What is my story? Where have I been? Who am I?
Someone once said "a good story always starts with a place in time...". I grew up completely immersed in the performing arts. I started dancing at the age of four with an unrelenting and intense passion for ballet. Along with studying ballet (and by studying I mean my life being synonymous with everything it entailed), I studied and played the piano, as persuaded by my musically inclined mother and father who both despite this quality, are biological and earth scientists, respectively. After my middle school years and dancing at local studios, I was accepted into the school of Alberta Ballet under full scholarship. I was also accepted to attended Bishop Carroll high school so that I would have the control and/or freedom to complete high school in a self-paced context. I finished grade 10 in 6 months so that I could travel to the National Ballet School in Toronto and develop my training as a young professional artist. During my time at NSB and at Alberta Ballet, I trained under Evelyn Hart, Murray and Nancy Kilgour, Karen Kain, Rex Harrington, Brain Macdoland and Jean Grand-Maître, and had the privilege of performing at summer intensives at the NBS, Royal Winnepeg Ballet, Boston Ballet and the Banff Arts Center. These artistic connections and performing experiences at such a young age had a profound impact on my identity as a young person and really shaped my perceptions of the ideas of what hard work, determination and commitment towards meeting goals really meant. I continued dancing until the end of grade eleven, at the tender age of 15, then chose somewhat indirectly to slow down and disengage myself from such a professionally driven and competitive environment. I really struggled with maintaining a healthy self image, body and mind in such a fast-paced and competitive world, and was not at a place within myself (age and otherwise) where I could handle the pressure and challenges that were to continue to increase as I entered the professional world of dance. Thus my transition out of the professional dance world, both mentally and physically, was very difficult and the changes that ensued there afterwards took a long time for me to recover from in terms of finding my sense of self in the ‘real’ world.
A few years worth of self-reflecting and healing later, I completed my high school education at Calgary Academy. It was a huge lifestyle and identity shift for me to go from a self-paced education environment to one that was heavily structured and controlled. At this time I started developing a very strong love and passion for writing short stories, essays and poetry. I loved grade 12 english (English 30-1) and the concepts behind critical thinking, writing and analyzing the work of other writers, poets and philosophers. I even took an intro to philosophy class and I learned about the ideas of morality, metacognition and existential thought and I was totally hooked on the paradigm. After high school and a year of working jobs that do not need to be re-lived in this short bio, I moved to Victoria, BC in 2007 so start my undergrad degree in English and Philosophy at Camosun College. I had originally settled on English from my success and intense interest I took to it in grade twelve. However, within one semester, my intrinsic passion for English and creative writing was destroyed (yes, just totally deflated by the university/academic rigidity of it all) and I instead chose to focus primarily on my Philosophy classes. I eventually took a Psychology elective that was about personality and identity development, out of interest and a need for an elective. Needless to say I immediately found ’myself’ reflected within the ideas and concepts in this course, and was intensely engaged in what it had to offer me in terms of my own perspectives on life and people. That was the moment that I knew I wanted to complete a Psychology degree and use my knowledge of human behavior and cognition to work in relation to others.
I finished my associate degree in Psychology at Camosun College in Victoria, BC, then transferred to the University of Victoria to complete the rest of my Bachelor of Arts degree where I majored in Psychology and completed a minor in Philosophy (Ethics). I chose to major in Psychology at Uvic, taking the majority of my Psychology courses within the areas of developmental psychology, biopsychology, motivational methods, and educational psychology as it related to the cognitive young children and identity development. I minored in Philosophy, specifically in the area of applied ethics and moral/existential philosophy, finding that the field of Psychology in the Social Sciences and Philosophy in the Humanities were so strongly interconnected and mirrored each other’s values and theories beautifully.
