When Sophie Watts (PhD’23) was in the last year of grad school studying apple-breeding techniques, she made an interesting discovery about her own family tree. She was about to become the fourth generation of women in her family to graduate from Dal.
Sophie believes that has influenced her in ways she hasn’t fully realized. “The fact that we all did this at Dal is a really awesome coincidence,” she says.
It’s not the only coincidence that is notable. Sophie completed her degree exactly 100 years after her great grandmother, Anna Yates (later MacNeill) (BA’23) (1898-1970), started the family’s impressive legacy. That continued with Sophie’s grandmother, Elizabeth Watts (DPH’52) (1927-2010), her great aunt, Dorothy Yates (BA’53) (1925-2011), and her mother, Jennifer Watts (MURP’96), who had Sophie while completing her master’s studies. That inspired Sophie to dedicate her thesis to her great grandmother and the women who went to Dal before her.
“It was really amazing to think about all that while watching Sophie walk across the stage during her graduation,” says Jennifer. “It speaks to the love of education that was passed down through our family.”
Although all four generations of women followed different paths after graduation, they shared a dedication to making a difference. Elizabeth became a registered nurse and worked in public health for several decades while engaging in advocacy work in the community. Jennifer served two terms as a Halifax Regional Municipality councillor and was CEO of the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia for six years. And Sophie is contributing to food security through her research on genomic techniques for better breeding of plants.
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