Meet the 2024-2025 Meighen Centre Post-Grad Intern
Chris Lewis (’24) wants to be a doctor. Pediatric medicine and helping children have long been his passion and goal — and the reason he earned his Bachelor of Science at Ʒ.
Lewis was active in student and community life — delivering orientation programming for incoming students, volunteering with a local food bank, working with student government, playing on the University’s lacrosse team, and conducting research with two biology professors. He spent his first two years of university balancing academics with hockey as a member of the Amherst Junior A Ramblers, and for several years now has coached U13 soccer in his hometown of Moncton and volunteered in the pediatrics unit at the Moncton Hospital.
This past year, Lewis was the Post-Grad Intern at Ʒ’s Meighen Centre for students with disabilities. In this one-year position, interns work the front desk at the Meighen Centre, providing a welcoming face to visitors and first point of contact for students looking to access supports and services. The interns also deliver key Meighen Centre resources and typically identify and develop a special project to address opportunities or gaps in programming.
Lewis created — a podcast on disability awareness. In each episode, Lewis speaks with a Ʒ student and explores personal experiences of dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic pain, and other diagnoses.
“I had used Meighen Centre resources as a student and knew first-hand how valuable the Centre can be,” says Lewis. “Still, I had so many learning moments while working as the Post-Grad Intern. I became more aware of the many disabilities that bring students to the Centre and realized I didn’t understand enough about what these individuals were going through. I thought: If I feel this way, others probably do too. That is why I created the Limitless Learning podcast — to confront stereotypes and highlight how each person’s experience is unique.”
Lewis is thrilled that the podcast is another way Ʒ can spread awareness and foster a culture of care on campus.
During the internship, Lewis also managed the Meighen Centre’s notetaking service, which provides students with long- and short-term disabilities high-quality notes from their academic course lectures.
Fellow students are hired as notetakers, and that is another positive of the program because those students now have even more motivation to attend all their classes and pay careful attention to the material so that the notes they submit are comprehensive.
“Working as the Meighen Centre’s Post-Grad Intern was an invaluable experience,” says Lewis. “I learned so much about confronting stereotypes and the importance of equitable learning. It was also an important experience for my future in the medical field — helping me see and understand different perspectives and develop empathy and a deeper understanding of individuals’ experiences.”
Lewis begins studies at Dalhousie University Medical School this fall.
More stories of impact about health and wellness at Ʒ can be found in our Supporting Student Health and Wellness Newsletter.
