Meet Montana Hunter: It’s never too late to get involved
“Graduating students – don’t forget you can still be involved,” says Montana Hunter, a fourth-year Honours History and International Relations student. “Just because you’re in fourth year doesn’t mean you can’t try to get into something. There’s always some time.”
Meet Nick Zarzycki: Bringing the world to Vancouver
As over 2100 delegates from more than two hundred universities worldwide descend upon Vancouver for the World Model United Nations (WorldMUN) conference, this week has been a long time in the making. Nick Zarzycki, co-organizer of the original bid team, reflects on the process that brought WorldMUN to Vancouver over the past two years.
Meet Brent Nielsen: From BA to EA: – UBC History alum shines at Electronic Arts
Brent Nielsen graduated from UBC with a BA in 1993. Seventeen years later, he’s an executive producer of sports games at Electronic Arts (EA), one of the world’s foremost game production companies. Brent majored in History with a minor in Economics. But his passion has always been hockey. “I played hockey my whole life; I […]
Meet Ben Platt: Afghanistan through student eyes
By Betty Zhang For the average UBC student, going abroad during their time as an undergrad isn’t uncommon. A vast number of resources are available, whether students wish to study abroad in Europe, teach English in Asia, or volunteer in South America. For 4th year History student Brian Platt, taking ten days off from school […]
Meet Lau Mehes: From classroom to campsite
By Katie Fedosenko Arts student contributes to camp for queer, trans, and allied youth The first annual CampOUT, a four-day summer camp committed to creating an inspiring and welcoming space for queer, trans, and allied youth between the ages of 14 and 21, was a transformational experience for both participants and volunteers, according to […]
Meet BA ’05 Julia Harrison: Becoming part of NATO – check!
Were you one of the proud Vancouverites who rose to their feet at GM place waving your Vancouver 2010 towels with joy when you found out our city won the Olympic bid? That victory was not only exciting for the whole country but it was also a huge moment for one of our own UBC Arts […]
Meet BA ’06 Alexandra Chu: The possibilities of Arts Co-op
The artist’s nickname is “Crabby Tanabe,” and despite his daunting reputation, Alexandra Chu wanted to interview him.
When Takao Tanabe finally called, the 80-year-old Governor General award-winning landscape artist wanted to know exactly what the UBC student knew about visual arts to write an article about it.
Chu, who graduated in May 2006 with a BA in English literature and minor in history, admits she didn’t know much, but she loved the artist’s work and, more importantly, she could write.
Chu considered her profile on Tanabe, which appeared in Ricepaper, the Vancouver-based magazine focusing on Asian Canadian arts and culture, as one of her favourites.
Other profiles she has written include Whistler’s own National Alpine ski racer and Olympic hopeful, Britt Janyk, and illustrator Marcos Chin, the artist behind the “look” of online dating giant, Lavalife.
“Anyone who does reporting, you feel so proud when you have your name out there,” Chu says. “You can google yourself and things come up.”
You could say Chu is building her future one word at time. Literally.
Chu was the recipient of the first-ever UBC Arts Co-op Student of the Year Award, a recognition she received after spending a term writing for FrontCounter BC, a one-stop shop for natural resource businesses wishing to obtain required paperwork.
From the pilot office in Kamloops, BC, Chu assisted in setting up nine other locations throughout the province. She developed content and layout for the agency’s website, created marketing brochures, and produced an online newsletter that caught the eye of an assistant Deputy Minister.
Impressed by the quality and language of Chu’s work, the agency continued publishing the newsletter past its scheduled end date of December 2006.
“She’s a good example of a student who really understood that career development is not something that happens overnight,” says Julie Walchli, founding director of the UBC Arts Co-op Education Program.
“So step-by-step, co-op term by co-op term, and freelance writing assignment by freelance writing assignment, she built a very impressive portfolio and is now graduating with a lot of experience under her belt and a lot of contacts.”
Chu got her big break at the Whistler Museum and Archives, her first co-op work term in 2004. Asked to do an independent research project to contribute to the museum’s records, Chu profiled the movers and shakers of the famed mountain resort community.
