Where are they now?

They don’t believe they’re on the Maclean’s cover until strangers start whispering or they get calls from long-lost friends. After all, many are chosen last-minute when a photographer notices a glint of future promise in their eyes. For our 20th anniversary, we’ve tracked them down. Turns out they had reason to be optimistic.

This Year’s Cover GIRL: Deanna Jarvis Jarvis, 19, is from Toronto, where she graduated from the drama-focused Etobicoke School of the Arts. Now studying adult development, families and well-being at the University of Guelph, Jarvis hopes to one day be a counsellor. She’s very happy with Guelph. “The minute I walked on to campus, I had the feeling that this is my school,” she says. “You should see the fall leaves. I visited Laurier, too, but it felt like a concrete jungle.” Jarvis hopes to be acting again soon. “I actually tried out for a production of ‘Hamlet’ that Judith Thompson was directing but it conflicted with a mandatory course.” Next year, perhaps. “I need my hobby back,” she says.
2009 – Alena Ivanova While growing up in Russia, Alena Ivanova dreamt of being a model and “always wanted to be in a magazine,” says the 24-year-old, who immigrated to Canada five years ago and graduated from York University with a B.A. “But I never dreamed of being on a cover of Maclean’s. And of course it is an awesome feeling when not only your friends and relatives call you and tell you, ‘Wow is that you on a cover?’ but also complete strangers recognize you.” No modelling scouts recognized her, unfortunately. She’s back at York studying to be a chartered accountant.
2007 – Jacqueline Hoyt So proud was he to see his daughter on the front cover of our 2007 rankings issue, Jeff Yuill bought about 20 copies of the issue, then drove to the Department of Agriculture where his daughter was working to show her. “He called first and said the magazine was ready and told me he had a surprise,” says Hoyt, 28, who currently lives in Truro, N.S., and is finishing up her maternity leave. “I was happy for myself but felt bad for the other people who stood there for an hour and never made it on the cover.” Hoyt is a graduate of Nova Scotia Agricultural College.
2004 – Sara Metwally Shorty after graduating from Queen’s University with an economics degree, Sara Metwally moved to Cairo, where the rankings issue isn’t quite as popular. “I wasn’t stopped on the street or anything, but I will admit I did take a copy of the issue to my first interview at Starcom.” Metwally is still with Starcom, a media communications agency, and recently returned to Cairo after a stint in Dubai.
2003 – Karen Yam Running late for class one day, Karen Yam and her friend were forced to sit at the front of their bacterial pathogenesis class, which happened to be right in the sightlines of our photographer, Christinne Muschi. Yam graduated from McGill’s microbiology and immunology department in 2004 and stayed on to earn her Ph.D. Yam’s sister managed to get an enlarged version of the cover, which her parents hung on the wall of her childhood bedroom in Toronto. “I think it’s very cute when my mom says that when she looks into my old room with the poster, it is as if I’m still there, even though I now live in Montreal.”
2002 – Nicolas Pratt What Nicolas Pratt remembers most about the picture, which was taken at his high school, was photographer Sandy Nicholson. “He was Australian and found it quite amusing that his national anthem was playing over the PA. So he got the three of us to sing the anthem for him.” Pratt graduated from Queen’s University with a B.Sc.E. in mechanical engineering and now works as a sustainable design consultant in the building industry. He lives in Mississauga, Ont.

2000 – Morwenna Marwah Morwenna Marwah remembers it being “an absolutely stunning fall day” when she and four others were photographed in front of one of the arches at University College (at the University of Toronto). “I think it took the photographer a number of shots to make quite sure that none of us were squinting,” adds Marwah, who currently lives in Toronto and works for MASS LBP, an advisory firm that specializes in public consultation.
2000 – Arvin Hariri Hariri was supposed to be on the 1999 cover but missed the photo shoot. If it wasn’t for a last-minute phone call, he would have missed it again. “I had about 10 minutes to make it over,” he says. “That’s how I ended up on the cover in cargo pants.” The University of Toronto biology graduate earned his M.D. and then started a property management company in Toronto.
1996 – Martha Newport “When I look at the cover now,” says Martha Newport, “I am reminded of how I felt then—that anything is possible for me. It’s nice to know it’s still true today.” Newport, 33, who joined IBM after graduating from Acadia with a B.A. in business administration and has been there ever since, admits that when the rankings issue hit newsstands, she first called her parents, then ran out and bought every single copy she could get her hands on.
1996 – Trevor Amundrud “I had a lot of calls for a while once the issue was released,” says Amundrud, 36, who played semi-pro hockey after graduation and currently lives in Melfort, Sask., with his wife and two kids. “The coolest was from a friend out in B.C. who called from the dentist’s office.”
1995 – Janet Murray and Jonathan Sharpe Janet Murray and Jonathan Sharpe (who appeared on the cover with another student, Mark Hansen) dated throughout university and married in 1999. “We thought at the time it would most likely be a small picture but never did we expect front cover. It was really surreal,” says Murray, who for the next few years at St. FX was known as “the girl on the cover.” Today, the couple live in Summerside, P.E.I., with their two children, Claire, 5, and Ian, 3. Murray works as a registered nurse in the oncology unit at the Prince County Hospital and Sharpe is a family physician.
???????1994 – Tracy Clinch After refereeing volleyball games all day, Tracy Clinch frantically ran back to her room, changed, and then made her way to the top of St. Mary’s Rice Residence for the photo shoot. “There was no time to do any last minute touch-ups or fussing, and the sun was shining so brightly on us,” says Clinch, who graduated from St. Mary’s with a political science degree in 1994. “I remember being envious of the guy in shades!” Clinch still has a framed copy of the magazine in her home office in Fredericton, N.B., where she works in the marketing department of McCain International.