Teamwork makes the dream work

Dr. Janice Pasieka decided to make a significant donation to Western University in 2023 in recognition of the 40th anniversary of her medical school graduation in 1983.

"I wanted to give back to UWO because medicine gave me so much," she recalls.

As much as she gained from her medical education, Dr. Pasieka learned just as much thanks to the years she spent – from 1981 to 1983 – as an athlete on the Western Mustangs Varsity Squash team.

“Being a varsity athlete means a heightened degree of responsibility to the team and school,” she says. “It's not about you and your single skill set that provides the 'winning' model, it is about the team. All players are equally important."

The donation has established the Dr. Janice L. Pasieka Medicine Athletics Award, which will help alleviate the financial stresses students face when balancing the demands of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry Doctor of Medicine (MD) program with the intense training and games in a varsity sport.

“The skill set that I developed while balancing these two activities set me up for success throughout my career," says Pasieka. “Varsity student athletes are ambassadors for the next generation of athletes.”

Now an endocrine surgeon who has excelled at both the University of Calgary and internationally, Dr. Pasieka recognizes that she has become “an ambassador for female surgeons throughout North America.” And she attributes that success in large part to her trailblazing career in the early years of women’s varsity squash.

"Women’s squash was in its infancy when I started playing, and I like to think I helped pave the way for the team as it is today. This is very similar to what I have done in medicine, as [surgery is] a primarily male dominated profession. Teamwork is a skill required in all professions, and certainly in the operating room."

Forty years after women's squash helped prepare her for a pioneering career as part of a leading surgical team, Dr. Pasieka remains an avid athlete who enjoys different types of physical activities. Today, she favours athletic pursuits – like running, cycling, snowshoeing, yoga and hiking in the Canadian Rockies – that keep her fit and refreshed, bring her closer to nature and help her manage the demands of a distinguished surgical career.

Dr. Pasieka looks back with gratitude for the special people in her life who stood by her unconditionally, as she broke down barriers traditionally faced by women.

“They provided me with support, encouragement and the ability to follow my dreams.”

Now, by establishing Dr. Janice L. Pasieka Medicine Athletics Award, she is paying it forward so that other Western students can pursue their own unique ambitions in medicine and athletics.