Photo: jjlook on Flickr

Recently, The Tyee featured articles that address the idea of identity amongst young Canadians and immigrants. Originally published in Schema Magazine, the authors discuss how it feels to be asked, “But Where Are You Really From?” As I read their stories, I found myself nodding along in agreement. As a 1.5 generation Canadian, I’m all too familiar with what Tahira Ebrahim calls “the dance.” In my experience, “the dance” usually starts with the question:

“What are you?”

Since I consider myself to be a patient person, I simply answer that I’m Canadian, knowing full well that a follow-up question is coming.  But like Billie-Ann Woo mentions in her story, I am often faced with the fact that, for some people, “I’m Canadian” is not a sufficient answer.  

“No,” they’ll say. “What are you?”

Each time I’m asked to explain myself, I find myself wondering what exactly we expect a Canadian to be. Like the authors, depending on what I think the intentions are behind the question, I will either stick with “I’m Canadian” and further dance the dance, or explain that my heritage is Italian, but I was born and raised in Vancouver.  

I decided to bring this discussion to my coworkers. Our program staff is a mix of first and second generation Canadians, as well as immigrants, and each of our reactions to the question is a very personal thing.

“For the most part, I would say people ask me this question out of curiosity; maybe because almost everyone in Vancouver comes from an immigrant family or are immigrants themselves,” says Ana Marie Caday. Ana Marie is a Mentoring Coordinator at our program, and came to Canada from the Philippines in 2000. “I often ask this question myself.  If someone mentions phrases like ‘back home’ or ‘where I’m from,’ I ask them where back home is,” says Ana Marie.  “It helps me appreciate the diversity of our city.”

 “I do it with our clients all the time,” says Veronica Heringer-Ames. Veronica is a Mentoring Outreach Consultant at our program, and came to Canada from Brazil in 2006. “I like to hear their stories and learn more about their cultures. However, I do my best to not assume that I know everything about their home countries while we are chatting, and if I don’t know something, I ask. We live in a very multicultural world and we are all very proud of our cultural backgrounds. If you ask in the right way, we’ll happily tell you our stories.”

In my case, while visiting Italy for the first time last summer, I became aware of just how Canadian I am. On the flip-side, I often feel very Italian while in Vancouver. The authors of “But Where Are You Really From” all come from various cultural backgrounds, with some being born in Canada, and some having immigrated here, but the commonality in their writing that resonates with me the most is that, when it comes to cultural identity, it’s not a matter of either / or, like Craig Takeuchi writes. It can be and.  If the authors of this article, my coworkers and myself are any indication, young Canadians are choosing to define ourselves based on our own individually diverse backgrounds, and there is nothing insufficient about that.

Click here to read But Where Are You Really From? and  When It’s Wrong To Be A Good Sport.

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Photo: CoreForce on Flickr

If you’re looking for creative ways to connect with your new community this summer, August is your month. There is certainly no shortage of affordable events going on around town, from cultural festivals and live theatre to sports tournaments and the PNE.  Here’s a freebie, for those of you interested in music and discussions around social change:

Justice Rocks 2010

On Sunday, August 15th, Pivot is hosting the 3rd annual Justice Rocks music festival in Strathcona Park. Running from 1pm-8pm, Justice Rocks will feature capoeria, children’s performers, break-dancers, cultural medicine cabinet, youth hip-hop and a full line-up of local musical acts. Using media and performance, Justice Rocks aims to create a contemporary perspective on the idea of justice.

Pivot has also arranged for some fantastic local speakers from organizations like BC Civil Liberties Association, International Centre of Art for Social Change, Greenpeace Canada and Council of Canadians, who will give interactive presentations to get the crowd excited about participating in social change. For the full line-up, click here.

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When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.  Buddha

The other day I was sitting in on a training session with Romanda, and while talking about mentoring relationships a few points were brought up concerning various interactions, life in general and the values each of us holds. 

