Heidi Derksen (CMU ’14) graduated with a Bachelor of Music before earning her master’s in nursing and working in ICUs and disaster zones around the world. From Ukraine to Turkey, she brings compassion, courage, and creativity to her work—values first nurtured through CMU’s diverse and close-knit learning community.

Notes, nursing, and new horizons: A journey of learning and service

When Heidi Derksen meets for a conversation in the mid-afternoon, she's wrapping up her day and going to sleep after the interview ends. This unconventional bedtime is because she's an ICU nurse in Saskatoon's hospitals, working alternating day and night shifts. The routine can be taxing, but it allows her a lot of flexibility for one of her favourite activities: travel.

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Heitha Forsyth (CMU ’19) completed a Bachelor of Music Therapy and is now Executive Director of the Manitoba Conservatory of Music & Arts, a music therapist at Misericordia Health Centre, and a professional musician known for her solo act Sol James and bands like The Solutions.

Education, performance, and healing: How CMU shaped a multifaceted musician

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."

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Odelia Duffus (CMU ’22) graduated with a major in Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies. Now a mediator and caseworker with Mediation Services in Winnipeg, she helps people navigate conflict through restorative justice approaches grounded in listening, curiosity, and care.

From courtroom dreams to restorative justice: A journey in conflict transformation

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.

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Sunday at CMU

Sunday@CMU: September 2025

Reading the Gospel of Luke with Junior High Students

This month on Sunday@CMU, we hear from CMU alumna Julia Thiessen. Julia is a teacher at Westgate Mennonite Collegiate and a member of Charleswood Mennonite Church in Winnipeg. In this series of meditations we are rebroadcasting, she reflects on teaching the Gospel of Luke to grade eight students, and seeing the biblical stories through their lens.

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Everton McLennon (CMU ’15) earned a Master of Arts in Theological Studies while balancing full-time work as a civil engineer and his role as a pastor. Today, he leads Miracle of Life Apostolic Fellowship in Winnipeg, where he continues to draw on the theological grounding he gained at CMU.

From engineering to pastoral leadership: The impact of theological study

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."

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