Local News
Grade 12 graduate Lauren Cogan creates virtual grad video with student participation from around the world
By MYRON LOVE
Like other students who expected to graduate high school anywhere in the world, 2020 Oak Park High School graduate Lauren Cogan was disappointed that there will be no formal graduation ceremonies this year to mark this momentous occasion in one’s life.
Undeterred, the daughter of Joel and Jessica Cogan has come up with a creative alternative. She has put together a video – which can be seen on Instagram and YouTube, in which the 2020 grad, clad in graduation gown and mortarboard, stands in front of her school and delivers a valedictorian address for the ages.
While Cogan introduces the usual themes about gratitude, positive memories and lessons learned, she shares her screen time with 80 other students from 17 different countries who volunteered to share their thoughts and sentiments as part of a “global Valedictorian speech.” .
The young filmmaker says she was inspired to create this video by other – localized – virtual grads and parties she had heard about or seen online. In order to create her global valedictorian speech, she reached out to fellow and sister 2020 grads – via Instagram – all over the world.
She was helped in her efforts to make the video, she notes, by close friend Reis Best and a grant from a Federal Government program called “Rising Youth”.
She reports that, as of the end of May, the video had received 12,000 views on her Instagram account and 1,000 more on YouTube. “I have received a lot of positive comments from viewers thanking me for trying to bring grads together,” she says. “It has been a great way to spread a powerful message of unity.”
That Lauren Cogan should undertake such an initiative comes as no surprise. Rather, she has shown herself to be a doer. She has an extensive volunteer resumé both in and out of school, locally and nationally.
This past year, for example, she served as co-President of the Oak Park Student Council. She has served as a peer tutor, and a Conservation Committee member. She has also been one of Manitoba’s leading athletes (for which she was awarded the Bert Knazan youth athletic award last year).
In the community, she started a youth-led initiative that collects sanitary products for people in our community who can’t afford them. (The initiative has provided over 500 boxes of products to date.)
She has served as President and Vice-President of a student led company through Junior Achievement and – last summer – she was selected to attend the JA National Summit in Calgary, where she was selected as one of the top eight leaders at the summit. In May, she received an Entrepreneurial Excellence scholarship from JA.
She has also served on the National Youth Advisory Committee for a non-profit, called Experiences Canada. As well, last summer, she, along with 64 other youth from across Canada, was invited to attend the Experiences Canada forum on Diversity and Inclusion.
Currently, she is the Meal Delivery Coordinator for the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre.
This past spring, she was supposed to go to Germany with BBYO as one of their ambassadors in March, but that was cancelled due to Covid-19. She was also scheduled to go on the March of the Living. And, as a Maimonides Scholar, she was supposed to be going to Yale University this summer for two weeks, along with other Jewish teen, to learn with some top Jewish thinkers. However, because of Covid-19, the courses this year are being conducted via Zoom.
“Maimonides hopes to have us come to Yale to learn in person sometime in the future,” she adds.
For the fall, she has been accepted to Western University and its Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario. The five-year program would give her dual degrees in Economics and Business.
But, as she concludes in the Global Valedictorian film: “Life is not about the final destination, it’s about the journey”.
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Local News
First year medical student Tim Rozovsky founds new association for local Jewish medical students
By MYRON LOVE In the face of a concerning surge in antisemitism over the past nearly three years, I am happy to report a good news story in that regard. Tim Rozovsky, the founder of the new Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba, reports that he and his fellow Jewish students enrolled in the University of Manitoba’s Max Rady College of Medicine are not experiencing any significant issues involving antisemitism.
Hopefully, the matter of the notorious Med school Valedictorian who used his podium to attack Israel was a one-off.
“My goal in forming the Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba,” says the first year medical student, “was to create a safe, supportive environment for my fellow Jewish medical students.”
He reports that the current first year class at the school has eight Jewish students – an increase over more recent years – with maybe a dozen more in the other years.