A few years worth of self-reflecting and healing later, I completed my high school education at Calgary Academy. It was a huge lifestyle and identity shift for me to go from a self-paced education environment to one that was heavily structured and controlled. At this time I started developing a very strong love and passion for writing short stories, essays and poetry. I loved grade 12 english (English 30-1) and the concepts behind critical thinking, writing and analyzing the work of other writers, poets and philosophers. I even took an intro to philosophy class and I learned about the ideas of morality, metacognition and existential thought and I was totally hooked on the paradigm. After high school and a year of working jobs that do not need to be re-lived in this short bio, I moved to Victoria, BC in 2007 so start my undergrad degree in English and Philosophy at Camosun College. I had originally settled on English from my success and intense interest I took to it in grade twelve. However, within one semester, my intrinsic passion for English and creative writing was destroyed (yes, just totally deflated by the university/academic rigidity of it all) and I instead chose to focus primarily on my Philosophy classes. I eventually took a Psychology elective that was about personality and identity development, out of interest and a need for an elective. Needless to say I immediately found ’myself’ reflected within the ideas and concepts in this course, and was intensely engaged in what it had to offer me in terms of my own perspectives on life and people. That was the moment that I knew I wanted to complete a Psychology degree and use my knowledge of human behavior and cognition to work in relation to others.
I finished my associate degree in Psychology at Camosun College in Victoria, BC, then transferred to the University of Victoria to complete the rest of my Bachelor of Arts degree where I majored in Psychology and completed a minor in Philosophy (Ethics). I chose to major in Psychology at Uvic, taking the majority of my Psychology courses within the areas of developmental psychology, biopsychology, motivational methods, and educational psychology as it related to the cognitive young children and identity development. I minored in Philosophy, specifically in the area of applied ethics and moral/existential philosophy, finding that the field of Psychology in the Social Sciences and Philosophy in the Humanities were so strongly interconnected and mirrored each other’s values and theories beautifully.
In the last year of my degree, I took upper level Psychology courses on Autism, childhood development and abnormal psychology. These classes really inspired me to start thinking about the idea of working with children, despite how I had always been interesting in learning about them more from an academic point of view. Given my interest in children, I applied for a job as a Team Leader in an out of school care centre in Victoria, doing program planning and group management/ instruction for kindergarten and grade 1 students.
I absolutely loved the experience of engaging these kids in the world around them through hands-on activities but also through field trips, discussions and creative interactions. I spend the next two years with the same group of K’s and 1’s, working in my same classroom and learning all kinds of different things about them and about myself. I noticed that I was always excited to go to work and see the kids after school and carry out planned programs of activities, and there was never a dull moment! During this time I also volunteered part time in a Kindergarten class three days a week. This really solidified my direction in terms of visualizing myself as an educator, mentor and teacher to the really young kids. I found a lot of what I had learned in University as a psychology student reflected work in an ECE classroom, and surprisingly enough, so did my philosophy background in terms of how children begin to think about themselves in relation to others.
I was so engaged and passionate about working with children that I continued to work there after completing my bachelor's degree. I worked full time before and afterschool with my classroom of kids and volunteered in two different Kindergarten classroom during the day while they were at school. During this time, having not fully realized the direction my passions for teaching were headed (I would almost now reflect back on it and offer that it was unconscious) I decided to take my remaining time outside of work to study for the LSAT’s. I had debated the idea to pursue law as an undergrad student who loved engaging in classes around ethics, moral and theories of justice, but also as the daughter of a father who had very objective and positive views of what it meant to be a lawyer and the status around that role. It was difficult due to a total lack of intrinsic motivation, but I studied very hard for the LSAT exam and wrote it as planned. I applied to law school and just as an afterthought (more subconscious in reflecting back) the Elementary Education program (I knew in my gut it was what I wanted to do). I ended up with a very respectable LSAT score, which surprised me instead of thrilled me and ended up being accepted to both areas of study I applied for (not expected at all). Alas I declined admission to law school and this brings me to today, being back in my home town of Calgary, totally enthusiastic and excited about getting out into the schools and continuing my journey to being an Elementary School teacher and really excited about the opportunities to apply my experiences and knowledge into an Early Childhood Education specialization...