Values such as commitment, honesty, trust, respect, integrity (and many more) all concern individuals to this or that extent. For me, positive attitude is of high significance. This is probably genetic –it’s my personality – but also, it’s because of my experience learning how to exercise positive affirmations in life. 

Immigration is a hard and continuous process; we leave our homes, our friends, our habits and head towards the unknown islands of emotions and sensations.  We take a route and see the horizon far away; thus, we need to habitually use positive avowal with only positive thinking, which leads us to the peaks of reality, and we do not wish to reach those in vain. 

Yet there are falls; falls before reaching even half of our elevation when the future is not entirely unlocked. At these times, there should not be a place for guilt or anxiety—on the contrary, feelings of revival and blossoming should come forward, together with passion and eagerness not to stop, but to progress forward with a positive attitude, positive thinking and optimism. 

What I have learnt is not to fear. I know I need the time to accomplish my goals, and bad feelings or emotions will not stand in the way. Time is the most promising phenomenon and it goes by fast, so I am not going to lose it. 

I cannot change the past and I am not thinking about it in a pessimistic way, as I have many, many memories that are now in a tiny treasure box in my mind; and I am happy to appreciate all the meanings and the connections of chances that carry us to the meadows of infinite possibilities. 

Be positive, but don’t forget to be realistic! 

Meri Ghazaryan

Mentoring Connections note: While Ana Marie enjoys her well-deserved vacation and Romanda takes on a new adventure driving from London to Mongolia, Jericho is skillfully taking care of the Mentoring Coordination department. Our new Program Assistant Meri is now the first smiling face you’ll see when you visit us! We are very happy to have Meri as a part of our team and we look forward to working with her this summer. Welcome aboard, Meri!

I’ve always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn’t have a CHANCE to win…

– Arnold Palmer

Mentoring Connections is giving many of us “newly arrived immigrants” the chance to use the talents that we possess. We all are pretty sure where we stand when we come to the Land of Opportunities, but we do not know in which direction we are moving or should be moving. We are all worried about failure and the chances that we might miss, and sometimes we don’t even try and just wait for the opportunities to come to us.

New immigrants need encouragement from those who have taken their chances and are willing to share their knowledge; those who will gladly offer us their perceptions of how to fulfill our potential, and move towards the career that each one of us targets so anxiously. If you have a good Mentor, you can easily and lightheartedly say, “No failure can overcome me, because I have an inspiring and competent Mentor.”

I myself joined the Mentoring Connections team just a few days ago, and I am one of the most fortunate people, as I have the opportunity to work with people who guide, instruct, observe and encourage me. I have a whole team of incredible Mentors!  Now I feel that difficulties don’t have to stop me; moreover, personally my motivation and commitment have increased and I have no doubt that the Mentoring Connections team is an inevitable part of the process of planting a garden of success for many of us.

Thank you, Mentoring Connections!

Meri Ghazaryan

As a dual Italian and Canadian citizen, and avid soccer fan, my strategy going into our Mentoring Connections World Cup Contest was simple: Pick Italy. Pick Italian players. Buy a replica World Cup, and after being crowned 2010 World Cup Champions, force my coworkers to present the trophy to me in a lavish ceremony, while I sing the Italian national anthem for all the office to hear. Unfortunately, a little thing called reality got in the way…

After a month of predictions, posturing, tears of sadness and tears of happiness, Spain has been crowned the 2010 World Cup Champions for the first time in the country’s history. And regardless of who you cheer for (with the exception of perhaps the Dutch) you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who says Spain didn’t deserve it. 

Our contest came down to the last few matches, with Guillermo (Spain) edging out Gilda (Germany) and Damian (Netherlands) for the title of 2010 Mentoring Connections World Cup Contest Winner! Congratulations to Guillermo, who is the winner of a 4-ticket game pack to watch the Vancouver Whitecaps take on the Puerto Rico Islanders on September 5th.

