9
I
n a year when the University of Windsor marks five decades
as a public institution, Bernarda Camello-Doctor MEd ’84 is
celebrating her own golden milestone. Fifty years ago, she first
taught in the new university’s home economics department.
She is not only a teacher but a lifelong UWindsor student of…
well, everything and anything, depending on her latest interest.
In 1959, Camello-Doctor emigrated from the Philippines as
a scholarship student and aspiring dietician for practicum at a
Chicago hospital. While there, a nurse from Hôtel-Dieu Hospital
recruited her to teach nutrition to nursing students in Windsor.
She took a brief leave from teaching in 1962 to stay home
with her new baby, having married UWindsor faculty member
Dr. Antonio Doctor, now retired. After only six months away,
however, Camello-Doctor joined UWindsor’s home economics
department and remained until the department was absorbed into
the Faculty of Human Kinetics in the late 1960s.
“I’m more into music and the arts,” Camello-Doctor says. “So
instead of going to Human Kinetics, I went back into the community
to teach as a home economist at St. Anne’s high school in 1973.”
Throughout the years, she took university courses that deepened
her knowledge in the areas in which she taught. In her work at
St. Anne’s, Camello-Doctor began to work with students who had
learning disabilities in what was then called the Home Arts Program.
“That point was when I thought that I needed to come back to
school again to get my disability certificate,” she says. “That was how
I got interested in establishing a charity to take care of kids who
couldn’t afford to go to school.”
It was then that the idea for the KidsCare Philippines
Education Service Centre (KCP) was born. Founded by Camello-
Doctor in 2003, KCP is a program to provide street children in
Manila with educational services otherwise not available to them to
help them integrate into the general school system.
KCP services include providing children and their families
with health and hygiene needs, food, clothing, positive parenting
education and other appropriate assistance to ready at-risk children
for education.
Following her 1998 retirement from teaching, Camello-Doctor
spent a year in the Philippines further establishing her charity, and
audited UWindsor business courses. She credits Odette School of
Business professor Francine Schlosser for her efforts in helping to
establish the business side of KCP.
Today, the charity includes a local component, the KidsCare
Windsor-Essex High School Bursary Fund, which provides financial
support for local students hoping to pursue post-secondary education.
As a soprano member of the University Singers, Camello-
Doctor has also shared her love of music through the Cabebe
Camello Bursary for Music Students.
Supporting her charities requires a great deal of creative
financing, so the lively 80-year-old gets busy, using such
opportunities as her recent milestone birthday as a fundraiser.
“We raised $6,000 and I’m hoping to make it more,” she says.
“I am one of those who are involved in many activities, not just
my charity. I am active as an OPUS board member; I also mentor
international students through the International Office. I am trying
to share what I’ve lived through as an international student myself.”
Her friendly face on campus is known for providing hundreds
of cookies to students passing through the CAW Student Centre
as a stress reliever during exam time. She also volunteers extensively
through her church community and continues to attend UWindsor
classes that catch her interest.
“I’m auditing those courses for personal development,” she says.
“I’m trying to influence retired people to come to the University and
I’ve had quite a few who have.
“I want people to be really actively engaged in whatever they
want to do—charity, service—there are all kinds of needs that can be
fulfilled in the community. Whether it’s the school community, the
church community, in your own family, there are so many needs in
the world. I invite people to come along and do what I’m doing.”
V
STUDENT PROF I LE
At left: Bernarda Camello-Doctor MEd ’84
BY LORI LEWIS
“I WANT PEOPLE TO BE REALLY ACTIVELY
ENGAGED IN WHATEVER THEY WANT TO
DO—CHARITY, SERVICE—THERE ARE ALL
KINDS OF NEEDS THAT CAN BE FULFILLED
IN THE COMMUNITY.”
BERNARDA CAMELLO-DOCTOR
A student of everything
Be r na r da Came l l o -Doc t o r MEd ’ 84
