Class Notes

In July 2005, I began researching my ancestors’ involvement in the 1825 Peter Robinson emigration experiment, which relocated 2024 impoverished, Irish tenant-farmers from Ireland to Canada. It was a sunny afternoon when I first visited the Peterborough Museum and Archives to investigate the topic. I began by searching through documents for information about my father’s paternal ancestors, surname English, but discovered that it was his mother’s grandparents, Patrick and Margaret Heffernan, who had been participants. I was interested in not only the facts but in how the participants must have been feeling and thinking while completing this monumental uprooting and life-changing journey.

Being a student at Trent University changed my life. As a mature student and single mom of two, it gave me a purpose for my pain and skills to be able to assist others. Going to university and getting my Bachelor of Science in Nursing is one of the things I am most proud of, and it has only added to the advocacy I have been doing for survivors of sexual trauma and harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces since 1998. The Paul Harris Fellow is given to deserving individuals who demonstrate service above self, and this year I received this honour in the area of vocation from the Kawartha Rotary Club.

I came to Peterborough for Trent University and fell in love with the city, never wanting to leave. We have just celebrated 25 years in business with Flavour Fashion and have since opened two other downtown businesses in Peterborough. Flavour offers a curated selection of clothing, accessories, and footwear that reflects both current trends and timeless classics. Balancing business with family life, I enjoy spending weekends exploring Peterborough's scenic spots with friends and family.  

During a recent vacation in Barbados, retired professors emeriti Dr. David Morrison and Dr. Alena Heitlinger had lunch in Bridgetown with Tony Arthur ’65 (Champlain College). Tony was one of five students in a new course on African political economy that Professor Morrison taught in 1967-68, his first year as a faculty member in Trent's Politics Department.