To see how you did, check out the final Contest Standings.

Thank you to everyone who participated, and see you for Euro 2012!

It’s unbelievable how two years can pass so quickly when you’re having fun. My first day as Laurie’s Mentoring Connections first hire doesn’t feel like it was two years ago, and the memories of each team member joining our team are still very fresh in my mind. Two years sounds like a long time when you have very passionate and excited coworkers who come to the office every single day with the same enthusiasm as their first day at work.

However, when I think that a two-year-old child is only able to walk, talk and be somewhat independent, I realize that our program should be celebrating its 10^th or 20^th anniversary. We have achieved so much in only two years that it’s sometimes hard to believe all the things we are now providing our mentors and mentees with. In the last two years, Laurie, Catherine and I have convinced hundreds of Vancouver-based professionals to volunteer as career mentors. Ana Marie, Jericho and Romanda have been extremely successful in screening, training and coaching the most talented skilled immigrants that Vancouver will ever welcome. Two years later, we still have the newbie enthusiasm, but experience and successful stories have made us very strong and ambitious.

What’s next?

The sky is the limit for us! We still have mentors waiting for the right mentees, and mentees who would benefit from the encouragement and advice of a mentor in their professional field. Tonight, we will pat ourselves on the back and celebrate our work. A new year starts on July 1^st for us, and on Canada Day we will continue on with our mission to help immigrants settle in Canada as if it was our first day at Mentoring Connections.

Congratulations, Mentoring Connections team and thank you to all of our participants who have made our 2^nd year a great success!

Photo Credit: Debbie L on Flickr

Photo Credit: Shine 2010 – 2010 World Cup good news on Flickr*

Yesterday, we finally got together with some of our mentors and mentees to pick our players and teams for our 2010 World Cup Contest. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the awesome draft at the Irish Heather, organized by Jericho and Catherine. However, Romanda acted as a wonderful representative picking most of my first choice players. She was quite upset for not being fast enough to pick Kaká, though, which is very unfortunate, since she practiced the pronunciation all day yesterday!

As some of you know, I am Brazilian and yes, I am very anxious about the World Cup. I’ll be also seriously homesick until the end of the championship, since my family calls me every single day reporting everything that is happening in the most football** fanatic country in the world. Participating in World Cup contests like ours is an attempt to fill this gap and allow me to trash talk Catherine and Jericho all day long. Since 5 out of 15 participants picked Brazil as their winning team, I am not expecting a lot of phone calls or emails teasing me about my national team. However, if we get eliminated at some point, please allow me to get back to my Canadian self before mentioning anything related to my yellow-and-green soul.

The World Cup officially starts tomorrow at 7:00 am PST with South Africa taking on Mexico. Our 15 participants have already sent their predictions, which have been added to our database and displayed in our scoring chart. Have fun and, please, don’t forget to congratulate me on July 11th!

* Isn’t the 2010 World Cup mascot cute? I love the fact that they’ve put him in Brazilian colours..lol!

** It’s World Cup month, so let’s call the sport by its real name!

There are some memories that stand out when I look back on my first year in school in Canada.

Even though I did not get the set of Ninja Turtles action figures that I wanted, I liked Canada. The people were nice, they understood what I was saying, the math was easy and California kickball was part of the school day. After a few weeks, I made the decision to stay. Canada was not so bad.

My family and I moved from the Philippines to Canada in June of 1992. In September, I began grade three. For many children, official entry into Canadian society begins at school. It is the place where they will spend the majority of their time. It was my experiences in my first year of school that taught me about the people, the language and the culture in Canada.

