About Me

I was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario and attended Earl of March Secondary School. While in High School I was actively involved with leadership activities and student council and was awarded with the Walrus Leadership Award. I decided to pursue a degree in Kinesiology from the University of Ottawa. During this time I played intramural sports, worked at the family flower business and for the PACE 2000 International Foundation promoting intercultural/intergenerational communication. I also served as a student senator at the University of Ottawa on behalf of the Faculty of Kinesiology.

 

I graduated with honors and then went on to pursue a Masters in Kinesiology working with Dr's Pascal Imbeault, Eric Doucet and Dr. John Arnason. Under the supervision of Dr. Imbeault, I designed a project involving Momordica Charantia L., which is referred to as Karela or Bitter Melon. During this time I was a teaching assistant in the Faculty and was hired by Elsevier Science to promote the Scopus search engine on campus. Following graduation I taught part-time at the University of Ottawa. 

I also worked contracts with Health Canada (Natural Health Products Directorate- NHPD) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC-Center for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control) and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. Concurrently, I worked with the Ottawa Sikh Community Services, who were awarded a New Horizons for Canada grant to promote Canadian cultural understanding within a Canadian context to South Asian seniors in Ottawa.

Having a passion for health science and public health education I went on to pursue a degree in Occupational and Public Health from Ryerson University to become a public health inspector. During my time at Ryerson, I worked for the English Language Services (ELS) office and during the summers at Ottawa Public Health as a trainee. After graduating, I worked at Ottawa Public Health as a public health inspector trainee and obtained my Certificate in Public Health Inspection (CIPHI) designation in the fall of 2011. In 2014, I moved to Winnipeg after marriage and began working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) as a Fish and Seafood inspector.

Kairos Blanket Exercise

While working at the Agency, I experimented with the idea of training and teaching. I was co-leader of a program known as the Synapse Network in Manitoba which held events to improve employee knowledge about various issues including technology in the workplace, indigenous education (Kairos Blanket Exercise), Diversity Promotion and Emotional Intelligence training within the workplace. I also took time to volunteer with grade 4's and middle school students at St. George School.

 

Louis Riel Grade 9 Girls Championship

 

I immersed myself in education before applying to the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Education including volunteering at St.George School.  I volunteered in many activities while becoming an educator. I specialized with major teachable subjects in Science as well as Physical and Health Education. During my time in practicum I was an assistant coach for the Dakota Collegiate grade 9 basketball program who placed first in the Louis Riel school division. Working with Mr. Adam Klowak was a great experience and taught me so much about  commitment to our students, athletics and community as a whole.

WestCast 2019 Presentation 

 

 

 

I also was given the opportunity to participate in WestCast 2019 presenting about careers in agriculture and providing resources from Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) whose resources I try to use with whatever subjects I am teaching.

During that same month I also applied and was accepted into the inaugural Presidents Student Leadership Program at the University of Manitoba. During the summer of 2019, I was able to participate in an experiential learning program where participants were able to meet with industry and educational leaders from across Manitoba and learn about the leadership it takes to persist through changing environments.  

 

Learnzine.org Featuring change makers in Manitoba

As a capstone project I was able to work with a team to introduce a change makers online magazine (https://www.learnzine.org). 

The stories are all original content and hope to inspire students across Manitoba to make a difference in their communities. 

Stories featured interviews with Elder Dave Courchene, The Louis Riel Institute and a Ride Share project in the Pas.

During the summer of 2019 I worked with youth in Louis Riel School Division within the Aspire Program being a grade 4/5 instructor in the program. I learned so much working with these youth about teaching and how to work with students from a variety of backgrounds. This was my second summer working with children from Victor Wyatt, Lavellee and St. George School to help improve literacy and explore the world through projects and physical activity.

 

Aspire Program Louis Riel School Division

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cricket Development Program of Winnipeg

During the summer of 2020 I was also able to work with youth from a variety of school divisions in a City of Winnipeg funded cricket youth development program. As I helped with coaching cricket at Dakota Collegiate, Keith James and I committed ourselves to bringing a group of students from the St. Vital area to participate in this initiative. The initiative was supported by the Manitoba Cricket Association and Cosmos Cricket Club.  This development program taught me about a sport I had very limited knowledge of. As a result I was able to apply for Education Alumni Scholarship and was honored with this achievement during the fall homecoming ceremony.

While participating in the PSLP I was able to also contribute to a fellow team members project. The project involves being able to celebrate all traditional holidays of different cultures and faiths in Winnipeg. Winnipeg Love celebrates diversity in Winnipeg and is leading an initiative to recognize the holidays of many cultures in a pluralistic society. I was able to stand up and be a part of the program which while being nerve wracking was also quite amazing. 

Graduating from the Faculty of Education was a bitter sweet occasion. Going into practicum COVID-19 hit us all quite hard. I was very fortunate to have worked with Mr. Matthew Stelmack who is a Microsoft Certified Educator and taught me about using technological tools such as One Note to organize information and assignments for kids during this time period. We had a lot of fun delivering an inquiry based water unit for science. While teaching this unit students were also taught about volume, density and area thereby covering the mathematics curriculum, while being encouraged to write a story, poem or journal article about a water issue that is meaningful to each student. While I fulfilled graduating requirements, I missed the in person student interaction you get when your able to discuss and have in person experiments available for youth to engage with. I was awarded with the Dr. Magasino award for excellence in Education and graduated from the Presidents Student Leadership Program.

This past summer of 2020 I was fortunate to work with students from Archwood School as well as Marion School within the Louis Riel School Division's Aspire Program. After months of being away from school this was the first time students saw one another since March of 2020 when schools shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with stellar co-teachers we were able to provide children with learning activities including engineering design contests, a book study and a chance to explore their own community through nature walks.

Planting seeds to grow in the school community garden (Image: Gursevak Kasbia)