“I’d never interviewed, I didn’t know how it would go. I didn’t know if I’d follow the questions I’d set out, or if I’d talk freely,” Chu recalls.
“A few months later, the curator sent me an e-mail and she wanted to use parts of my project for a feature article that was on the cover of the news magazine The Pique for women’s history month.”
When the article appeared, the curator had written an introduction and a conclusion, but the rest was all Chu’s work. “And so that was my start,” she says.
From her first publication at Whistler to writing articles for the Faculty of Arts’ newsletter and website, to being the visual arts editor at Ricepaper, to helping launch FrontCounter BC, the judging committee was impressed, says Walchli.
“A lot of students in Arts want to be journalists, or professional writers in some way, and often it’s hard for them to know how to get started in that career,” Walchli says. “And Alexandra knew that each of her co-op terms and the things she did outside of co-op were building blocks to that ultimate goal.”
Chu’s spot on the Dean’s List during every term at UBC and her onerous role as the editor of the UBC Arts Co-op student newsletter were a some of the many reasons that set her apart from other award candidates, adds Walchli.
From having career goals of wanting to write for a living to interviewing prominent people, Chu has built a hefty portfolio.
“It’s been really exciting because [Ricepaper] is nationally published, and it’s nice to know that someone in Toronto might be reading your work,” says Chu of her feature articles.
Chu acknowledges she was intimidated by the prospect of interviewing Tanabe, but she was in for a surprise after his unexpected call, which produced a personal invitation to his retrospective exhibition.
“He was just so nice. He was the kindest person,” she recalls. “He talked — he was really candid. I love meeting people like that. And some articles, they just come. You just write them, they’re there.”
Today, Chu is the assistant director of marketing and client services at Canadian Education Centre Network, a non-profit company aiming to promote Canada as a study destination for international students. She is one of roughly 2,000 students graduating with an Arts degree this year.
Not bad for a girl who didn’t know what she wanted to do with her English degree. But after four co-op terms at UBC, Chu thinks of her degree as a valuable learning opportunity, helping her to develop her career.
“It’s been about finding what I could do with my English major,” she says.
“At first, with English literature, it seemed like there was not a lot to do,” recalls Chu. “But I think of my writing skills and my research skills as traits. And a lot of people don’t think of it that way, but I think of them as traits that I’ve developed because people commission me to write articles and pay me.”
Chu considers the network of contacts she has built to be invaluable.
“The people you meet are just as important as the jobs you do because you’ll meet people who will be really supportive, who will be references for you to get a career when you graduate, who will help you find other things you’re interested in,” Chu says.
“Like in Whistler, I was really interested in writing. They let me go with it. They helped me to make it something more than just a book in the museum that people may or may not look at.”
Chu, who spent the other co-op terms writing and researching for the Dean of Arts office, the Richmond Museum, and the Whistler Museum and Archives, credits her UBC degree for providing her with transferable skills.
“One of the things in Arts is thinking outside the box. You may not graduate with something like an accountant where you have a specific job, but you have these skills to do anything,” she adds.
“I have a wealth of experience working with children, working as a writer and reporter, working on websites, working with customers in museums, communicating through all sorts of avenues.”
By Bryan Zandberg (BA, 2006, in French and Spanish). Bryan is a former editor with The Ubyssey.
Meet Dr. Mauricio Drelichman: Helping Economics students use research positions to get ahead
Economics professor Mauricio Drelichman believes undergraduates make excellent research assistants.
“I have had much better results in many cases with undergraduates,” Drelichman said, “Graduate students do not need to be research assistants to go to bigger and better places; undergraduate students are really hungry for these opportunities.”
Drelichman believes undergraduates are not given enough consideration for research assistant positions. “A lot of [positions] just require clear thinking and attention to detail,” he said, explaining these are skills most undergraduate students already possess.
“It’s amazing with undergraduates because they really get involved. They do a great job because the motivation is stronger.”
Anthony Wray, Honours History and Economics, and Yamila Simonovsky, Honours Economics, had the chance to work with Drelichman on a number of his research projects before they graduated this May.
