Guest: Ajay Patel (president of a community college)
Vancouver Community College is the oldest of its kind in British Columbia – this fact is not lost on Ajay Patel, who appreciates his role as its president every day. While a lot of his work is managing the institution’s operations, it is the idea of influencing the future generations of students that excites him.
What makes up a species? And can you combine different types of life in new ways? These are the questions that Dr. Christopher Mason tries to answer, as a geneticist at Weill Cornell Medicine, the medical school of Cornell University. Much of his efforts need funding, which he seeks continuously, and teaching the next generation of genetic scientists. His work takes him all over the world – and beyond, as he also examines long-term health effects of NASA astronauts in space.
Being engulfed in inspiration is how Alex Cordero works, as an author. It sounds easy, right? But this journey can take years for Alex to write a book – writers’ block is not a matter of if, but when. However, such a challenge is nothing new to him, as someone who once had aspirations of being a billionaire and golf professional. Realizing how difficult it would be to achieve those goals, he learned to use the lessons of having patience and pivoting his goals to make them more achievable.
Society wants monopolies for certain things – mostly our utilities, such as power, natural gas, and so on. Mark Jaccard’s job is to lead a team that keeps those monopolies in check, as the CEO of the British Columbia Utilities Commission. In addition, he is a professor at Simon Fraser University in the environmental field. It’s a busy life but it was a long time coming, as someone who wanted to work in the economics part in the energy industry.
Vancouver Community College is the oldest of its kind in British Columbia – this fact is not lost on Ajay Patel, who appreciates his role as its president every day. While a lot of his work is managing the institution’s operations, it is the idea of influencing the future generations of students that excites him.
