by Peter Johansen
If Martha Chertkow finds time to sleep, it’s not clear when.
The fourth-year student in Carleton’s Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management (B.PAPM.) program has tackled everything from Parliament Hill to Darfur with equal gusto. And she’s made sure to spare enough time for sports, music and contributions to student life in Kroeger College, where her degree program is housed. Her academics haven’t suffered either: she was named a finalist this year in one of the world’s most prestigious academic awards, the Rhodes Scholarship.
As Elaine Rouleau, the Kroeger College administrator, puts it: “Martha seems to be able to pack 30 hours into every day. I have no doubt she will end up exactly where she wants to be.”
But Martha shrugs off such amazement this way: “You just have to be motivated about what you do.”
Her activity level is nothing new. In high school, she volunteered with NGOs in Botswana, Guatemala and Costa Rica; helped establish the McGill chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur; and raised funds for such charities as CARE and the Kalahari Peoples Fund.
It all fueled her passion for social justice. But, she says, “As I kept reading articles and reports, I realized that if I wanted to make a difference in public policy, I’d have to get involved in politics. That’s why I came to Carleton.”
And she did get involved. She volunteered for Glen Pearson, the Liberal critic for international development in Parliament. That led to a part-time job as his research assistant. She served as a special assistant to a second MP, and landed one summer in the constituency office of a third.
She says, “It was energizing to study politics at Carleton and then get the tangible and practical perspective on the ground, and put the two together.”
On campus she’s Vice-President of Policy and Academic for the Kroeger College student society, where last year she wrangled professors, Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and four Kroeger students to compete in a trivia night, dubbed “Are You Smarter than a Kroeger Kid?” Top spot was shared by May and Patrick Salonius, then a first-year Kroeger student. Martha is organizing another session – a fun take on the college’s traditional policy discussions with Parliamentarians – for Feb. 1.
As if that’s not enough, she’s performed in “The Vagina Monologues” for the past four years, plays French horn in the Carleton Chamber Music Ensemble, is on intramural teams in soccer and basketball, and helps ease immigrants into Ottawa life as a youth host at the Catholic Immigration Centre.
She parlayed all that into an internship last summer with the International Labor Organization in Geneva. Despite folks who told her she didn’t stand a chance, she landed the position after sending resumes to 70 U.N. offices. “Being surrounded by all those interns with fascinating life stories from around the world was an incredible experience,” she says.
Martha hopes to work in post-conflict reconstruction and transitional justice when she graduates, but meanwhile says her wide-ranging passions will pay off: “I believe you need to have more than one specific understanding of the world,” she says. “Only then are you able to find a solution that truly appreciates the complexity of any issue at hand.”