 The anxiety of the first day of school for a student is a universal feeling; even more so for a child who thought that there were only two countries in the world, the Philippines and America. There I was, in this Canadian school with a bunch of Canadianos, or whatever they’re called.  They’re probably going to make fun of the sweater I was wearing when the only reason I was wearing it was because this country requires sweaters. They’ll think I’m strange. They won’t think I’m smart. What if they don’t understand what I’m saying? What if I don’t understand what they’re saying? There’s the teacher. He’s tall. He has a moustache. That can’t be good. Why did I have to get the giant moustache man who talks too fast, uses big words and enjoys torturing new students? What’s his name? I didn’t catch that. Good start, Jericho.

 His name was Mr. Tipple. He was tall and he did have a moustache. He did not, however, talk fast nor did he use big words, and he preferred to joke around with students rather than torture them. That’s what I remember the most. Everyone was playfully teased by him, which was a sign that he liked you. Mr. Tipple treated everyone the same and no one was ever made to feel like an outsider. Looking back on it now, I appreciate the example that he set for his students. His attitude trickled down to the rest of the class.

 School was made a little easier when I learned that I could cheat in math—well, at least it felt like cheating. I had learned the lessons that the class was studying the year before in the Philippines. The material was now review to me, so I would quickly go through the exercises and sit quietly in my chair so as not to arouse suspicion. I wasn’t completely comfortable with English yet, so it was nice to feel like I had an advantage over the Canadians in something; an advantage that I thought would come to an end one day.

 That day came shortly after, during silent reading time. I was taken out of class and brought to another room. I thought they had found out about my math advantage, and I was being taken to this other room as a form of punishment. I had been sent to the corner before in my old school, but these Canadians took me to a whole other room! I was told to read some stories and answer some questions about the stories. I was then sent back to my classroom. These Canadians aren’t so tough.

 I later learned that that session was my English assessment. The school later informed my parents that my English level was high enough for me to avoid ESL classes. I could stay with my regular classmates and continue with their lessons. That’s good to know; I guess this means people understand what I’m saying.

It’s a good thing that the assessment didn’t take very long, as I would have missed a game of California kickball. I did not know what California kickball was, but the class cheered when Mr. Tipple announced we were playing it, so I cheered as well. All I knew was that we were going to take a break at the end of the day to play outside. It was described to me as baseball played with a big rubber ball that you kick instead of hit with a bat. I decided to just watch in the corner and avoid looking foolish. Little did I know that I decided to set up camp on a busy third base. To my surprise, I played well. I caught the balls that came in my direction, and when I tried to kick the ball, I didn’t miss and foolishly fall on my behind. I ran in a straight line and didn’t trip on my own shoe laces. It was a win for me. I had fun, and when it was over, I wanted to play again.

 For me, these experiences played a big part in shaping my first impression of Canada. Mr. Tipple set the tone for the class and was a fine ambassador for Canadian authority figures. Math gave me confidence in my intelligence. My brief ESL class set my mind at ease about my English level; enough so that I felt comfortable to communicate with my classmates. My adequate play in California kickball introduced me to organized sports as a hobby and source of enjoyment.

 My story is not the same as everybody’s; however, a lot of people will meet their Mr. Tipple. Many children will experience confidence with  a subject, and they will realize that their English is not as bad as they think. They will find that game, sport or activity that makes them feel like any other kid who’s glad to be outside playing with their friends.

Photo Credit: Ko:(char *)hook on Flickr

Photo Credit: VividBreeze on Flickr

I was a little late in finding out that May 2-8^th was North American Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Week, which makes me think that many of you likely didn’t know either (unless you did, and then can claim you are smarter than me)!

