Brian Swane, Special to Canada West

EDMONTON – As far as Jagdeesh Singh Uppal was concerned, he really wasn’t doing anything different than every other teenager looking for summer work.

Except while many of his high school classmates were applying for jobs at fast food joints or as councillors at kids’ camps, he was approaching Dr. Kingsley Donkor about doing research with the Thompson Rivers University chemistry professor.

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal” Singh Uppal recalls.

“But now that I think about, I’m really grateful he gave me that opportunity.”

A year before even enrolling at TRU, Singh Uppal spent the months between Grade 11 and 12 working under Kingsley. Singh Uppal went on to attend Thompson Rivers from 2013 to 2017, where he earned a Science Degree, captained the WolfPack swim team, and came away with a CV that impresses both academically and athletically.

The honours he received during his time at TRU include: the U SPORTS Men's Swimming Student-Athlete Community Service Award, the Canada West Men's Swimming Student-Athlete Community Service Award, the TRU Athletic Director’s Award, the TRU Scholar Athlete of the Year, the Ken Lepin Award for Excellence in Science, and Recognition of Excellence from the TRU Board of Governors.

And that’s just accounting for his last two years.

“I’m honoured to get the accomplishments, and it proves that hard work pays off after a while, but the journey itself means more to me,” says Singh Uppal.  “The friendships I developed, the connections I made with my professors, the relationship I had with my coaches, and all the struggles I had and what I learned from them, that (all) played a bigger factor in who I am now.”

Now, Singh Uppal is in his second and final year studying towards a master’s in science at the University of Alberta. He also remains dedicated to his sport, training some 20 hours a week with the Edmonton Keyano Swim Club. 

“One of the biggest things I took out of swimming and doing academics in university is the importance of balance. You can’t just focus on studies and nothing else, and you can’t just focus on swimming and nothing else,” says Singh Uppal, who feels that all his time in the pool actually keeps him from becoming burnt out.

“I don’t think you can just do school and forget about everything else, you have to focus on your body, your mental health, physical health, and everything like that to be successful.”

Such perspective should come as no surprise from someone who at age 16 decided he wanted to spend his summer in a university lab.

“In high school,” he says, “you learn about all the research that has been done, everything that has been discovered, and I’d always think to myself, ‘What happens in a lab?’ What does a researcher do? What’s their day-to-day activities?”

The Sa-Hali Secondary student found a mentor in Kingsley, who put Singh Uppal to work with research into flavonoids using spectrophotometry and oils using FTIR spectroscopy. You know, usual summer job stuff.

“I’m not sure if a lot of people who would want a high school student to come to the lab and start doing research,” Singh Uppal says.

“I think (Kingsley) was happy that someone young was interested about doing research and wanted to develop a passion for it, so he was excited to help me develop that passion,” added Singh Uppal, who would continue to work under Kingsley after starting university.

The aspirational teenager left such an impression that TRU’s Dean of Science arranged for Singh Uppal to research at the prestigious Autonomous University of Barcelona. In the summer of 2015, following his second year, Singh Uppal headed overseas to work on a project that involved electrode platforms detecting thrombin.

In the mean time, Singh Uppal had decided to further pursue another passion he’d developed in high school - competitive swimming – and joined the WolfPack varsity team, specializing in the breaststroke and freestyle sprint races at Canada West meets. So naturally, when the student-athlete went to Spain, he took his swim gear with him.

“I got to swim in two international competitions,” he says. “I was training at the same time as doing my research.”

In 2016, Singh Uppal received the Mitacs Globalink Research Award, and spent the summer studying researching Alzheimer’s at the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee, India.  It was a character-building experience for Singh Uppal, who returned home to lead the TRU to its finest season in the pool, qualifying the most athletes in program history for the Canada West Swim Championships. Their captain made a third appearance at the championships, while winning the Canada West Community Service Award for the second consecutive time.

He graduated the following spring with a Bachelor of Science, and enrolled at the U of A, where he is currently researching genetic determinants of arsenic-induced diseases, and is on pace to receive his Master’s in May. From there, Singh Uppal is considering a PhD, or going to med school.

With that in mind, it’s worth noting that Singh Uppal still has two years of U SPORTS eligibility left. And remarkably, the latest times he’s clocking in the pool now are faster than his top speeds while competing for the WolfPack.

Could a Canada West comeback be in the cards?

Well, he’s still pretty good at making the extraordinary seem ordinary.

“I’m trying to improve all my swim times,” he understates, “and do good quality research as well.”

About #CanadaWestCreated

The #CanadaWestCreated series features stories of former Canada West student-athletes who have moved on to excel in their careers and communities. The individuals profiled in the #CanadaWestCreated series exemplify how student-athletes build the skills and connections needed to succeed following the completion of their time in university.