“The first task that he’s given me is to go through secondary sources on his research related to Philip II in Spain and record any references to military expenditures,” Wray said, explaining he was also required to calculate exchange rates of the many currencies and coinage he was dealing with.
The project Wray is working on has to do with researching the beginnings of sovereign debt. Drelichman believes it to have begun during Philip II’s reign, and is using Wray’s record of military expenses in collaboration with Philip II’s demands for funding to explain its origin.
Wray started working with Drelichman in March and will continue until August. Drelichman is using the funds he received from the Arts Undergraduate Research Award (AURA) to finance Wray’s position. He believes the AURA should be used exclusively to employ students in research positions.
“I have my own grants for my work,” Drelichman said, “This way I can give students the opportunity to participate in research.”
“The AURA award has a huge impact as it […] makes faculty think of undergraduates.”
Simonovsky has worked on several projects with Drelichman. Her most recent task involved comparing a list of modern Spanish cities with a 16th century census. Simonovsky matched cities from the census to modern cities and recorded the population, a task that sometimes required her to use Google maps.
The research Simonovsky conducted helped Drelichman study the impact of Spanish nobility on economic activity. Using her updated lists of Spanish cities, he measured changes as related to the proportion of nobles.
Drelichman aims to make his research positions as meaningful as possible for the students involved, and play to their strengths.
“I involve them in key parts of the research,” he said, “I don’t assign menial tasks like photocopying.”
Simonovsky and Wray were given their opportunities after previously approaching Drelichman in hopes of being employed in research. Although he had no positions available at the time, Drelichman kept the students in the back of his mind. When positions freed up, he immediately thought of Simonovsky and Wray.
“It’s very important that students approach professors if they want to work with projects.” Drelichman asserted.
He also mentioned that these students were given opportunities to work with faculty members at other universities that needed research done in Vancouver. Simonovsky was involved in a project managed by a colleague of Drelichman’s that compared the prices of Safeway in the United States to those in Canada.
Simonovsky and Wray’s research experience came in handy when they were writing their theses, and helped prepare them for their upcoming endeavours in graduate school.
“Both of us are going to grad school in economics,” Wray said, “From that point of view it looks good; but more than that, […] you get that experience working on an intense research project.”
Drelichman was adamant that the best preparation for graduate school comes from experience in research.
“Grad officers have a difficult task identifying people that would produce good research,” Drelichman said from his personal experience as a graduate admissions officer.
Drelichman explained that excellent marks in undergraduate courses do not necessarily indicate that a student is ready for graduate studies: “[Graduate school] is about who can independently formulate and carry out a research project.”
“When you get an admission letter that says this person has research experience, it’s a sure win for admission,” he said.
“Experience speaks more than any transcript or standardized test.”
By Meghan Roberts (BA 2008, English Literature and International Relations).
Meet BA ’00 Sarah Galashan: Aiming for the front page
Sarah Galashan had wanted to be a journalist since age 16, and after she gained experience volunteering and interning at various news stations, she realized she thrived off the adrenaline in the fast-paced news environment. Sarah graduated from UBC in 2000 with a BA in Canadian Studies.
Meet ’97 BA almunus Richard Lam: Taking a snapshot of the future
Richard used to feel as if his only options upon graduation were either teaching or law. However, his first term working for the Ubyssey taught him otherwise – that he could get paid for taking photographs!
Richard graduated from UBC in 1997 with a BA in Political Science (major) and History (minor). He decided to concentrate on these subject areas out of genuine interest and planned to apply his studies towards a career in teaching.
As a second year Arts student, he was worried about job prospects with his degree, especially since many of his friends were graduating from BCIT with specific job training. He felt his only options were teaching or law. However, his first term working for the Ubyssey taught him otherwise – that he could get paid for being a photographer!
From second year onwards, Richard became increasingly involved with the Ubyssey, first as a volunteer and then in a paid position as Photo Editor. He also joined the Photo Club and became involved with intramural sports.
