Current city: Toronto

Year arrived in Canada: 2010

School(s): University of Waterloo & Queen’s University

Academic program(s): BSc. Health Studies & Master of Public Health (MPH)

occupation/profession: Public Health

1. From your experience transitioning to Canadian life and culture, do you have any advice for new WUSC students?

Be curious and open-minded – have the urge to want to try, get involved, experiment, volunteer, associate, and network. You will never know what doors relationships you build along the way open for you, now or in the future.

2. Do you have any advice on choosing academic programs and careers for later success after school?

Barring other variables, your interests and abilities should weigh heavily on your choice for academic program and career. There’s no point of pursuing something that doesn’t spark interest, or one that you are not good at. As you pursue your degree, don’t forget to learn basic skills on the side, such as coding, software use (e.g. excel to manipulate and manage information/data). You bet your left thumb, just like most if not all academic programs, workplaces don’t teach these little but important skills.

3. How can new students cope with loneliness and feeling out of place when they first arrive in Canada?

Tap into your network of friends or even a professional network. These networks will most likely help you engage in things and activities that interest you.

4. From your experience, what does it take to succeed in Canada? (Measuring success in academic and professional terms).  

I don’t think there are universal standard checkboxes everyone has to tick in order to be a success. Know your interests and abilities. These, more likely than anything else, will modulate goals you set out to achieve. Remember to put in the work along the way.

5. What challenges do you think hinder new students from succeeding in Canada?

I think it’s fair to say that new students have and will continue to experience life in Canada differently. So, it would be accurate for me to rather list challenges I had:

• Rushed to finish my undergraduate program in 4 years, graduating with no meaningful skills essential for employing

• Never seeking opportunities to intern, graduating with no work experience

• Failed to accumulate meaningful volunteer experience

• Barely built a useful professionally network

6. Seeing how credit scores are important in Canada, do you have any advice on managing money or building up a credit profile?

I absolutely have no useful advice on this topic, other than making sure that you spend within your means.

7.  Do you have any ideas on how new students can manage expectations from friends and family back home?­­

You alone are living the Canadian experiment, not your friends and family back home. Based on this lived experience, learn ways to reconcile expectations with the reality and communicate that to them. I am sure they love you and want nothing but success for you.

8. If you can reflect on your personal journey, were your aspirations met? What would you do differently if you were to start over again in Canada?

They are always a work in progress, to be honest. If I were to do this all over again, although life doesn’t work this way, I definitely would pursue meaningful work experience through internships, Co-ops, volunteer and paid work, even if it means delaying my graduation for a number of years. I can’t stress this point enough. Workplace experiences allow you to build professional networks that can lead to future job and career prospects