News and Releases
Keyword: Alumni News
From peacebuilding to conservation: A CMU alum’s journey of justice, community, and care for creation
Tuesday, September 23, 2025 @ 8:00 AM
Aaron Janzen knows being an environmentalist is as much about working with people as it is with the land.
The self-described "social scientist type-person," graduated from CMU in 2008, majoring in Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies (PACTS).
Read MoreAdvancing reconciliation through storytelling
Tuesday, September 16, 2025 @ 8:00 AM
"I have always been a storyteller," says Ben Borne over a Zoom call from his home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. "And what I'm really good at is bringing people together."
Since graduating from CMU with a Bachelor of Arts in 2013, Borne's various endeavors and accomplishments—which are far too innumerable to list but include podcast host and founding his own Public relations firm—all share that similar theme: storytelling.
Read MoreFrom newcomer to community-builder: A CMU alum’s journey of purpose, justice, and leadership
Monday, September 15, 2025 @ 12:28 PM
When Gode Katembo thinks about his time at CMU, he doesn't just remember classes and assignments. What stands out is how the experience reshaped his sense of direction.
"For me, CMU did not prepare me for a career," he said. "It prepared me for purpose."
Read MoreFrom martyrology to herpetology: A CMU alum's global journey of curiosity, community, and conservation
Thursday, September 11, 2025 @ 8:19 AM
A few days after graduating from CMU in 2025, Tai Linklater was in an airplane on the way to the Netherlands. The 23-year-old from Altona, MB travelled an ocean away from CMU, and yet it was present in almost every adventure of their two-week trip, a microcosm of their university experience: curiosity and community.
While at CMU, Linklater took a course on The Martyrs Mirror, a chronicle of the persecution and martyrdom of Anabaptist Christians particularly in the 16th century, with Professor of Philosophy and Theology Chris Huebner. Linklater and a fellow classmate met up with Huebner, who was on sabbatical doing research in Amsterdam, and together they toured many of the historical sites where the book's stories took place. They even did an escape room based on one of the martyr accounts, in the very area where it occurred hundreds of years ago.
Read MoreFinding Connection as an Outsider: How CMU Shaped a Public Servant
Thursday, September 11, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
Marvin Marcial didn't mean to become a CMU student. What was initially supposed to be one music elective as a visiting student from the University of Winnipeg turned him into a full-time student who ended up graduating from CMU with a Bachelor of Music in 2007. "I ended up in choir and that changed the whole trajectory of my education, and I transferred over to CMU the next year," he says.
Read MoreEducation, Performance, and Healing: How CMU Shaped a Multifaceted Musician
Monday, September 8, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
Heitha Forsyth decided to go back to school almost a decade after graduating with her undergraduate degree. She had a partner, a mortgage, an established career, and school felt distant. "I had to basically pivot life as I knew it," she says. But CMU staff helped her with the adjustment. "When it came to any questions I had about my student loan or anything like that where I wasn't sure what to do and I was feeling vulnerable, there were people to catch me and keep me moving forward. I really appreciated that."
Read MoreFrom Courtroom Dreams to Restorative Justice: A Journey in Conflict Transformation
Sunday, September 7, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
Odelia Duffus wanted to become a lawyer after she graduated high school in Jamaica. Many years later, she's liaising with the court—but not in the role she expected.
Duffus is a mediator and caseworker with Mediation Services, a Winnipeg-based organization offering conflict resolution and training to workplaces, families, and communities. She wants to make a safer and more just future for all people involved in conflict, by navigating it in ways alternative to conventional punishment. Through mediation, she acts as a neutral third party that hears each side's perspective. She helps create an agreement that benefits everyone and develop an appropriate solution.
Read MoreFrom Engineering to Pastoral Leadership: The Impact of Theological Study
Saturday, September 6, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
When Everton McLennon stepped onto CMU's campus for the first time, he was not like the majority of students. He was in his 40s, with a full-time career and an engineering degree under his belt. But he had also been called to pastor his congregation, and he took that call seriously.
"I wanted to educate myself to better serve the congregation and gain a deeper understanding of theology," McLennon says. "Reading the Bible, I felt, did not provide me with full background and prepare me properly for the role of pastoral ministry, and CMU did that for me."
Read MoreRelational Learning, Lasting Impact: Carrying the Spirit of CMU into Education
Friday, September 5, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
Heather Schellenberg was thrilled when she found out about CMU's new education degree program. As a teacher herself, she's excited about how this will allow CMU to send even more thoughtful, well-equipped grads out into the world to nurture the next generation. "I feel proud to have gone there, and I know it shaped me a lot," she says.
Read MoreConviction in the Courtroom: How CMU Prepared a Future Prosecutor
Thursday, September 4, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
These days, you'll find Nathan Dueck in Thompson, Manitoba, arguing bail conditions, speaking to sentences, and prepping for his first trials. It's a serious role, but he admits law school itself wasn't quite as grueling as people imagine.
"After the first month of first year, I didn't open a single textbook," he says. "But at CMU, I did every single reading. That's the difference—the environment made me want to show up prepared."
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