Gadhi Cruz

By Elaine Smith

 

“You don’t ever succeed in life without the guidance of others,” says Gadhi Cruz, a Merit Award alumna who is now a senior vice-president and senior legal counsel for Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd.’s Canadian branch.
 

Cruz, her two sisters and her father came to Canada from the Philippines in June 1995 to join her mother, who worked as a live-in caregiver here. They shared a one-bedroom apartment and funds were limited. On weekends, she and her sisters helped their mother clean houses to earn extra money; babysitting helped them earn bus fare.
 

“My dad told us that they had no real money to pass on to us, but they could provide us with a really good education,” Cruz says.
 

Through education, she created a successful path for herself, although it wasn’t without bumps along the way. After a summer job that she disliked at a nursing home, Cruz decided that she wanted the broader array of options a university degree could bring her, so she studied hard.
 

Despite part-time and summer jobs, however, money was still an issue. During her Grade 13 lunch periods, she rushed to the guidance office to research all the scholarships available to her as a way to defray student loan debt.
 

It was during her research that she crossed paths with the Merit Award.
 

“It was wonderful, because it focused on helping students who needed a helping hand if they were willing to take it,” Cruz says. She applied and received the bursary, which helped her purchase her textbooks as she pursued a degree at the University of Toronto.

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“It was significant, considering it was more than a month’s rent,” she says. 

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Cruz wanted to be a doctor, but math wasn’t her forte, so her father suggested law school instead. After doing poorly on the LSATs, she decided to take a few years off and worked at U of T running a tutoring program for students at schools in marginalized neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, she saved money for law school and retook the LSATs.

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“I told my dad that if I was accepted, I’d go,” she said, “although I had been taking baking courses at George Brown College and began dreaming of being a pastry chef.”

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Nonetheless, the law school admissions letters started arriving, and off Cruz went to the University of Saskatchewan. “I knew I’d get out of it what I put into it so I worked hard,” she said.

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To date, she’s reaped excellent experience and sound mentorship. She returned to Toronto for her articling and moved into a job in the insurance industry with Co-operators where two mentors helped her to position herself for growth. After five years, she joined Allianz, a corporate commercial insurer, and, today, she is in the top legal job at the Canadian branch of Swiss Re and is a part of the executive team. She mentors others at work and externally.

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“Sometimes, it takes only one person to believe in you, and I had my dad, my teachers and my colleagues and bosses,” she says. “You can’t do everything alone, no matter how hard you try. Now, I’m at the pay-it-forward stage.”

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She has reconnected with the Merit Award organization and will be the keynote speaker for the 2024 awardee reception, an honour that delights her.

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“When I reflect back on what the Merit Award did for me, I realize that it provided a lot of help to set me up for success,” Cruz says. “Education is so important, because it gives you a foundation not only to build your career upon, but also to pursue your dreams.”

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