OLGA CHAPOR

Biography

During her time at SFU, Olga completed 4 Co-operative Education terms. This included two semesters at an occupational therapy clinic, a semester in Ottawa at the Health Products and Foods Branch of Health Canada, and a semester at an optometry clinic.

During her last two semesters at SFU, Olga worked at her current company, HeadCheck Health, as a Junior Customer Success Representative. HeadCheck Health is a Vancouver based company that makes software, including a mobile app and a web portal, for concussion testing and management. They primarily work with sports organizations, (such as the CFL, BC Hockey, and Trek road cycling and mountain biking teams), as well as clinics to ensure they are set up with the tools they need to meet concussion protocol requirements and ensure concussed athletes return to sport safely. After two years at the company, Olga started transitioning from a Customer Success role to a more active role in the product planning and development process.

QUESTIONS

1) What is your current position? What does a typical work day look like for you?   

My current role is Customer Success & Product Associate, a mix between working with customers and working on product research, planning and testing. Each day is different, but can include calls with sport organization leaders to discuss how best to implement tools to support their concussion protocols, training safety volunteers or medical doctors who work with sport teams on how to use the HeadCheck app and web portal for their role in concussion management, writing reports of system activity and concussion protocol compliance for sport organizations, planning how to digitize new concussion tests, and discussing how to improve our software to better support medical professionals, volunteers, organization leaders, athletes and parents.

2) How did your education in BPK influence your career?

I remember discussing the basics of concussion testing and treatment during BPK 241 and finding that to be very interesting. Also, BPK touched on a variety of topics in the health and sports fields, which combined with co-op, allowed me to explore many different areas I could go into. When HeadCheck Health reached out with a job opportunity via LinkedIn, the desire to explore careers beyond research and working in a clinic inspired me to try a career in the health technology area. This led me to my current role, which combines my passion for improving health and my love of having different tasks and challenges every day.

3) Who in BPK had an impact on you and why?

Dr Stephen Robinovitch - before taking a biomechanics class, I thought physics was pretty boring and I thought that since I could never build anything, I should never even approach any kind of field involving engineering. Through his class, I discovered that physics had very interesting applications and interactions with physiology. During office hours, he strongly encouraged asking questions beyond what was required for the course and made me believe that if I wanted to, I could go off the path I always thought I’d take and still be successful.

4) What is your favourite memory of your time at SFU as an undergraduate?

My favorite moments were usually in lectures or tutorials when I got to explore interesting ideas with classmates through discussions. After getting through some initial awkward silence, this was a much more engaging way to learn than just reading and trying to memorize. Instead, I got to work with others to build on each others’ ideas, add unique sparks of inspiration, and get a much deeper understanding of concepts while building connections with classmates.

5) What advice would you give to today’s BPK student? 

Take all the opportunities you can to try different things and learn about different topics. You never know when knowledge will come in handy, (whether it’s knowledge about concussions or how to speak a foreign language). This also helps you not only develop useful skills and become more well rounded, but it also really helps you find what you really want to do. For me, this meant trying as many different courses, extracurricular activities, and jobs as possible. As long as you’re open to them, opportunities will find you and this is the time to try things out. After trying something new take some time to reflect, adjust if needed, and keep going.