Aside from his on-campus involvement, he further clarified his career goals by interviewing and talking with other freelance photographers. These combined experience helped to better prepare him for a career in the journalism industry. He is now the sole proprietor of his Freelance Photography business and the main freelancer in BC for the Canadian Press.
If you are interested in pursuing a similar career path, Richard suggests refining your photography skills, getting feedback from professionals, learning business sense, and getting involved with a student newspaper or Photo Club.
Why did you choose UBC?
It was the local or ‘home’ school. I got into other universities, but UBC replied first, and it made the most sense practically.
When did you start post-secondary education?
1992, the September following high school graduation.
When did you graduate from UBC?
1997, I took five years to complete my degree. Some terms I took four or five courses, and in others I took three.
How did you choose your major?
I stumbled into it. I took classes my friends were taking, and I had an interest in government and politics. I chose history as a minor in third year when I thought I was interested in Education. I needed to have a concentration in a teachable subject of study, so History fit with my thoughts of being a Social Sciences high school teacher at that time.
Did you ever change your mind about your Major/Minor?
Yes, I also had an interest in landscape architecture, but at that point I decided it was too late, and that I was too far along in my degree to change and start over again. There would have been lots of required courses and I would have had to go back into first year, and I didn’t want to do that.
Why did you decide to major in the subjects you chose?
I had a genuine interest in the subjects, so I took the courses that I liked.
Did you have an idea of what you would do after graduation?
Yes, I thought of law and education, but then started doing photography as a volunteer at the Ubyssey and loved it. After my first term of working at the student paper, I realized I could get paid for doing this and I wanted to pursue my dream.
Why did you think of Law and Education?
I had been a counselor in teen youth groups and coached hockey, so I thought I might enjoy being a high school teacher. I thought of law as being a good stepping-stone to being employed in a company’s upper management.
Many arts students seem to consider those same options, thinking that those are the only professional options that exist for BA grads. Was this a factor for you too?
Yes, especially after second year, I was worried. I had only worked in construction and I had no sales or marketing experience anywhere. I thought "what next?"
My sister went back to school after working as a bank teller, finished her degree and went back to a job as a bank teller with a degree. I believed that an Arts degree was worth something, but I didn’t know what.
What were your other interests in high school? University?
Photography was always at the back of my mind, but I never pursued it in high school. I enjoyed hockey, and hoped to land a sports scholarship that would put me through university, but it didn’t work out.
Were you involved in any extra-curricular activities while at UBC?
I did some intramural sports and got into photography by joining the Photo Club.
If so, how did you choose those activities?
I liked to play hockey and be active…the Photo Club became the basis of my social life while at UBC, especially after third year when I volunteered and then worked at the Ubyssey.
Did involvement in activities help you gain experience or skills that helped you to find or secure your current job?
Yes, absolutely! All of my learning was on the job. There was no formal training, all hands-on experience, and being involved has been the key.
It was through the Photo Club that another club member encouraged me to volunteer at the Ubyssey, which was a great experience. My friend also prompted me to apply for the job of Photo Editor when it came up at the Ubyssey and I took his advice and applied for and got the job.
Was volunteering a factor in getting hired there?
Yes, it was the turning point. I wouldn’t have been qualified otherwise, they knew me and knew my work, and I was right there when they needed someone.
Did you ever feel afraid or worried about what kind of career or work you could find with a BA?
Yes! Especially early on because many of my friends went to BCIT, which is a focused job training institution. These friends were finished after two years and looking for work as I was just heading into 3rd year. It was around that time though, that I got more involved in photography and the rest is history.
Did you plan to be where you are now career-wise?
No, not when I first started. After I graduated, I learned what it takes to be a freelance photographer. I knew it would be a small business and I decided to go for it and give myself three years to make it.
How important were your grades in terms of landing your current job?
Not important. I learned very quickly that an Arts degree is not like an Engineering degree, for example, where grades are very important to employers. No one had ever asked me in a job interview or work setting what kind of grades I got in university. Just having the degree completed was useful.
What is your job title?
Freelance Photographer.
What other job titles have you had leading up to this one?
