Chloe Johnston
Chloe Johnston currently works at the University of Victoria as an Administrative Assistant for the Division of Learning and Teaching Support and Innovation.
Q. What is your name, and where are you from?
A. My name is Chloe Johnston. I am from Bellingham, WA, originally. I have dual citizenship: my mom is from the States, and my dad is from Chilliwack, over on the mainland. I grew up in Bellingham and moved here in 2016 for school at the University of Victoria.
Q. What were your favourite classes growing up in grade school?
A.I always really liked my language classes. I had a really excellent French teacher when I was in high school, so I fell in love with language learning when I was in high school. I always had an affinity for English classes as well. I took a couple of Advanced Placement classes for English when I was in high school. I took an AP literature and an AP language class which was more nonfiction-based, and I felt like I really clicked with the flow of those classes. I’ve also always really enjoyed writing and editing, so I guess it’s always been a part of my life.
Q. What were your favourite things to write in school?
A. I always preferred writing essays to taking exams. I found early on that every time I was assigned to do an essay, I was able to learn a lot more than I would just studying for an exam and to be a lot more fun and creative. And getting to go back and revise and edit my work was always very rewarding and exciting.
Q. Did you always know post-secondary school was something you were interested in?
A. Yeah, I knew pretty early on that I wanted to go to university and that I wanted to go to university in Canada.
Q. What drew you to going to school in Canada?
A. I spent a lot of time in Canada growing up because I had a lot of family here; I still have family here in different parts of BC. I was always interested in taking my education a bit further and seeing what university was all about. My mom is in communications as well, so I was always kind of interested in maybe pursuing a career similar to hers. University was always on my radar. Whether I knew it or not at the time, University was always on my radar.
Q. Who would you say your biggest influence was growing up?
A. I’d say my mom has always been a pretty big influence on me academically and in other ways as well. I just see what she accomplishes at work and it makes me really proud. She always used to teach me how to edit papers growing up and she helped me learn the ropes with developing ideas and everything.
Q. What drew you to attend UVic specifically?
A. I always loved Victoria. I grew up really close to here so I would come here a couple of times throughout my childhood. The first time I came to the UVic campus I was doing a tour of Victoria with my orchestra back in Bellingham, and we got to take a master class with the Lafayette String Quartet at UVic. I just loved the campus so much. I loved the size of it, and it always felt really welcoming. I had taken a couple of tours of other universities on the mainland, but none of them felt like the right fit for me.
Q. How long did it take you to complete your degree?
A. It was just about 5 years. I was originally in the Psychology program but eventually transferred into the Professional Communication program. I did a co-op in my last term. I worked in an art gallery for a bit more than eight months. I’m also still in contact with my old supervisor, and she gave me a great reference as well. I can’t recommend doing a co-op enough.
Q. How come you decided to switch your focus from a psychology degree to a communications degree?
A. I just realized that I wasn’t 100% sold on doing another postgrad degree in psychology, so I wanted something else to fall back on. Having a degree in psych is useful, but I find that it’s maybe less useful on its own unless you have more education in it. I felt like I wanted something more general to fall back on, to give myself more options.
Q. How else would you describe your time at UVic?
A. I’m still in touch with most of my friends that I met. I lived on campus in my first year and met a lot of friends. I found the vast majority of my instructors were really excellent and wanted the students to succeed. Even in the classes I didn’t love, the instructors would still offer opportunities, and they would still offer extra help and everything.
Q. What were your favourite classes at UVic?
A. I think this is a very unpopular opinion, but my favorite class was Copy Editing. I found it really fun. I thought my professor was great and was really patient even with all the frustrating rules. It’s also a great skill to have and has been really applicable to everything I’ve done in my communications career.
Q. What is your current job?
A. I’m the Administrative Assistant for the Division of Learning and Teaching Support and Innovation. I’ve been in this division for a little more than a year now. I do a lot of assistance with event planning, and I support communications campaigns for all the different things that the division offers. We also do a lot of communications-related work and events. It’s a pretty large division: there are about 35 of us between all the offices around campus. It’s been a really well-rounded experience.
Q. What was the process like looking for a job after graduation?
A. I took some time for myself to just enjoy the summer. My mom suggested I started looking for work at UVic and the school districts in Victoria. I found a lot of interesting-sounding positions at UVic, and, luckily, they have a lot of entry-level positions available. It seemed like a good idea to take advantage of the familiarity I had at the University, and I just loved the campus so much that I wanted to stay.
Q. Where do you see yourself in the future?
A. In the last six months I’ve started considering going back to school in a couple of years to continue in psychology and perhaps become a counsellor in the future. I’ve always loved working with people, and I’d love to see what else is out there. I think it would be a really rewarding field. But with my current position, I still feel there’s a lot of room for growth, so I don’t feel like I’m in a huge rush to go back to school anytime soon.
Q. Where do you see the future of the communications industry?
A. I think it’s still growing and has changed a lot in the last few years. Being on social media, I find that the world of communications can be very saturated at times, so you have to be very selective about what you actually want to put out there. Everyone’s attention span is so short, so you need to be very tactful in how you approach things.
Q. What advice do you have for students in the ProComm program?
A. Try to do a co-op really early on in your degree. You really learn so much from experience and just being in a position, even if you feel like you’re in over your head. It also looks really good to have on co-op position on a resume. Communications is always going to be important. You know, that’s how messages get around, and it’s interwoven into everything we do.
Interview conducted by Jayda Baxter, Professional Communication Work Study Promotions Assistant, Spring 2024.