* À noter que cette histoire est uniquement en anglais
My name is SunMin Park, and I’m a master’s student in Chemistry at Mount Allison University where I conduct biomedical research. Outside of the lab, I’m passionate about bridging science, medicine, and community action. That passion led me to found MtA Gives Blood, a student-led initiative dedicated to raising awareness about blood, stem cell, and organ donations.
During my year away from university, I worked full-time in my local hospital’s emergency room. There, I came to understand just how lifesaving blood donations truly are, with each one representing a real person’s story and a moment of hope, healing, and a second chance. Those experiences stayed with me. When I returned to university in 2021, a class project on transplant immunology further deepened my understanding of the state of blood, stem cell, and organ donations in Canada. Wanting to share what I had learned and empower other students to roll up their sleeves to donate and make a tangible difference, I teamed up with a friend to start a small awareness campaign. We called it "MtA Gives Blood" (MGB).
At first, it was just the two of us and a few Instagram posts. But the response was overwhelming. Even in the middle of the pandemic, students wanted to help. When COVID-19 restrictions closed local spaces for blood drives, we organized trips 50 km away to the Moncton Centre, filling six Life Buses with student donors—the largest group donation in Eastern New Brunswick that year.
What started as a small campaign has now become a big “Give Blood” movement on campus, in our community, and beyond. Today, MGB is an official student club that hosts multiple mobile clinics and stem cell swabbing events each year, making donation accessible in our small town. On a campus of just 2,000 students, we’ve engaged more than 500 student donors and recruited 200+ students (and counting) to the national stem cell registry. For many, their first blood donation through MGB has become the start of a lifelong commitment to giving the greatest gift of all—the gift of life.
But numbers only tell part of the story. What I’m most proud of is the culture we’ve created, one where giving is a shared act of compassion, where students, teammates, and friends donate side by side. MGB is a testament to what’s possible when passion meets purpose, and a reminder that saving lives can start right on campus.
