A win-win-win situation is a beautiful thing, and that’s what BCCPC has with our youth employment program. By engaging youth in our work, everybody wins: the Centre gets the energy and innovation of our young colleagues, the youth get the opportunity to work on real-world projects with real-world impact and the people of BC get the downstream benefit of wider spread of best practices to improve quality of life for people affected by serious illness.
This month, we’re spotlighting our cadre of young people working with us through the Canada Summer Jobs program, an initiative of the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy. (Some may have spotted that it’s not, in fact, currently summer. Due to COVID-19, the program has been flexible about timing to support employers and youth.)
There’s another dual benefit: three of the six interns have been either brought on full-time, or offered extensions to their contracts. More proof that engaging young workers make good business sense.
Let’s meet the interns. This year’s interns are making their mark with projects from marketing to curriculum development.
Hayley Eng | Gabriella Low | Jessica Loewen
Hayley, Gabriella and Jessica are working with our Strategic Initiatives team to further our work on the “Strengthen your Core” program, building on work done by last month’s featured student employee, Katie Green.
An objective of the Core Module Project is to test a process for designing education resources, engaging both consultants with content expertise and interns with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Building the interns’ knowledge of developing and designing educational resources is an important focus of the project, as is ensuring they have the opportunity to contribute their unique perspective to the process.
In their words:
Jessica – “Before working at BCCPC, I had no experience with creating online learning modules, but as a nursing student, I’ve certainly taken lots! I’ve learned so much: about the process of education, about palliative care and especially I’ve learned about myself through this position. The teamwork and collaboration have been fantastic, and it’s great to come into a workplace with people who want to teach and mentor you. In my nursing studies, I’ll have a course on palliative care next year, but I’ve learned so much here already. I know that I’ll be able to incorporate a palliative approach to care into any area of my practice… I’ve had so many light bulb moments!”
Gabriella – “This opportunity fit me on many different levels. It was a chance to take what I’ve learned in school (I’ll graduate nursing in the spring) and put it into a learning module that I would want to take. Another draw was the flexibility of the work. I’m a nursing student and a full-time athlete, so online work fit my busy schedule perfectly. And finally, my mom received palliative care and died a few years ago, so for personal reasons, I wanted to dive right in to see what I could take from my own experiences to help other families.”
Hayley – I get to use my graphic design and user experience background, which is a perfect jumping off point for my future career. I’ve studied biology and UX/UI (user experience/user interface) design, and my goal is to use these skills to support health care. Helping to create the online modules has been really interesting… when you take an online course, you don’t really think about everything that goes into it behind the scenes.”
Briar Mayoh
As a Distance Education Program Coordinator, Briar facilitates the smooth running of our Palliative Care ECHO sessions. What started out as a part-time job in September, originally slated to last until February, Briar has been extended for an additional six months with the Centre.
Briar is a BSc student from UVic with big future plans, including a Master’s in Public Health followed by medical school.
In her words:
“I love it, and it will be a huge benefit to my future. Although I play a small role in the overall ECHO project, I get to attend the sessions and listen in to health professionals discuss important topics for health care. It’s like I’m getting a pre-education before my education!”
Laura Wicki-Stordeur
Laura has stepped into a marketing consultant role at BCCPC. In her 17-week project, Laura is testing methods of marketing to health care professionals and increase their awareness and use of our resources. She is working with a focus group of 17 health care providers of various ages, disciplines, care settings and experience in palliative care, so she will also build valuable skills in research using focus groups and surveys.
In her words:
“I come from a long line of healthcare workers, and I’m honoured to dip my toes into the healthcare field, especially the palliative care sector. Palliative and end-of-life care is so important, and it needs to be better integrated into current practices. First-hand, I’ve seen the confusion and lack of knowledge around talking about death with loved ones. I’m starting these conversations early with my child; at just five years old, they’ve already experienced losing a friend. It’s vital that we start having compassionate, understanding and open conversations.”
Esther Owoyomi
Esther joined the BCCPC team in June as an Administrative Assistant to provide support for three distinct projects. It wasn’t long before Esther’s abilities, her curiosity and willingness to expand her role led to an offer to become a full-time permanent member of staff. She’s still an invaluable support to projects at the Centre, but has widened her influence beyond admin support to include HR, tech and event planning support as well.
In her words:
“I have always been drawn to work in health care, so this position looked like a good fit from the start. I knew that this was a field where I could help. So far, the experience has been tremendous, amazing. It’s been such a learning avenue: for me for sure, but there is also opportunity for me to share value with others.”
