Pascale Gendron: Passion Finding Purpose

Since she was young, Pascale was a girl that couldn’t stop moving. That and her competitive attitude meant she was born for sports. And for a while, that sport was soccer. Until a devastating injury on the pitch left her with a broken collarbone. 

At only 14 years old, her soccer career was over. She was left with the feeling of emptiness without that competitive environment. After a phone call to a local running and cross country club and a great interaction with the coach that is still in her life today, young Pascal had turned her hobby of working out and running into her competitive outlet.

Pascale admitted that she had never heard of Laurentian, and she almost threw out a letter from LU that included their information as she didn’t recognize the logo. A decision was made to open that letter which set off a chain reaction of events that landed the big-city girl from Toronto in Sudbury a year later. 

Although Laurentian would allow her to run on a varsity squad, it wasn’t just the running component that drew her to Laurentian. Pascale was attracted as Laurentian offered a concurrent education degree in just five years instead of the traditional six that most universities offer. This drew in Pascale as it allowed her to keep competing at a high level while giving her the quickest path to complete her career goals. 

With a mother working as a Speech Pathologist, Pascale has been exposed early on to a career field of helping others. That quickly became a passion of hers. 

She dreams of one day opening her own psychology clinic or even teaching. Her desire to serve others led her to apply and spend her summers working at Belwood Lodge and Camp, a camp for people of any age with intellectual disabilities. 

An experience like no other, she describes her time at Belwood as eye-opening. On top of the typical camp counsellor’s responsibilities, such as event planning, she was also responsible for taking care of the campers, which she described as acting like a personal support worker. 

Having spent half of her summer there, the camp allowed her to pursue one of her biggest passions: helping others. All while getting a feel for the industry she hopes to work in one day. 

As Pascale looks to graduate in the spring, she hopes to go back to Belwood again this summer. On top of that, with three years of OUA running eligibility left, she continues to look at schools that offer master’s programs that will not only help her achieve her goals of being a teacher or a psychologist, but that offers her the ability to keep competing.