Careers

After completing my Germanic Studies minor at UVic, I applied to and was accepted by the PAD for a year-long teaching assistantship position in Göttingen. For me, this was my chance to finally spend time living in Germany after finishing my Bachelor of Music degree. When my teaching contract was finished, I immediately relocated to Berlin to begin a new junior management position with a travel company that provides small-group, academic walking seminars to travelers in more than 35 cities around the world. I am now Central Europe Program Manager for this company and spend my days overseeing operations and staff in five (soon to be six) countries.

Over the past year in Berlin, I have also worked as an editor and translator for a bilingual online publication and have contributed to other local publications, both online and print, as a writer.

I am pursuing a Master's degree in European Affairs at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. I also work in the Executive Office of the German Marshall Fund, an organization that contributes to policy research and analysis on transatlantic issues. 

I am deeply grateful to the Germanic and Slavic Studies department for the many opportunities it afforded me following graduation. Aside from honing my research and writing skills, the support of the close-knit department buoyed my confidence and encouraged me to pursue my personal academic interests. From my very first semester, it was apparent that the instructors were invested in the success and well-being of their students. 

Before deciding on a career in international relations, I received offers of admission from several top law schools, including Harvard, Georgetown, and Duke. These opportunities would not have been possible without the support I received from the Germanic Studies faculty. When I came to the decision to pursue a foreign policy career rather than a career in law, I relied on UVic once more to facilitate my admission to Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, the top-ranked Master's program in international relations. I am continuing to build on the strong educational foundation I received from the Germanic and Slavic Studies department at UVic, and hope to advise on transatlantic issues and promote cultural exchange, education, and security cooperation in the future.

I am currently a Senior Desk Officer in EU relations at Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), where I have helped to develop the Canada-European Union Strategic Partnership Agreement. A significant step in strengthening Canada-EU relations, this agreement focuses on key bilateral issues such as international peace and security, crisis management, energy cooperation, and sustainable development and innovation.
Before this, I held posts at the Consulate General of Canada in Minneapolis and at DFATD Headquarters in Ottawa.I will depart on posting again this summer - this time to Seoul, South Korea.
My graduate degree in Germanic Studies further enhanced my research, analysis and communication skills and definitely helped get me into DFATD, as German is one of the languages that the Department specifically seeks as it recruits new staff.

The Masters program in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies gave me the experience and knowledge I needed to gain acceptance into numerous prestigious Ph.D. programs across Canada and the United States (including the University of Michigan were I chose to study).
UVic’s small and caring department is the ideal environment in which to cultivate young, imaginative scholars, and I strongly believe that its turn to cultural studies should be used as a model for humanities departments feeling less relevant in today’s changing academic world.

I was fortunate to be a part of the Germanic and Slavic Studies department during my undergraduate degree at UVic. The professors, instructors, and staff were exceptional in their encouragement and kindness. They challenged me to excel in my studies, and supported me throughout the degree program. The department helped me develop measured approaches to critical thought and the analysis of complex problems.
After graduating from the Honours program in 2010, I began law school at UVic in 2011. I was the President of the UVic Law Students' Society in my final year, and received a Juris Doctor in 2014. I have since been called to the Bar of British Columbia and currently practice law in Vancouver. The legal profession is one of continued learning and critical approaches. These are the same skills which are emphasized by the Germanic and Slavic Studies department, and which form the foundation of my undergraduate degree. I draw on them daily.

When I started my undergraduate degree in Germanic Studies, I never planned on being able to combine my love of travel, my love of the German language and an actual paying job into the adventurous experiences I had working on a cruise ship for the language department. Working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean assisting German-speaking tourists, translating official company documents and providing German language tours in the different ports of call was a once in a lifetime experience that allowed me to apply my language skills gained from my degree in a real working environment, while also traveling to places I would have never gone to, and allowing me to meet people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

After having completed by contract work oboard a cruise ship, I am currently working as an Information & Advocacy Officer in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania as part of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development program that has been established in Tanzania. I specifically work with the Children's Dignity Forum, a local NGO that works in partnership with the Canadian partnerorganisation the Victoria Internatinal Development Education Association (VIDEA). My current role allows for both field work & working at the office, allowing me to advocate for children's rights - specifically girl's rights, and fighting against prevelant issues such as child marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM) and other gender's issues throughout Tanzania. Sometimes we have electricity outages, and water shortages, but I am now fully immersed in a new environment & culture and enjoying every minute of it; although I am practicing my Swahili more than my German, this degree has given me the tools to access different languages, cultures and communities throughout the world.

Following my undergraduate studies at UVic, I went to Germany from 2002-2003, where I worked as a language assistant in a high school in Wolfsburg and continued studying the language. After that I completed an MA and PhD in Germanic Studies at UBC, and I currently work at the University of Tokyo teaching research essay writing skills to first-year students. Discussing texts and giving presentations on my analysis was something I had always dreaded, but this changed during my time as an undergraduate student in Germanic Studies at UVic. Now my job is lecturing and discussing texts and research methods, and I love my job.

I applied to do a Masters in Art History after completing an undergraduate degree in Germanic Studies. I was later told that the fact that I could read German and had a strong background and research interest in European modernism was a major part of my successful application to the department. That in tandem with the co-op education program led me through a series of practical work experiences ranging from working at Tourism Victoria to the National Archives Documentary Art and Photography Division, and finally to my job as Curator at the University of Victoria's Legacy Art Galleries.