Life After Mac: Real Stories of alumni finding their way — Isabel
The courage to follow her own path
When Isabel chose to study Life Sciences at McMaster, she intended to carry on her family’s legacy of studying medicine. Her parents immigrated from Portugal and culturally, there was an expectation that she would become a doctor. While Isabel tried her best to fulfill this family dream, her time at McMaster taught her an important lesson: it’s ok to veer off the well-worn path and pursue something you’re genuinely interested in. And it’s ok to take your time getting there.
Isabel chose McMaster for its reputation as a top ranked university with intensive research in science and medicine. For three years, she did her best to keep up with the rigorous science curriculum in courses like biochemistry, but by fourth year, she knew it wasn’t for her. She was struggling to understand the concepts and wasn’t feeling interested in the topics.
In the meantime, she had joined McMaster’s varsity field hockey team and discovered a love for hiking and physical activity. Isabel spent her spare time researching exercises to help improve her endurance and speed.
By the end of fourth year, she still didn’t know what she wanted to do. She decided to take a gap year to explore her options. After some much-needed reflection time, Isabel decided to take a leap and turn her passion for exercise into a career. “It was very effortless for me,” she says. Isabel wants current students to know that it’s ok to take some extra time to figure out your path. Without that fifth year, she wouldn’t have known that graduate school was even an option.
Isabel has the added challenge of having a cognitive disability. “The way I navigate the world is very different,” she says. Learning how to maximize her strengths and work with her weaknesses was an important part of her journey. Thanks to a few key mentors and advocates, she was able to achieve her goal of getting into a master’s program.
“I was getting a lot of no’s,” she says. Thankfully, Isabel had met a professor — Dr. Joy MacDermid — who recognized her persistence and encouraged her to pursue a master’s degree in Rehabilitation Sciences. Another professor, Dr. Dawn Bowdish, was also instrumental in supporting her application. “Those two people were my pivotal points,” she says. “I wouldn’t be here today without them giving me a chance.”
Dr. MacDermid supported Isabel’s interest in researching a topic close to her heart: osteoporosis. Isabel’s mother has a severe case of the bone disease, and her grandfather passed away from complications resulting from a fracture. Isabel was fascinated with how exercise could help slow down and prevent the disease.
Isabel is proud to have published multiple research papers during her master’s at Mac. She also went on to complete a PhD at the University of Waterloo, where she was awarded the prestigious CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) doctoral award. After completing her PhD, Isabel was eager to come back to McMaster. “That’s where my home is,” she says. “The research at Mac is just so impressive.”
Today, Isabel is a post-doctoral fellow at McMaster and gets immense fulfillment from mentoring students. She attributes this skill to her own PhD supervisor, Dr. Lora Giangregorio, who helped Isabel learn how to capitalize on her strengths.
In the future, Isabel would love to start her own lab, the ‘Diet and Exercise Frailty Lab.’ Her dream is to continue inspiring students while developing models to prevent falls and improve mobility for adults with osteoporosis.
“I’m really happy about being able to explore this concept of exercise as medicine. There are so many different ways that we can take care of ourselves,” she says.
Isabel wants people of colour and students who aren’t from the US and Canada to know that untraditional career paths and graduate school opportunities are out there. “It doesn’t have to fit in this really nice trajectory that we expect,” she says.
Isabel’s story is a wonderful example that unconventional career paths can be incredibly fulfilling. Because she had the courage to follow her passion, her work will improve the lives and health of thousands of people for years to come.
Dr. Isabel B. Rodrigues
BScH ’14, MSc’17
Faculty of Science
Faculty of Health Sciences
The Office of Alumni Engagement will be featuring recent grad’s career stories to show career paths are anything but linear. If you graduated in the last 10 years and are interested, share your story.
If you are looking to get started on your own journey, take advantage of the resources available to recent graduates through our partnership with the Student Success Centre.
