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.
Would you thrive on a typical 9-to-5 schedule? For Edward Slingerland, his answer would be no – the fact that he is on the faculty of two separate universities is proof of that. Not to mention, he is a sinologist and religious studies professor who originally studied molecular biology. After discovering himself, he learned that it is okay to change course if your passion is elsewhere. As he says: “What does your preferred day look like?” – answering that will lead to what you are meant to do.
Children’s health is a complex and sensitive field. As a pediatrician, Dr. Stuart Turvey diagnoses a huge variety of illnesses and conditions in children – while dealing with scared kids and parents, with the goal of turning them into happy and healthy ones. All the while, he also researches these health conditions and their causes, while keeping in mind the social and emotional impacts of the kids’ health journeys.
Research is more than just digging for information; it is also about teaching. This is what Iman Goodarzi does, in his dual role as a public scholar and PhD candidate. In academia, he finds that his work day is more flexible in terms of timing, but the trade-off is that this is never-ending work – passion for the work and time management skills are vital for him.
How do forests thrive and survive? That is the focus of what Dr. Sally Aitken does, in her role as professor and researcher at the University of British Columbia. While her specialty is in forestry, part of her role also involves teaching non-forestry students about the topic, on top of her research and work with graduate students and colleagues – after all, as she says, research is a collaborative effort.
