TD scholarship winner Jason Shrouder-Henry is an orthopaedic surgeon
March 29, 2021
To be able to select a university of your choice and not have to worry about paying tuition is a luxury any student would relish.
Just ask Dr. Jason Shrouder-Henry who is a fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeon.
In the summer of 2003, he was among 20 Canadian high school students who were the recipients of $50,000 TD Canada Trust scholarships for outstanding community leadership.
There were nearly 4,300 applicants for the prestigious scholarship established in 1995. A total of 66 finalists were selected and interviewed before the winners were chosen.
“Once I got that phone call that I was a finalist, I knew I was going to make the final 20 because I have people skills and I love communicating,” said Shrouder-Henry who graduated high school with a 91 per cent average.
Also in his favour were his activism in school and volunteerism in the wider community.
Jason Shrouder-Henry received a $50,000 TD scholarship in June 2003 from the bank’s Investment Services Branch Manager Rosanna Neglia in the presence of his parents Maxine Shrouder and Lambert Henry (c) and his maternal grandfather Rupert Shrouder (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Shrouder-Henry founded the St. Michael’s College Black Youth forum to promote ethnic diversity and encourage Black youths to make meaningful contributions. He also initiated the first African Heritage Month presentation at his high school, co-ordinated an outdoor education program for new students and volunteered at a local hospital.
In addition to offering the opportunity to choose the university he wanted to attend, the scholarship also provided him with a chance to pick the program that would best facilitate advancement to medical school.
McMaster University Bachelor of Health Sciences program was Shrouder-Henry’s first choice.
As possibly the most competitive undergraduate program in Canada, he needed a 98 per cent plus average to get into the program.
So he enrolled in the university’s General Sciences program and, with high grades in the first year, was able to transition to the Bachelor of Health Sciences program in his sophomore year.
In 2005, Shrouder-Henry and a friend, Shahmeer Ansari, approached TD Canada Trust where they interned in the summer, with a proposal to increase literary skills in children residing in Toronto’s challenged neighbourhoods.
The Literacy Through Hip Hop initiative emerged from that suggestion. Using hip hop music as a source of inspiration, children learned to read and write about the issues, history and artists of hip hop culture.
Graduating with honours from McMaster in 2007, Shrouder-Henry enrolled in Georgetown University’s medical school two months later.
Why attend medical school in the United States instead of Canada?
“Applying to medical school is a very competitive process and I got no interviews in Ontario,” said Shrouder-Henry.
Waitlisted at Harvard, he was accepted by Georgetown which has one of the lowest medical school acceptance rates in the United States.
Completing his medical doctorate in 2011, Shrouder-Henry returned to Canada to do his five-year residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Toronto.
“You learn from the best when you are going to U of T and that’s why I am so glad I was able to make that happen,” he said. “It’s great to attend a really good medical school, but the most important things in the process are residency and fellowship in terms of a brand for you. I found that to be so true.”
After two years, Shrouder-Henry took academic leave to pursue an MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management with a focus on healthcare, strategy and administration.
“I was fortunate to get into one of the top business schools in the United States,” he said. “I knew I would likely be in a business role regardless of where I am in addition to being a surgeon. I met people from a cross section of businesses and it was a great experience.”
After finishing his residency at U of T, Shrouder-Henry undertook a fellowship at the Hand Centre of San Antonio under the tutelage of Dr. David Green who was the first surgeon in San Antonio to devote his practice entirely to hand and upper extremity surgery.
“The reasons I chose to specialize in that field is because I like the patient population, the variety of surgeries you can perform as a hand surgeon and the anatomy,” he said.
To complement his hand training, he returned to U of T.
“When you do hand surgery fellowship, you pretty much do hand, wrists and some elbow surgery,” he pointed out. “I came back to Toronto focus more on shoulder and elbow and I was able to pick up a more full skill set of the whole upper extremity going from the finger tip to the shoulder. I am now in a space where I am more flexible from a job standpoint. That’s why I did two fellowships and ensured that they complement each other.”
Dr. Steve McCabe, an Associate Professor of Surgery at the U of T who in 2016 led a team of 18 surgeons that performed Canada’s first successful hand transplant, was one of the physicians that took Shrouder-Henry under his wing.
“We want every surgeon to reach their highest potential so they can provide the best care to their patients,” he pointed out. “Therefore I am always pleased when someone chooses to train further in hand surgery. Jason showed intellectual interest in the hand and upper limb and the personal commitment to be excellent. He had a good knowledge base and surgical skills which would make him a good hand surgeon.”
Last July, Shrouder-Henry took up a job offer in Illinois.
The Hand & Upper Extremity Specialist practices at Hinsdale Orthopaedics that is a division of the Illinois Bone & Joint Institute.
Dr. Jason Shrouder-Henry (Photo contributed)
It wasn’t until his last years in high school that Shrouder-Henry knew he was going to pursue a medical career.
“I was doing well in science and I figured that medicine might be a possibility,” he noted. “I had seen what it looked like to be a physician, so I knew it was a thing I could do. I wasn’t sure if I could get into medical school, but I knew I was going to university and would strive to get the highest grades I could. After my first year at McMaster, my GPA was decent enough for me to think I could get into medical school. At that point, I really went for it.”
Shrouder-Henry’s mother shaped his work ethic and confidence.
Maxine Shrouder is a banking executive with CIBC and a former Toastmasters Area Governor.
“As a teenager, I remember seeing my mom leave the house at 8 a.m. and returning home about 12 hours later,” recounted Shrouder-Henry, whose father – Lambert Henry – is a retired welder residing in Calgary. “She put in the work to progress in her career. I am doing the same thing now because I don’t know anything that’s different. She led by example and that’s what I am trying to do with my children. If I am not around at weekends or staying up late at night, I have to explain to them that I am working and it’s the price you pay for being successful.”
Shrouder, who was born in England and migrated to Canada in 1968, said her son has superseded her expectations.
“I thought he was going to be a lawyer because he was a chatter box,” she said. “During his undergraduate studies, he came in one day and said he wanted to be a doctor. His work ethic is phenomenal, so I knew he could do anything he decided to.”
Married since 2012, he and his wife – Camille Shrouder-Henry is a Human Resources Executive – have three children.
