Alumni Profiles

Katie Doke Sawatzky won NYC Midnights' second annual 250-word Microfiction Challenge with her short story, "The bundle".

CMU alumna wins international writing competition with short story

With only 24 hours to write a short story from concept to completion, some writers might buckle under the pressure. But not Katie Doke Sawatzky (CMU '10). The CMU alumna won NYC Midnight's second annual 250-word Microfiction Challenge, chosen for first place out of more than 5,400 other contestants from around the world.

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Ennet Bera: “Women do a lot of work but sometimes they are not recognized for it or they face a lot of barriers to actually meeting their goals or to living a better life.”

CMU alumna works for gender equality in practicum turned career

Ennet Bera hadn't even donned her graduation cap yet when she got her first job in the non-profit sector.

Bera (CMU '19) graduated with a Master of Arts in Peacebuilding and Collaborative Development. She is program assistant for the Fund for Innovation and Transformation (FIT), which operates through the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation in Winnipeg.

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CMU alumni at CITRI (clockwise, from top-left): Chantel Runtz, Tyler Voth, Kloe Mak, and Erin Sawatzky

CMU alumni and the Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute

Out of the many pockets of opportunities that come from completing a bachelor's degree at CMU, more and more graduates have turned their attention to the Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute (CTRI) situated in the West Broadway neighbourhood of Winnipeg, MB. With many CMU alumni joining the CTRI community and clinical director Vicki Enns' role teaching in CMU's Canadian School of Peacebuilding, the connection between the two institutions runs deep. CTRI, made up of a wide variety of therapists, workshop facilitators, and administrative staff offers training materials and resources focused on keeping the public trauma-informed. Their sibling division, Achieve Centre for Leadership, sets its sights specifically on how workplaces can foster leadership skills, conflict resolutions, management skills, and emotional intelligence.

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Kenji Dyck

Perseverance, pilgrimage, and the Bitter Sweet Trail

On October 24, 2020, Kenji Dyck (BA '19, Communications and Media) premiered his documentary Bitter Sweet Trail: Japanese Canadians and the Alberta Sugar Beets, which followed a 2019 bus tour through southern Alberta. Produced by David Iwaasa, and in partnership with Nikkei National Museum, the film tells the story of many Japanese sugar beet farmers who experienced internment, dispossession, and detainment through the Second World War. Tour participants, made up of Japanese Canadians who farmed sugar beets in the mid-20th century, visited sites that played a significant role in Japanese Canadian history. For most Japanese Canadians, this was a time of racial persecution as well as a time of persistence. "The tour and the film," Dyck explains, "is to remember not only the injustice but also the perseverance of the Japanese Canadian people."

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Lauren Harms:

CMU Alumni Profile: Lauren Harms, BA General Social Sciences

Lauren Harms (BA '15, General Social Sciences) wears two hats, that of a pastor and of an art therapist, which are taken on and off in the same room in the same Calgary apartment every day over Zoom. Founder of "Lily Inspired", an art therapy practice that focuses on individual and group art therapy as well as expressive arts workshops, Harms combines the creative process and psychotherapy, enabling her clients to explore their healing through colour, shape, and form.

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