work, in turn, led her to reflect on racial conflict in Bermuda. Eleanor says Bermuda’s history of racial conflict is something not taught in school. “You learn very basic
Bermudian history, which tends to focus on the discovery of Bermuda and colonisation, but that doesn’t really shed light on any of the social or political tensions that are embedded in our systems,” she says. “Everyone who has settled in Bermuda over the centuries has come from somewhere else, be it through slavery, labor from the West Indies or today’s international businesses.” One result, and something Eleanor is examining, is an unclear cultural identity. In her thesis, she will look at key events of the last century, such as the 1959 Theatre Boycott, which protested segregation in Bermuda businesses and schools, and the 2007 Big Conversation, which aimed to open up a dialogue of racial issues. With her research, Eleanor hopes to find a place where Bermuda can examine this important issue.
Torchbearer Spring 2013 21
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