The safe thing to do would have been to stay in the same place for my whole life, and enjoy the familiarity of my surroundings. The decision to move away from home would certainly lead to huge changes in my life. But wasn’t it my dream to live a life of personal independence, in a free environment like Canada? Yes! However, dealing with the change has not been as easy as I first thought it would be... [Continue]
This year, the ISSofBC Mentoring Connections team wants to help you celebrate Mother’s Day with your family. We are giving away a family night out for 4 at any Cineplex. To enter, leave a comment describing how you celebrate Mother’s Day in your family. [Continue]
When I started working as one of our Marketing and Mentoring Outreach Consultants, I thought I was signing up for an impossible mission. I started in this position right at the time of the economic recession, when many Vancouver-based professionals who would qualify as mentors had lost their jobs or were trying to manage their growing responsibilities at work. Much to my delight, even though the economic scenario was not favourable to volunteer programs, Vancouver-based professionals were still interested in giving back to the community and welcoming new Canadians. [Continue]
When I started to plan with Catherine a video campaign for our program, the only thing that seemed clear to us was that we wanted to give a voice and face to our mentors and mentees in our promotional materials. After two years collecting success stories from over 300 participants, we were convinced that some partnerships needed the spotlight. However, we weren’t sure if our mentees would agree to speak in front of a camera about the professional challenges they’ve been facing in Canada; we didn’t know if our mentors, Vancouver-based professionals, would agree to take their commitment with our program to a more serious level. [Continue]