As a quick summary about myself, feel that I really excel with situational based challenges, creative problem solving, new environments and working both independently and collaboratively on time restricted tasks. I really enjoy the process of meeting new groups of children and having them meet me, learning and adapting new skill sets and challenging previous concepts by maintaining a flexible and open mindset. I suppose people have described me as perplexingly mysterious, introverted, perceptive but not one to be intimidated or taken advantage of. I do have a temper but it comes from a place of true passion for discussion, justice, knowledge and learning. I am perceptive and highly aware of the smallest of details and have a wicked visual memory for places people and faces. Finally as some fun facts to end this mini-bio… I love a cup of really good coffee, Vietnamese Pho soup, sunrises and sunsets, photography, gardening, romance and science fiction novels, quotations, the Sonora desert, movie soundtracks, retro video games, nutrition and fitness, the night sky and tornadoes (at some point I wanted to be a tornado chaser…) I also really want to travel to Austria, Greece and Morocco and have a house on the prairies facing west towards to the Rocky Mountains. I am an INTJ personality type, have tetrachromacy (I’ll let you Google it ) and have an affinity for recalling the most marvellous quotes and facts and sharing them when the time calls for them to be shared.
I absolutely loved the experience of engaging these kids in the world around them through hands-on activities but also through field trips, discussions and creative interactions. I spend the next two years with the same group of K’s and 1’s, working in my same classroom and learning all kinds of different things about them and about myself. I noticed that I was always excited to go to work and see the kids after school and carry out planned programs of activities, and there was never a dull moment! During this time I also volunteered part time in a Kindergarten class three days a week. This really solidified my direction in terms of visualizing myself as an educator, mentor and teacher to the really young kids. I found a lot of what I had learned in University as a psychology student reflected work in an ECE classroom, and surprisingly enough, so did my philosophy background in terms of how children begin to think about themselves in relation to others.
I was so engaged and passionate about working with children that I continued to work there after completing my bachelor's degree. I worked full time before and afterschool with my classroom of kids and volunteered in two different Kindergarten classroom during the day while they were at school. During this time, having not fully realized the direction my passions for teaching were headed (I would almost now reflect back on it and offer that it was unconscious) I decided to take my remaining time outside of work to study for the LSAT’s. I had debated the idea to pursue law as an undergrad student who loved engaging in classes around ethics, moral and theories of justice, but also as the daughter of a father who had very objective and positive views of what it meant to be a lawyer and the status around that role. It was difficult due to a total lack of intrinsic motivation, but I studied very hard for the LSAT exam and wrote it as planned. I applied to law school and just as an afterthought (more subconscious in reflecting back) the Elementary Education program (I knew in my gut it was what I wanted to do). I ended up with a very respectable LSAT score, which surprised me instead of thrilled me and ended up being accepted to both areas of study I applied for (not expected at all). Alas I declined admission to law school and this brings me to today, being back in my home town of Calgary, totally enthusiastic and excited about getting out into the schools and continuing my journey to being an Elementary School teacher and really excited about the opportunities to apply my experiences and knowledge into an Early Childhood Education specialization...
As a quick summary about myself, feel that I really excel with situational based challenges, creative problem solving, new environments and working both independently and collaboratively on time restricted tasks. I really enjoy the process of meeting new groups of children and having them meet me, learning and adapting new skill sets and challenging previous concepts by maintaining a flexible and open mindset. I suppose people have described me as perplexingly mysterious, introverted, perceptive but not one to be intimidated or taken advantage of. I do have a temper but it comes from a place of true passion for discussion, justice, knowledge and learning. I am perceptive and highly aware of the smallest of details and have a wicked visual memory for places people and faces. Finally as some fun facts to end this mini-bio… I love a cup of really good coffee, Vietnamese Pho soup, sunrises and sunsets, photography, gardening, romance and science fiction novels, quotations, the Sonora desert, movie soundtracks, retro video games, nutrition and fitness, the night sky and tornadoes (at some point I wanted to be a tornado chaser…) I also really want to travel to Austria, Greece and Morocco and have a house on the prairies facing west towards to the Rocky Mountains. I am an INTJ personality type, have tetrachromacy (I’ll let you Google it ) and have an affinity for recalling the most marvellous quotes and facts and sharing them when the time calls for them to be shared.