Dr. Shannon Charlebois ( She/Her )
GP; Medical Editor CMAJ; MSc candidate, LSHTM
B.Hum (2005)
What was your experience like in the program and how has your degree helped your career?
The Humanities program was the cornerstone of my education, and continues to influence how I practice medicine. It is the active life St. Augustine describes in City of God, which together with Camus’ The Plague gave me the odd idea of applying for medical school. After participating in the third year abroad program reading English literature, I came home to pick up the science credits I needed with the support of the faculty, which took some advocating at a time before the biomedical stream was added to the program. Without the push I had from direct interaction with professors, I never would have succeeded academically in a way that opened up a new career path. That is a rare thing in undergraduate education that I value to this day.
A B.Hum allowed me to better cope with the difficulties and occasional absurdities of a medical career. It also developed skills which have been an asset in the scientific world, contributing to my work as the senior medical editor at the Canadian Medical Association Journal.