That is awesome that you're school is so supportive!
I know that the University of Calgary is supportive too (I'm planing on going there, after SRS, etc, and possibly going into the psych program... but I trying to decide between being a psychologist or a psychiatrist, which are to very different programs).
Actually, one of the professors at the University of Calgary is trans, and I had the opportunity to hear her story at a little get together at the Mount Royal College (Calgary) during their Positive Space forum on transgender needs. It's good to hear that schools are opening up. In her experience, the University was very welcoming, and accommodating. She never had one complaint from the staff, and none of her students have ever complained, and in fact, she had piles of positive emails from them! The only complaint she got was from one student's parent... that's it! Which is amazing, out of thousands of people, only one parent complained. She teaches business classes.
Now, I've heard of some places that are nasty. The woman who runs PFLAG is a mother of a trans girl (and sometimes mothers to us all -- she's the most awesomest mom ever), is constantly fighting with the school that her daughter is going to in Montreal (Concordia University). I've heard the stories, and some of the teachers are pretty mean, going to the point of calling her an "it" and one teacher refused to have her attend class, and the University just shurged its shoulders and did nothing until she really complained, and she even had to get a lawyer involved! And Concordia is supposed to be a good University, and very difficult to get in! It's really sad that some Universities are ignorant still, especially ones that sit and boast about how good they are, etc. But it's great to hear that several of them have opened up and are welcoming.
The University of Calgary has several good programs, and it also has a psychologist on site that specializes in GID (among other things), and I believe they actually have a part of the program where you can specialize in treating GID paitents (there's another psychologist in town, who's gay, and he took the program there, and works there as well as in his own practice, and he helps GID paitents as well as gay/lesbian/bi, etc). (In Alberta, the clinical term is GID and I have yet to see any doctor use the term Transexual, which they consider out-dated. They also call it transgendered, but define transgender as someone with GID, but do not include cross-dressing and being a drag queen as being transgendered. I know that in the world it's different, but it's interesting to see how they define things differently and medically up here. They also call SRS, GRS or corrective surgery. I got a little kit with all of this information, and again, people argue the usage of words, etc, and where you are the definition could be different.)
Which is why I'm considering going into that field. I've always loved psychology (I took some courses in it), and it would be cool if I could one day help other trans people make the transformation.
But, Congrats, again, it's good to hear that your school is supportive!
--natalie
