Maike van Niekerk
Election Year: 2017
Election Constituency: Canada
Scholar Status: Scholar Alum
Rhodes Identifier: Maritimes & St John's 2017
Biography
Maike is a Schulich Leadership Scholar studying oncology-focused nursing at Dalhousie University. She has earned a perfect academic average, while conducting research exploring the relationship between historical traumas, psychological distress, and cancer diagnoses among Indigenous peoples in Canada. Recently named one of Canada's Top 20 Under 20, Maike developed a chartable program, Katrin's Karepackage (KK), which has raised over $110,000 CAD to offset travel costs for cancer patients living in rural communities. An avid endurance runner and cyclist, she also volunteers twenty-five hours a week and plays the oboe in her community's orchestra and wind symphony. Maike's ultimate goal is to develop novel and culturally appropriate psychiatric treatment tools for marginalized populations diagnosed with cancer in Canada.