Journey Through SFU's Online Community

Exploring SFU's online learning comunity has been liberating for me. The Indigenous online community specifically, has given me hope that I will be able to honour my Aboriginal heritage as I actively create my future. The information provided in the Indigenous OLC is varied, creative and informative.

For example, the home page provides information on the Career Services department's upcoming Indigenous People's Career Stories event taking place on February 21st at the Diamond Alumni Centre on the Burnaby campus. This is a yearly event that provides Indigenous students with amazing resources in our search and contemplation of our future careers. With employers in attendance specifically recruiting Indigenous student, this event could be a life altering event in terms of my future. I have registered and am going to attend with an open mind and heart.

The menu on the Indigenous OLC includes: Indigenous Career Resources, Indigneous Employers and Indigenous SFU Community Stories, among others. So, as well as event information, there is information on various employers who are seeking Aboriginal employees; such as, the Canada Revenue Agency, Round Lake Treatment Centre, CIBC, the Canadian Cancer Society, Correctional Services Canada; there are many, many others which leaves me thinking there are opportunities for all of us.

Just when I was beginning to feel excited about where my future was going to lead, with resources such as this, I was then also introduced to WIL's Symplicity. WIL (Work Integrated Learning) hosts a site called Symplicity that provides even more career opportunities and information.

The process is very simple. All I had to do was log in with my student ID and was then led to my profile page where I updated my information. The jobs and opportunites page is filled with more than a hundred jobs available to SFU students.

I entered 'communication' into the keyword search and was pleased to discover more than a dozen related job opportunities.Symplicity is like my own personal career counsellor. There is a documents page so I can upload my resumes and cover letters, there is an event planner and calender available to me. There is an employer directory and a place to add my favorites. Symplicity surely lives up to its name.

Building my network and looking at my career options is just as important to me as finishing my schooling. I am not only attending university to complete my degree, but also to actively create my future. As I discover the many resources available to me, both as an Indigenous woman and as a future employee, I am confident that when I walk out of SFU with degree in hand, I will be walking directly into a promising and satisfying career.

Christina Coolidge is currently attending SFU as a Communications Major. She is the Indigenous Program Researcher with the Career Services department. Christina is a member of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation and her matrilineal ancestry includes Cree and Scottish. She hopes to help build a bridge between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous communities in order to better understand one another and to live together in a spirit of unity.