St. Albert native Braden O’Neill is still reeling from the shock of some good news he received last month — he had been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, one of the oldest and most prestigious international post-graduate awards.
“I remember a lot of screaming. At some point I figured out that I should call my parents, that that should be the right thing to do because I really didn’t know what to do, I was so shocked and overwhelmed. I’m still overwhelmed,” said the 23-year-old native of St. Albert over the phone from Calgary last week.
The scholarship includes tuition, college fees and a stipend for living expenses for three years of study at the University of Oxford in England.
The Rhodes Scholarship was established in the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British-born entrepreneur, in 1902. Each year, eleven Canadians are selected to join 84 other scholars from around the world. While Rhodes stipulated that intellectual excellence should be a requirement of every scholar, he emphasized the purpose of the scholarship was to invest and develop outstanding leaders who were motivated to “fight the world’s fight.”
Rhodes’ will also outlined four criteria to be used in the selection of scholars: literary and scholastic attainments; energy to use one’s talents to the full; truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship and moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings.
O’Neill grew up in St. Albert’s Grandin neighbourhood and attended Robert Rundle, Sir Alexander MacKenzie and Sir George Simpson schools.
He graduated from Bellerose High School, where he was involved in competitive swimming, school mentoring and the jazz ensemble.
“It was the most wonderful place to grow up,” O’Neill said of his hometown. “I can’t imagine a better place to grow up.”
O’Neill said he’s long known that he wanted to be a doctor but his reasons changed after he started volunteering as an outreach worker in Edmonton.
“That’s really when I got a good sense of “OK, this is what I love and this is what my niche is within med and this is where my skills will be most helpful to other people.”
Currently, he is in his second year of studying internal medicine at the University of Calgary.
“What I love about internal medicine is that it’s solving puzzles and they’re very exciting puzzles because they combine science and the humanities and the answers are often very difficult to figure out but incredibly satisfying when you do,” he said.
While at Oxford, O’Neill will complete a doctorate degree that will explore how the medical humanities and evidence-based medicine can together be used to influence health policy.
“Trying to develop a model by which people’s experience of illness are appropriately researched and honoured within the context of medical research,” he said.
“I feel very passionately that that sort of research will be the next big thing in medical research if you will, and that by being able to combine both the humanistic, patient experience of illness with the science that goes on in medical research,” he said.
“I think ultimately the policy that comes out of that will be that much more effective and responsive to what people want and need from the health care system.”
After Oxford, O’Neill said he plans to return to Alberta and complete his medical degree.
“I love it here and going to Oxford is an opportunity to live in a different country and to get an international world view, certainly to get exposure to a different healthcare system but hopefully to be able to take some of those lessons and bring them back here,” he said.
His mom, Liz, said there are likely many people in the community who have no idea of the important role they played in her son’s life.
“We know that a lot of people apply and we know that our country is full of wonderful young people,” she noted, adding she and husband Gerry plan to visit their son as much as they can while he’s away.
“You don’t expect those kinds of things. You may wish for them but you don’t always expect them,” Liz said. “We’re just thrilled.”
O’Neill said he is grateful to all the teachers he had while growing up in St. Albert
“I couldn’t begin to list all of them off but I received such an outstanding education in schools in St. Albert that all of the money in the world couldn’t have bought such a good education.”
Applying for a Rhodes Scholarship
To apply for a Rhodes Scholarship, applicants must submit a written portfolio containing a personal statement of 900 words stating their general interests, reasons for wanting to study at Oxford and their future goals; a resume including awards and leadership positions held, university transcript, six academic references, a written statement from the president of the school attended by the applicant, a photocopy of the applicant's birth certificate and a photo of the applicant.
Shortlisted candidates are invited to an interview with the regional selection committee in late November. This is a chance for applicants to meet former scholars and other Oxford alumni. During this interview, O'Neill said the conversation ranged from the economic situation in Ireland to the state of the Edmonton Eskimos. Afterward, he was interviewed by a panel of seven judges. "The questions are designed to get you out of your comfort zone," he said of the second interview.
