Growing up at UCalgary

UCalgary is getting ready to celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2026! We’re launching 60 stories that articulate some of the experiences, vision, expertise and drive of the people who have been a part of the UCalgary community and have made, and continue to make, this university into one of Canada’s top research universities.

When Kathleen Ralph, BFA’16, thinks back on her childhood, the University of Calgary isn’t just the backdrop of her story — it’s the heart of it. 

“The campus was my playground,” she says with a laugh. “I remember waiting for the landscaper to turn on the sprinklers where (parking) Lot 10 is now — it used to be athletic fields — and all the kids would run out and grab the giant sprinkler heads, spraying each other until we were soaked.”

That joyful image captures something essential about her family’s connection to UCalgary: a sense of play, community and curiosity that has spanned three generations.

Like father, like daughter

It all started with Dennis Forsyth, BEd’72.

Kathleen’s father arrived on campus in the late 1960s as a young husband and father, pursuing his Bachelor of Education. He and his wife lived in the modest family-housing student units on the west side of campus that were filled with other young couples building their futures.

“It was such a warm, close-knit community,” Kathleen recalls. “My mom still talks about how everyone looked out for each other.”

Forsyth went on to become an English teacher. It was a vocation he hadn’t anticipated when he first enrolled. 

“He started out just looking for a practical career path, but university gave him that spark,” says Kathleen. “He discovered his love for literature and teaching.”

Kathleen was born in 1966 — the same year UCalgary achieved independence from the University of Alberta. She has always felt her life was intertwined with the university’s own story. So, when she decided, decades later, to return to school to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts, it felt like coming home.

“I could have gone to art college, but my heart was with UCalgary,” Kathleen admits. “I’d spent so much time here already. I was part of its lore.”

Art classes become a family affair

Kathleen began her degree in her 40s, while raising two school-aged daughters, Emily and Rachel. Her children often tagged along to her art classes or visiting-artist lectures on Friday afternoons. 

“They grew up seeing the wonder of learning,” Kathleen says. “They’d sit in on critiques or help me with my projects. It made education feel alive to them.”

One of those collaborations turned into something unforgettable: for her honours thesis, Kathleen created an interactive, quilted artwork exploring family and creativity. Her daughters, then aged 10 and 12, contributed their own drawings and recorded stories, and became the youngest-ever exhibitors at the Nickle Galleries.

“It was such a fun and magical time,” Kathleen says. “The university was woven into our family life.”

Neatly dovetailing with another UCalgary milestone, Kathleen graduated on UCalgary’s 50th anniversary in the spring of 2016.

Like mother, like daughters

Fast forward a few years, and both Emily and Rachel found themselves following in their mother’s — and grandfather’s — footsteps.

Emily graduated in 2025 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, even sharing some of the same professors her mom had a decade earlier.

“It was so funny,” Emily recalls. “One of my professors remembered my mom from years before — she even remembered that my mom had to leave a midterm because my sister broke her ankle! The same midterm I ended up taking years later.”

That continuity, Emily says, made the university feel like home. 

“We had so much confidence navigating campus,” she says. “We knew the place, the people, even the shortcuts between buildings.”

Today, Emily works at Distress Centre Calgary, where she first began volunteering during her degree.

“It’s been amazing to take what I learned in English, including empathy and communication, and use that in real life,” she says.

Her sister, Rachel, took a different path, earning her Bachelor of Science in computer science in 2024, and she is now pursuing her master’s in the same field. 

“I’ve been a TA (teaching assistant), worked in labs and I’m thinking about pursuing a PhD,” she says. “UCalgary feels like home.”

Hopes for the future

Each of the three women have wishes for UCalgary’s future. 

Rachel hopes to see even more mental-health and counselling supports for students, while Emily wants continued investment in the arts and humanities.

Kathleen, who now manages MentorLINC, a digital mentorship platform for UCalgary students and alumni, hopes that, eventually, every student will have access to a mentor. “It’s such a powerful way to set graduates up for success,” she says.

All three agree on one thing: UCalgary’s strength lies in its community. 

“Every time I doubted myself, my professors were there,” says Kathleen. “They genuinely care about students’ success and well-being.”

That care has kept her family coming back for more than half a century. From Dennis Forsyth’s years in family housing to Kathleen’s studies in art and her daughters’ degrees, UCalgary has been more than a place of study: it’s been a home.

“Growing up, the university was where we played,” Kathleen says, smiling. “Now it’s where we’ve all grown up.”