For a new medical student, Rozovsky already has an impressive resume. He was born in Russia and grew up in Israel. After the completion of his army service in 2018, the then-22-year-old rejoined his parents, Dr. Katya and Alexander, who had moved to Winnipeg a few years before.
Prior to coming to Winnipeg, Rozovsky had completed a personal trainer program out of The Academic College at Wingate in Jerusalem. Some readers may know the young man from his work as a Master Personal Trainer at the Rady JCC.
Shortly after arriving here, he enrolled in a kinesiology program at the University of Winnipeg. He graduated with a BKin Honours in 2023 and did post graduate work at the University of Manitoba. Last fall, he received his MSc in Physiology and Pathophysiology – earning two gold medals, along with 32 awards and scholarships in the process.
Rozovsky says that it was his mother who inspired him to pursue a career in medicine. Dr. Katya Rozovsky is an associate professor at the University of Manitoba and an attending radiologist, specializing in pediatric diagnostic imaging.
(Tim also adds that his wife, Irina Gelzin, whom he married about a year ago, is training to be a nurse.)
Insofar as the Jewish Medical Students’ Association of Manitoba is concerned, Rozovky reports that the group gets together multiple times a year. One of its programs was a joint Chanukah celebration with the Jewish Physicians Association of Manitoba.
There was also a joint program with the Christian Medical and Dental Students’ Association of Manitoba.
“More recently, we have been helping prospective Jewish medical students with their applications,” he says. “Hopefully we will be able to get together over the summer with the incoming Jewish students.”
As to his own future plans, Rozovsky notes that it is too early for him to be deciding on a specialty. “My goal,” he says, “is to work hard and get good grades and become the best doctor that I can be.”
Local News
Gray Academy to Represent Manitoba at National Reach for the Top Competition
By NOAH STRAUSS Posted June 6) Gray Academy’s Reach for the Top team is headed to Moncton, New Brunswick, to represent Manitoba at the National Reach for the Top tournament.
Reach for the Top is a Canadian school league that quizzes teenagers on a variety of different topics, from science and history to pop culture. Reach started out in 1961 in Vancouver, where a local CBC station broadcasted the new show; it eventually became a national broadcast starting in 1966. Alex Trebek, who famously hosted Jeopardy!, started out by hosting Reach for the Top.
Gray Academy’s very own team, made up of Grade 7 and 8 students, will travel to Moncton, New Brunswick, to compete as Team Manitoba. By winning the provincial Reach tournament, they secured their spot in the national competition.
Faculty members at Gray Academy are very supportive of the program. The Jewish Post spoke with three different staff members at the school. Coach and high school teacher Danielle Miller says she is excited for the trip; although she will not be accompanying the team herself, shehas coached them all year.
“This year we had over 20 students come to the club to join us, they practice twice a cycle at lunch,” Miller said. Due to the large turnout this year, two teams had to be formed. At lunch practices, students split into two teams of four where each player has a buzzer. The two teams compete to see who can answer the most questions correctly.
One of the two teams did exceptionally well at various tournaments throughout the year and will be traveling to nationals as the sole team representing Manitoba.
Co-coach Micah Doerksen described Reach as a great academic competition where young minds are tested on various topics through quick,fast-paced questions.
High school guidance counselor Lindsey Leipsic said, “We have athletes, non-athletes, we have students who are really involved and students who are not as involved at school, and we have quiet leaders, and we’ve seen friendships be built in Reach.” Some of her favorite memories of Reach involve seeing students from across Winnipeg come to Gray Academy and bond with one another. Lev Chisick, who is competing at nationals, agreed, saying, “Moncton is going to strengthen our school spirit and make us a better team.”
As the junior team makes their way to Moncton, the senior team will head to provincials. Later this week, students from the senior team will travel to Virden, Manitoba, to compete at the provincial level. The team qualified after placing high enough at their most recent tournament, which took place at St. Paul’s.
Confidence is high as the school heads into these final tournaments. When Nath Goldenberg, who is also competing at nationals, was asked what he is most looking forward to, his answer was short and sweet:“Winning.”