The fact that the week wasn’t highlighted to the extent that many other special days, weeks or months are (such as Breast Cancer Awareness Month) may be one of the reasons why so many of us go to work every day without knowing our rights regarding workplace safety. The purpose of OSH Week is to educate employers, employees and the general public on the importance of preventing injury and illness at the workplace, at home and in our communities. Although the week has passed, it does not mean that you should remain in the dark when it comes to workplace safety. To help, I dug around a bit and found some tips:

• Know your responsibilities and your employer’s responsibilities.
• Speak up when you see something unsafe. Go to your manager/supervisor immediately. If he/she does not act on it, contact WorkSafe BC.
• Don’t be Superman! If you are supposed to wear goggles, then wear goggles! It may save your eyes.
• If you are hurt at work, report it immediately to your supervisor. They are required to file an accident report with WorkSafe BC.  If you don’t report it, you may lose the right to receive compensation while you’re unable to work.
• Be safe! This may seem like simple common sense, but sometimes we are in a hurry and just want to get something done. This is usually when accidents happen. Remember, one small move that may save you time now may ultimately cost you your health and well-being in the long-run.

By law, employers must comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act, which covers areas such as noise, protective clothing, transportation of workers, and tool and equipment safety. Employers are also responsible for providing all of their employees with safety rules, and with instructions on how to minimize safety hazards.

Remember, the employer is not the only party responsible for keeping the workplace safe; you are responsible, too! Be sure to learn your rights and responsibilities and don’t be afraid to speak up if you feel unsafe at work. Let’s keep ourselves happy, healthy and safe!

Photo: Alexander and Main by Laura Zee on deviantART

If you like the idea of volunteering as a way to build your resume, be strategic when searching for the right volunteer position. Try asking yourself a few questions before starting.

What are my interests? Determining what you want to get out of your volunteer experience will help you narrow down exactly where you want to volunteer. It’s important to decide whether you are looking to learn a new skill, practice an existing one, or give back to your community in a certain way.

Depending on your field, you may or may not be able to find a volunteer opportunity that matches your job target.  Consider setting up informational interviews with a few companies you want to work for. Ask them who their ideal candidate would be, and try to tailor your volunteer experience to fulfill one or more key job requirements.

Take an architect, for example. You are not likely to find a volunteer position that allows you to practice architecture, due to liabilities. However, dealing with clients is a big part of an architect’s job, so perhaps you want to find a volunteer opportunity that has you interacting with the public or practicing your business communication skills.

Or, let’s say you’re an accountant. You are not likely to find a volunteer position where you will be working with confidential financial data. However, administrative tasks are part of an accountant’s job, so consider a volunteer position as an administrative assistant. You may also want to volunteer as a fundraiser or treasurer at a not-for-profit, as you can be involved in budgeting and other bookkeeping duties such as expense reports, tax receipting and collecting and accounting for donations.

Do I have the time and money to volunteer? Not all volunteer opportunities let you reclaim your travel costs. If this is the case, you may want to volunteer closer to home. And, you likely have responsibilities beyond volunteering. Consider your work, school and family schedules, and assess whether a volunteer position can reasonably fit within your existing time commitments. 

Should I volunteer at a not-for-profit? Keep in mind that volunteers often form the backbone of a not-for-profit organization. If you are a skilled volunteer, chances are you will have a moderate to high level of responsibility.  No matter how strongly you agree with the mission of the not-for-profit, think critically about whether you have the right skill-set for the position. Volunteering at a not-for-profit is a good opportunity to gain experience, but should not be taken on half-heartedly.

I’m ready to apply!  Once you identify the type of role you’re looking for, and decide if you have the time and money to accommodate a volunteer position, you’re ready to apply. There are websites like Go Volunteer and Charity Village that post up-to-date volunteer opportunities, so take a look and see if anything interests you. The majority of the postings you’ll find on these websites will be at not-for-profits.

If you want to volunteer at a company, try contacting the human resources department to find out if they accept volunteers, and in what capacity. Ask to schedule a brief meeting where you can explain your skill-set and how specifically you would like to contribute to the organization. If the company is understaffed or extremely busy, they may see training and directing a volunteer as a lot of effort for an unknown amount of output. The closer the fit between your skills and the organization’s needs, the more likely they will be to take you on as a volunteer.

Whatever your reasons are for volunteering, remember to think of it as an exchange. Not only will the organization see the benefits of your hard work, you will also develop personally and professionally along the way.*