This grad’s done it all

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This article was published 11/06/2010 (5659 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Quite the life between university graduations for Karen Ridd. She’s been a hospital clown, was imprisoned by a military dictatorship, has worked for basic human rights in southeast Asia — all while raising two kids, teaching at university, training mediation services counsellors and, wait for it, cracking the books.

Ridd earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Winnipeg in 1984.

This week, she’s receiving her master’s degree in peace and justice studies, one of 1,170 U of W graduates convocating in the 2009-2010 school year. And keeping with the high-achiever’s pattern, she’s earned the Governor General’s Gold Medal for the highest standing in a master’s degree. The final convocation session is this morning at 9:30 a.m. at the Duckworth Centre.

Her late father, Carl Ridd, a long-time U of W professor and social-justice activist, took 13 years to get his doctorate, Ridd recalled. "I teased him unmercifully. It’s taken me 18 years to do my master’s" since first starting her program, she said with a laugh.

A U of W basketball player like her father, Ridd graduated in 1984 expecting to go on to grad school in English literature.

Instead, she clowned around.

Ridd went to work at Children’s Hospital, in what she believes is the world’s first program to use clowns as part of children’s therapeutic programs.

"I accidentally fell into clowning," Ridd said.

She became daily front-page news in November of 1989, after joining the Peace Brigade International, a non-violent human-rights organization.

"I was a non-violent presence and witness" to the efforts of union leaders and farmers in El Salvador, risking their lives against "underhanded oppression and death squads" to attain some of the basic human rights we take for granted, Ridd said.

She was imprisoned by the military dictatorship.

The Canadian embassy obtained Ridd’s release, but she promptly went straight back into the prison to demand — and get — the release of her friend, Marcela Rodriguez Diaz.

"The real heroes are the Salvadorans who were at more risk than I," said Ridd, who still maintains a friendship with Diaz: "She’s in Bogota, Colombia, teaching in a university."

Ridd later was an election observer in El Salvador and worked extensively in Southeast Asia for Peace Brigade International.

 

Uneasy lies the crown

 

Gavin Donatelli can see the scales of justice tipping either way.

The University of Winnipeg criminal justice grad knows he wants to go to law school — he’s just not sure if he’ll be prosecution or defence.

"I really don’t know if the Crown is able to dispense the type of justice I’m looking for," said Donatelli, who pointed to how often the justice system relies on plea bargaining.

On the other hand, "I don’t know if I would be capable of putting all my faculties into the defence of someone I knew was guilty of a violent offence."

A 2002 graduate of Vincent Massey Collegiate who bounced around before going back to school, Donatelli helped create and has been president of U of W’s Criminal Justice Students Association.

He’s also worked in the Spotlight Gang Intervention Program and has volunteered for the John Howard Society Literacy program at the Winnipeg Remand Centre.

"I like to keep busy — those programs are so rewarding," said Donatelli.

"I don’t think the law is the best instrument to deal with issues like crime and delinquency," he said, citing poverty and social challenges many people face. "Too often, people caught in our justice system are victims of circumstance."

Peace, justice, and the pursuit of a master’s

 

Caitlin Eliasson takes off in the middle of exams at the University of Winnipeg year after year and flies to Florida.

OK, that needs an explanation.

Eliasson volunteers with Air Canada Dreams Take Flight, accompanying special needs and financially disadvantaged kids to Disney World for the day. But only if she didn’t have an exam scheduled that day, said Eliasson, an English and conflict resolution grad. Eliasson won medals for top marks in both programs and earned a gold medal for highest marks in the four-year honours arts program.

Eliasson got involved in the Florida program when she was only six — her mother worked on it for Air Canada — and has been a group leader in recent years.

"It gets a little bit tight" around exams, laughed the St. Mary’s Academy grad. "I learn far more from them than they do from me. If they can use their imagination, maybe they can have a good life," she said.

Eliasson has also worked summers on a project launched by refugee and immigration activists to break down the barriers among groups of youth from disparate backgrounds.

"They bring together refugees, aboriginal youth and ‘established’ youth. They come together over the summer," she said.

"It was definitely one of the most transformative processes I’ve ever been through.

"Young people have an amazing capacity to be open to changing the ways they understand each other," said Eliasson.

Eliasson is helping to organize an international peace and justice studies conference this fall.

She intends to pursue her master’s degree and hopes to become a professor so she can "bridge the university and the community."

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

 

Student awards:

For complete list of students earning awards and honours, see our website: winnipegfreepress.com

 

Karen Ridd:

The Governor General’s Gold Medal for the highest standing in a master’s degree

 

Bryan James Robert Kroeker:

 

The Governor General’s Silver Medal for the highest standing in an undergraduate degree

 

Honorary degree recipients:

 

Gary Doer: Manitoba premier from 1999 to 2009. He is now Canada’s ambassador to the United States

 

Josie Hill: For more than a quarter-century, Hill has been a champion of a distinctively aboriginal way of doing community-based work

 

Bob McDonald: The host of CBC’s Quirks & Quarks is one of Canada’s best-known science journalists and author

 

Fellowships:

 

The Honourable Raymond Wyant: Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of Manitoba awarded a fellowship in the University of Winnipeg

 

Political science Prof. Rais Khan: awarded a fellowship in United College

 

Teaching awards:

 

Prof. Jeff Martin, physics: Erica and Arnold Rogers Award for Excellence in Research

 

Prof. Alan Wiebe, education: Clarence Atchison Award for Excellence in Community Service

 

Prof. Donna Young, biology: Clifford J. Robson Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching

 

Distinguished alumni award:

Nick Ternette (class of 1967)