(Photo Credit: Oreoluwapo Maxwell)

By Nathaniel Leigh

Community

Grande Prairie local achieves impressive honour in medical studies

Jul 15, 2025 | 3:09 PM

A Grande Prairie local achieved a major accomplishment while on her path to becoming a medical professional.

Oreoluwapo Maxwell not only earned the Agnes Benidickson Tricolour Award while attending Queen’s University in Ontario, the highest award the school gives out; she was also accepted into all seven of the medical schools to which she applied.

Maxwell says she and her family were very happy for the opportunities offered by all seven post secondary institutes, but she ultimately went with the University of Calgary.

“I like the comprehensive curriculum where we include things like professionalism, and health equity and clinical skills and all those things,” Maxwell says. “As well as learning about the body systems, they kind of have a holistic approach to medicine and I really enjoy that.”

(Photo Credit: Oreoluwapo Maxwell)

She says she had not decided on which field of medicine she will be pursuing, but says she is open to learning rural medicine and possibly returning to practice in Grande Prairie.

“It would be nice to come back home and see my family again and everything,” she says. “It really comes down to the benefit of that rural experience, one-to-one experience in a little bit of a smaller group. With more time and more effort put into these endeavors I think it is a possibility definitely.”

She’s encouraging anyone interested in applying to professional schools find a good support system while pursuing their goals.

“Find that strength within yourself to push towards that application and then finding the relief when things are finished and said and done,” she says. “Self regulation, but also self confidence in believing that you can actually achieve your goals and reach for those dreams.”

Maxwell and her family first moved to Grande Prairie when she was nine years old and she has roots in the UK and Nigeria as well.