Student Stories

Every year in BC, a series of contests are held for university students learning Chinese to present their language and cultural knowledge to a panel of judges.

My name is Sarah Osborne and I am a fourth-year student in the Child and Youth Care program at VIU. This fall, I had the opportunity to go on exchange to the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (Norges Idrettshogskole, or NIH) in Oslo, Norway.

Receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship Award this past year was an honour that allowed me to live the experience of a lifetime and fulfill a dream that I otherwise would not have been able to.

Gabrielle Hayashi Santos has been interested in the topic of internationalizing education ever since she was in high school.

It’s an interest that led the Brazilian graduate to apply for – and receive – a 12-week internship at Vancouver Island University in 2019, through the Mitacs Globalink Research Internship program.

What originally started as a “small summer project” for Samantha Beynon has now led to a published children’s book.

Samantha is a VIU Bachelor of Education student who is heading into her fifth year this fall. She says the book, Oolichan Moon, published by Harbour Publishing, will be widely available on shelves as of this October.

“I actually wrote it a couple of years ago, and self-published it,” she explains. 

Madelaine Jones says students should enrol in VIU’s Co-operative Education program because they can gain work experience that could help them land a good job after graduation.

She is currently completing an eight-month work term for the Federal Government of Canada doing software development and loves it. For the first half of her work term, Madelaine worked remotely. For the second half she moved to Ottawa, Ontario. One of the great things about co-ops is you can discover which jobs are the right fit for you, says Madelaine.

The living world has fascinated Ally Badger ever since she was a child, and she always knew she wanted to pursue biology.

She graduated this June with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Biology. Navigating the challenges of the pandemic and the worsening climate crisis over the past few hasn’t been easy, but despite these obstacles Ally received a perfect grade point average. 

Pursuing a master’s degree while balancing a career and parenthood is no easy task.

It’s a situation VIU Master of Community Planning graduate Alison Garnett knows well, after finishing her degree this year.

Not only did she succeed, the mother of three young children is also the recipient of this year’s Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal award. The annual award recognizes the student who has achieved the highest academic standing upon graduation from a VIU master’s degree program.

A passion for the environment, local food sustainability and a desire to get involved in making the world a better place were the core drivers of Emma Simard-Provençal’s extra-curricular activities at VIU.

However, the time, energy and work that she simultaneously put into her studies also paid dividends, and now Emma is balancing a professional career with community building.

Emma graduated this year from VIU’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program and now works as pediatric nurse at BC Children’s Hospital.