Job Description
I lead a team who bring programming to youth grade 7-12 so they can explore the career paths that are available to them. I get to work with so many different people that my job is never the same each day. I engage with youth, talk to teachers and community members as well as politicians and industry professionals, plus attend events. I am always on the go to something else.
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Relevant School Subjects
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Areas of Expertise
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Career Story
My career path has been anything but direct. After high school I attended Laurier, where I changed my major three or four times in my first year and ended up taking a semester off in my second year so I could figure out what I wanted to do. After graduating from Laurier with a degree in Sociology and Communication Studies I worked for a year, and then did a post-grad in Sport and Event Marketing. I decided I wasn't ready to start my "career" yet, so I taught English in Japan and backpacked around South East Asia for a little while. Upon my return to Canada I worked in both events and community relations. I love the planning and execution of big events, but also really love the community connections and partnerships that are made in doing them. At this point I wasn't sure if I wanted to work in the private or not-for-profit sector, so I took some evening classes to obtain my certification in Project Management and took some Product Management courses as well. The organization I worked for gave me the opportunity to try a project manager role and a relationship building role. Through this process I realized a couple of things; at that point in my career the private sector was not for me, and the thing I enjoyed doing the most was relationship building. For the next few years I focused on event management that involved lots of external partners and relationship building. I had many great opportunities, but also was working a lot of hours plus having to change how events and relationship management was done during COVID when you could not do this in-person. I decided to take a year career sabbatical to really determine what I wanted to do and what brought me joy. This led me to my current role of Executive Director at the BEP.