Before Dr. Amit Sundly came to Memorial to begin a master’s degree in 2014, he had never stepped foot in a university classroom.
“In India, if you have resources, you can attend full-time university, but if you don’t, you have the option to enrol in a private degree program,” said the new fall graduate. “At the beginning of the year, they give you a copy of the syllabus. But you don’t have access to university classrooms, library, professors — nothing. At the end of the year, you write the public exams and if you pass, you go on to the next year.”
For three years, Dr. Sundly worked 70-80 hours a week while doing a BA in history, English and political science on his own.
“My grades were bad. I had a 52 per cent average. But I did it.”
Fresh start
While doing his undergraduate degree, he started an IT company and ran it for two years until, during Diwali celebrations, a firecracker flew in through an open window destroying the space and equipment.
He had no insurance. He lost everything.
Looking for a fresh start, Dr. Sundly began looking into master’s programs but was rejected due to his grades.
Then, his girlfriend, now wife, began a master’s program in the U.K. He joined her, selling loft insulation door-to-door.
“I started on the 12th of September, and I was so motivated, by the end of October I was the top salesperson in the U.K.,” he said. “A company was ready to sponsor me to stay in the U.K., but I always wanted to study.”
Eventually, he applied and was accepted to Memorial’s Faculty of Education for a master’s degree in educational leadership.
“Memorial’s Faculty of Education has an admission policy on accepting people under special circumstances, and I’m not sure if I got my admission that way, but someone at Memorial read my application and took a chance on a guy with my academic background.”
More setbacks
However, more setbacks were in store.
His student visa was denied by an immigration officer who thought his grades weren’t strong enough.
“Considering my background, the immigration department thought that I would not be able to withstand the rigor of the Canadian educational system,” Dr. Sundly said.
However, he persevered and his second visa application was successful.
Dr. Sundly went on to get excellent grades in his first university classes, including 92 per cent in a research methods in education course.
“I had never studied research methods before. A fellow student saw my grades and told me to switch to a research-based program. I had no idea.”
“I didn’t want to define resilience the way the world defines it, based on education and employment only.”
He went to the associate dean to make the request and was approved.
“I had limited understanding of research process, ethics, etc.,” said Dr. Sundly. “I started working as a graduate assistant with various professors. Eventually, Dr. Gerald Galway agreed to supervise my thesis.”
While he was in the final stages of his master’s program, he met a graduate student who was doing a master’s degree in community health in the Faculty of Medicine.
“I didn’t realize you didn’t need a medical degree to study community health in Canada, because in India you do,” he said. “I started looking into that program and after auditing a health promotion course for a semester, a professor agreed to supervise me.”
Improving the lives of children
In 2017 he was accepted into Memorial’s Master’s Degree in Community Health Program which he worked on concurrently while wrapping up his master’s in education thesis.
When he passed his education degree, he switched to the Doctoral Degree in Community Program.
During this time, Dr. Sundly worked as a child and youth worker. (He also drove a cab for a time.)
His interdisciplinary research interests involve improving the lives of children with adverse childhood experiences, especially children in care.
“In the child welfare system, one of the main problems is the intergenerational transmission of adversities,” he said. “I chose to do my PhD thesis about the resilience of people who grew up in the system, but I didn’t want to define resilience the way the world defines it, based on education and employment only.
“In resilience, there are three concepts: adversity, a process and a good outcome,” he continued. “My participants defined for themselves what adversity meant, what a good outcome was and they told me how they achieved good outcomes while facing adversities.”
He recently completed his thesis under the supervision of Dr. Diana Gustafson from the Faculty of Medicine and Dr. Stephen Ellenbogen from the School of Social Work.
Dr. Sundly says his success comes from overcoming the challenges he faced up to this point.
“I have had a lot of barriers in my life, but I kept on working hard. I’m done all that now, but it all started with the opportunity someone at Memorial gave to a guy whose application was not technically good enough.”
