Meet Sonia

“I really enjoy serving dinner to the ladies at Booth St each week and being able to chat with them.”

I started volunteering at Cornerstone Housing for Women (Booth St) in January 2020 as a part of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine’s Community Service Learning (CSL) placement. During my CSL placement, I was fortunate to volunteer in the kitchen, assisting with dinner preparation and service, as well as in the donations room, helping to receive and organize new donations to the centre. What touched me the most about this experience was definitely all the people I met at Cornerstone.

“I really enjoy serving dinner to the ladies at Booth St each week and being able to chat with them.”

The volunteers and staff at Cornerstone were so kind and instantly made me feel welcome. After I finished my required hours for my CSL placement, I decided to continue volunteering at Cornerstone because I enjoyed it so much!

Especially during the pandemic, volunteering each week made me feel a sense of purpose and connected to the community. As a student interested in women’s health, I think my experiences at Cornerstone will help me with my future career as a physician because it has shown me firsthand the resources available in our community to help women at any stage of their journey, and helped me to appreciate all the aspects that contribute to overall wellbeing. I look forward to continuing to volunteer at Cornerstone and I would highly recommend this volunteer position to anyone!