Karina Awad-Battista

As a second-semester student in Health Sciences, I have had the opportunity to explore a number of passions at Dawson, including my enthusiasm for literature. This essay is a tribute to both my love for writing and my passion for championing women’s rights. I want to thank Gina Granter for her incredible mentoring that allowed me to rediscover the wonder that I feel when creating art. I hope to continue to explore writing as a hobby while I pursue my studies in the medical field.

Samantha Brissette Greco
I am a second-year Enriched Health and Life Sciences student. I wrote this piece during my second semester of Cegep for my Short Story English course with Professor Andrea Lynn Strudensky. The essay explores human exceptionalism and the limits of rationality in Jack London’s To Build a Fire, inspired by my first encounter with evolutionary theory and the Great Chain of Being in my Ecology and Evolution course. Although I study science, I have always been interested in literature and writing. I am an avid reader, especially of fantasy, and being published in the Dawson English Journal is an exciting opportunity to share this passion.

Jennifer Dao
I’m a second-year Health and Life Sciences student. I’ve always been a huge fan of literature: the English classes at Dawson only reinforced that by teaching me close reading. What I especially like about Karen Solie’s poem is the way it incorporates math, biology and ecology, which is relevant to me as a science student planning to pursue a career in healthcare. My response to Solie’s “Pastoral” is my attempt at dissecting the meaning of each word.

Minola Grent
I am a second-year student in the Law, Society and Justice program, and I am thrilled to have my essay presented by the Dawson English Journal. This topic was completely new to me, but that was exactly why I chose to write it. International trade agreements tell a deeper story than just that of economic exchanges. With every new one I discovered, I found myself avidly reaching to learn more about them. Canada may not be depicted in the best light, but criticism is the root of growth. I hope to reach law school and continue educating myself and others through writing.

Esher Hipfner
I am an ALC student in my fourth semester in the Arts and Culture program. I first learned about Artemisia Gentileschi in the Introduction to Arts and Culture class in my first semester, and wrote this essay in my second semester for an art history course. I am interested in just about everything relating to the humanities, and I hope to eventually go into journalism.

Max Jones
I graduated from Pure and Applied sciences this past fall semester. Though I am uncertain about what I want to study in the future, I plan on applying to university in Electrical engineering. I wrote this summative essay for the course “Literature and Food” taught by Olivia Wood. During my readings and class discussions, I found the theme of generosity and its complexities to be particularly compelling in “Babette’s Feast.” As such, when I read through Kitchen and noticed similar themes, I decided to explore the topics of generosity and selflessness in both stories.

Yuri Romishevsky

I am currently in my final semester of the Visual Arts program at Dawson College, where I have developed a deeper passion for various forms of art, including literature. I have long been fascinated by books and media that explore supernatural themes and their symbolic significance. I am particularly drawn to detail-oriented works, where even the smallest elements can carry layered meanings. Naturally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my English teacher, Rebecca Million, for her guidance in my pursuit of literary analysis and for her support in the publication of this essay.

Sherry Ni
Hey! This is Sherry. I’m in my last semester in Enriched Health Science. I wrote this essay for my Domestic Gothic class with Luke Reid (he’s awesome). I’ve always found writing to be a way to explore my own trauma and sexuality and in a way, this essay did make me cry multiple times (due to the deadline and me resonating with Machado in her exploration of love and relationships). I plan on going into neuro or cardiac surgery (very much inspired by McDreamy and Dr. Yang) and hopefully will continue writing as a side quest.

Zhijian Sun
I’m Jian, a first-year Pure and Applied Sciences student. Taking a class last semester on how to pay attention made me realize how rarely we give our full presence to the ordinary things around us. Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day” asks how we shall spend our “one wild and precious life”; this project a creative essay and video–is my humble answer: we begin by paying attention to the small, fleeting, yet fundamentally beautiful things.

Nguyen Bao Han Tran
I am a recent graduate of Dawson College, where I completed a Social Science diploma in the Law, Society and Justice profile. This essay was written for an English course, BXE, and examines issues of environmental injustice, corporate power, and legal accountability through the Steven Donziger case. I am especially grateful to my professor, Gina Granter, whose encouragement and thoughtful feedback motivated me to strengthen my writing. I am currently studying Political Science at the University of Toronto and have a strong interest in advocating against injustice through research, writing, and public engagement.

Annie Ya
I am Annie, a second-year student in Health and Life Sciences with a strong interest in the brain and mind. This led me to take Francis David Lardy’s Deceptive Desire English course, where I analyzed texts through the lenses of psychiatry, neurology, psychology, and philosophy. In this essay, I applied Sigmund Freud’s theory of the id, ego, and superego to interpret short stories from Jim Crace’s novel The Devil’s Larder, revealing deeper psychological meanings beneath its seemingly trivial narratives. In university, I intend to further explore the connections within this interdisciplinary field through studies in cognitive science.