Meet Our Team
Heather MacDonald (She/Her)
Writing Center Coordinator
BA Honours English Language and Literature,St. Thomas University, 2002
MA Folklore,
Memorial University, 2008
Bachelor of Education,
St. Thomas University, 2010
About: Before coming to the Writing Centre, Heather taught High School, Grade 1, Adult Basic Education, and the GED program. She was also the Learning Strategist at STU for 3 years. Her father graduated from STU in 1974, so she is a second-generation STUdent and feels like this is home. When she is not working with words, she is loving her two cats, refinishing furniture, or running after her adorable 6-year-old twin girls.
Random Fact about Heather: She plays several instruments like tin whistles, guitar, and bodhran, and plays in a Celtic folk band. She recently bought an accordion and is taking lessons.
Rebecca Dykeman (She/Her)
English Language and Literature & Great Books
About: Rebecca is a fourth-year student completing double honours in English and Great Books. Some of her favourite books that she's read for her undergrad include the Homeric epics, Plato's Symposium, and Watchmen. Rebecca also volunteers at the UNB Women's Centre. She grew up in Woodstock, New Brunswick, and enjoys TV, video games, and reading.
Random Fact about Rebecca: Rebecca is a huge fan of Florence + The Machine. She would love to see them in concert someday.
Kristina Yurchenko (She/Her)
English Language and Literature, History
About: Kristina is a fourth-year student double honouring in English and History. She is passionate about sharing knowledge, so she wants to pursue a career either in the education field or academia. Kristina loves to travel and explore new places, but she also likes to spend her free time hanging out with her family and friends, writing poetry, reading, drawing, watching TV shows, and jogging.
Random Fact about Kristina: Kristina's favourite Disney movies are "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin”.
Patricia Forestell (She/Her)
BA Honours English Literature, Minor Sociology,
St. Thomas University, 2023
Masters in English Literature with a specialization in Medieval and Renaissance studies,
University of Ottawa, in progress
About: Patricia graduated from STU in May of 2023 and is now pursuing a Masters degree in English Literature with a specialization in Medieval and Renaissance studies at the University of Ottawa. At STU, Patricia honoured in English Literature and minored in sociology. Patricia’s areas of scholarly interest include women’s voices and themes of identity in medieval literature, as well as folklore and fairytales. Patricia’s free time is often occupied with reading, writing, and playing with her kitten Phoebe.
Random Facts about Patricia: Although Patricia spent the later part of her childhood in New Brunswick, she has lived in both Toronto and London, England.
Sid d'Entremont (They/He)
Psychology, English, Gerontology
About: Sid is a third-year student hoping to honour in Psychology, major in English, and minor in Gerontology. After STU, they plan on completing an MA in Speech Language Pathology. They have previously been involved with STU for Sustainability. Sid is from Pubnico, an Acadian fishing village in Yarmouth County Nova Scotia, and they love living by the ocean. In their free time, they enjoy reading, writing poetry, and visiting farmer's markets.
Random Fact about Sid: They love My Chemical Romance and have seen them in concert.
Sarah Kasprzak (She/Her)
BA Psychology (adding Honours postgrad), Minors in Gender Studies and Sociology
About: Sarah is a fourth-year student who is glad to have landed at St. Thomas in 2022 after transferring from two other universities in her home province of Nova Scotia. In the Foundation Year Program at the University of King’s College, Sarah underwent a boot camp-like reading and paper writing intensive that fostered academic skills she is excited to carry forward as a Writing Tutor. Sarah is passionate about her studies (perhaps embarrassingly so) and adores diving headfirst into new concepts that shape the way she sees the world, which, if all goes well, should propel her to her dream career as a prof and therapist. She loves listening to podcasts, walking through residential neighborhoods, tagging along on her mum’s adventures as a singer-songwriter, and seeking out new coffee shops as a third-wave barista on hiatus.
Random Fact about Sarah: Sarah once walked all the way into the showrooms of an IKEA with a ball of yarn in her bag, unaware that the “working end” of her knitting was caught hundreds of meters behind her, winding itself infinitely into the revolving doors.
Adam Schwartz (He/They)
Double Honours in Great Books and English
About: Adam is a fourth-year student pursuing double honours in English Literature and Great Books, and hopefully a career in academia post-STU. He is currently working on his Great Books honours thesis, which is about the work of Virginia Woolf and the development of the novel over the course of the twentieth century. He loves all sorts of books and music, as well as fantasy video games and horror movies. Adam also volunteers with the 203 Centre, and just finished a summer internship for the Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick, a non-profit archival organization dedicated to the preservation of the history of New Brunswick's 2SLGBTQIA+ population.
Random Fact about Adam: They are British-Canadian, and mildly obsessed with the work of Kate Bush.