The MacCast Unconventional — Nicole & Mike
A life altering event gave this alumna the dedication needed to follow her passions
Nicole Rakowski, ’15 & ’16, is a PhD candidate at the Degroote School of Business
Nicole is a busy person. She’s currently working as a Patient Experience Specialist for Hamilton Health Sciences, working towards a PhD in Health Care Administration, a sessional lecturer at Mac, is a business consultant, and is a competitive body builder.
She’s also a fighter and a survivor. After a tragic accident while on vacation in Iceland, that caused significant burns to her foot and leg, she was told that her athletic career was likely over. It was a prognosis she never wanted to hear and decided to treat like a challenge worth overcoming.
“I truly believe that most traumatic experiences lead to growth and finding meaning and creativity in adversity,” she says. “Even if [it] means failing several times along the way.”
For Nicole, she says her understanding of the world around her changed after that horrific day. Being forced to shift perspectives and develop new skills has given Nicole the confidence she needed to bring all of her interests together and cultivate a career she is proud of.
“This creative growth and enhanced development has led to these positive experiences that I could not have experienced otherwise,” she says.
In this first episode of season four of McMaster Alumni’s Unconventional podcast, listen to Nicole speak candidly about her accident and how she turned the experience into an asset for her life and her career.
McMaster taught this alum to seize opportunities, even if they seem out of reach
Mike Commito, ’15 is a hockey writer and the Director of Applied Research and Innovation at Cambrian College
Mike wears a lot of hats throughout the day: he’s a proud dad, he runs a university department, and he’s a writer and author. Knowing how to balance it all takes skill and practice — all behaviors he says he learned while working on his PhD at McMaster.
“All the things I learned at Mac…has set me up for the career I have now. I can honestly say that if I hadn’t gone through the gauntlet of getting the PhD, I don’t know if I’d be here now in this position,” he says.
When he started his PhD in History in 2010, Mike had a completely different career journey mapped out in his head. The research process and required diligence needed to write his dissertation, which focuses on black bear hunting and management, inevitably led to him toward a career that celebrates the real-world impact of applied research. It’s a career shift he’s happy to have made.
When he’s not busy championing the research done by students and faculty at Cambrian College, he channels his energies into writing about another love of his — hockey. What started as a mental break from the intense work of a PhD has now blossomed into a side gig that brings him joy.
Check out this week’s episode of Mac Alumni’s Unconventional podcast to hear Mike’s story about how he traversed a career journey that looks nothing like the original plan and turned a small creative outlet into a huge success story.
McMaster has more than 210,000 alumni living in 140 countries around the world, and they are some of the most amazing people you would ever want to meet. The Unconventional podcast will introduce some of our alumni who are working — in the arts, as cutting-edge entrepreneurs, leading the way in health, education, technology and more — to make our world a brighter place in their own unique way. Download the latest episode, or catch up if you’ve missed one, on Apple, Spotify, or Soundcloud.