Photo Editor at the Ubyssey. Before that, I was a volunteer photographer and before that I had been a laborer.
Can you give me an overview of your job description and some of the day-to-day tasks?
I do corporate photography and specialize in Editorial work, but you name it, I’ll shoot it. As I’m the sole proprietor of the business, there’s also lots of computer work, business skills, paperwork, negotiation skills, self-promotion, and cold calling. I use the Internet a lot to research and find contacts who might be interested in my work.
Do you think you developed any of these skills as an Arts student?
Yes, the BA taught me how to think imaginatively and independently, to use creativity and stay self-motivated.
What aspects of the job are most important and satisfying to you?
Variety. I do something different every day. Sometimes I know I have upcoming work months in advance. Sometimes it’s literally minute by minute or day by day. I’m okay with the uncertainty.
What aspects are least satisfying to you?
At the beginning, not knowing when the next paycheck would be. Rejection was also more difficult in the beginning.
How long have you been in business?
1999 to 2004. After graduation I continued at the Ubyssey for one more year and took English 301, a business and technical writing course that was very useful and practical.
How did you support yourself at the beginning?
I was still living at home, and received $500 stipend for working at the Ubyssey, but my parents’ help was important. Three years ago, in 2001, I secured an agreement with Canadian Press as their main freelancer in BC.
They have only one staff member in Vancouver, who I serve as back-up for. When he’s called away out of town or on vacation, I have guaranteed work. It’s been my main bread-and-butter for the last three years. Although there’s only work when there’s news that sparks national attention.
How did you land this agreement?
Persistence. The guy who was doing this job previously moved on to the Province Newspaper, so I called the staff photographer and pestered him until he agreed to meet with me. I bought a digital camera and was working within a few days after that.
If there were some aspects of the job you could change, what would they be?
More job security, benefits, vacation pay.
Did you know before you started the job what it would be like?
Yes. My father is self-employed as a Chartered Accountant, so I knew the benefits and drawbacks right away of being your own boss. No medical or dental, no set vacation. He helped me to learn the paperwork side too!
How did you do your research?
I interviewed and talked to other freelance photographers. There weren’t many mentors really, but I met with people after school for coffee to talk about what I was getting myself into. That was quite helpful.
I am now a mentor for the Ubyssey staff and volunteers because I never had one and it would have been easier if I had.
What salary range could most BA graduates expect in this field?
$30,000 -$40,000 per annum, but it can be higher or lower depending on how much hustling you do and what type of photography you do. Many paparazzi earn six figures. For me, as an Editorial specialist, I’m not rich but I’m happy.
What would you recommend that students interested in this field do while in school to better their chances of finding work in this field?
Refine your photography skills, learn business sense, and get involved with a student newspaper or UBC Photo Club. Just be taking lots of pictures and, most importantly, ask for feedback.
Be pro-active, show your work, and ask professionals for feedback. I went to a photographers’ conference and got help, and the business manager at the Ubyssey newspaper was really helpful too.
What is the worst thing a student could do?
Be lazy and unmotivated. Just going to classes and not getting involved. Not being willing to grow and stretch limits. Stagnancy shows up and really stands out in photography.
Looking back, is there anything you would do differently while at university?
The thing I kick myself over is not getting involved earlier in Photo Club. I knew I liked taking pictures as a kid, but in high school I didn’t have time to get seriously involved.
Photo Club was great, it had a low annual membership fee, I met more people who had a common interest, got more information, took pictures, learned along the way, and then started getting paid for it.
Any advice to current students?
Find a focus or niche, develop it, and work hard at it. The job market can be competitive, so seize opportunities as they can go by quickly.
In my case, I had graduated and signed up at Loyalist College in Belleville Ontario for a photojournalist diploma. But when the opportunity at Canadian Press came up I jumped on it and left the program only three weeks after it started to sign on.
What I learned in that few weeks of photojournalism college was that I already had the skills I needed to make it on my own and that the course material was redundant.
This really helped boost my confidence because I had already developed the skills through my Bachelor’s degree and my volunteer and paid work experience. All that I needed to do next was believe in my goal and make it happen.