By Helena Bryan

Health Sciences grad Anna Carolsfeld is one of those people who enjoys the journey at least as much as the destination.

While earning her degree, and a very respectable 4.13 grade-point-average, Carolsfeld was never one of those eye-on-the-prize, nose-to-the-grindstone types.

Far from it.

While she studied hard, she maintained a balance too, doing what she truly enjoyed: playing on SFU’s basketball team, coaching kids at summer camps and clinics, participating in the Semester in Dialogue initiative and directing the Health Sciences Peer Mentorship program.

Her well-rounded university career makes her a perfect candidate for this year’s Gordon M. Shrum Undergraduate Medal, SFU’s most prestigious undergraduate award.

It’s given out annually to the graduating student whose high scholastic standing and extracurricular activities demonstrate outstanding qualities of character and unselfish devotion to the university.

Carolsfeld admits “fitting it all in” was never easy, especially at first.

“Between waking up at 4:45 a.m. for early morning practice, training and classes during the day and studying at night, my first semester was kind of a blur of physical and mental boundary-pushing. But slowly I found my footing and discovered ways to work my interests into my studies and I found new interests.”

In fact, Carolsfeld discovered the appeal of a whole new faculty.

It wasn’t until her third year, after stints in International Studies and Psychology, that she decided on Health Sciences. “Health was a nucleus to which I could relate a lot of other things I was learning,” she says.

Carolsfeld is currently on an internship in Bolivia, where she’s working on a baseline study exploring the current conditions of food systems in three small communities—and learning to speak Spanish along the way.

Where to from there?  She’s not sure.

“Probably still figuring out what or who I want to be when I grow up,” Carolsfeld says. “But as long as I’m doing something fun and interesting and I’m surrounded by good people, I’m not too worried about where I end up.”