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Educational Background
I went to the Royal Military College for my undergrad, majoring in English Literature and minoring in Psychology. My first year of this program I spent in the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu campus, and then after COVID I moved to the Kingston campus for the remainder of my program. A year later, I started the GDE at Queen's!
Current Occupation
I currently work as a Naval Warfare Officer in the Royal Canadian Navy. Between the essential training courses for this trade, I have been working as a curriculum developer and instructor for the Navy's culture change program, called Leadership, Respect and Honour. This work impassioned me to pursue further education to enhance my skills both in the classroom as a facilitator, and behind the scenes creating lesson material and course content for the higher levels of our culture change program.
Advice for New Students
My best advice for new students (related to the program itself) is to take electives that bring variety to the core courses in your program, because these will widen your horizons and bring more shape and life to the lessons you learn and those you teach when you apply them.
My favourite advice for work and life in general is to not only take opportunities that present themselves to you, but to go looking for opportunities. The things that have irrevocably shaped my life are the things I went after, and sometimes those doors don't open until you start knocking.
How do you fit this program into your life?
This program fits into my life so smoothly when I work as an instructor and curriculum developer, because those are the standard office hour days when I can come home and do some readings or discussion posts and replies. Big assignments and heavy course loads I generally dig into on the weekends, and I found the balance was right for me when I was only taking one course a semester.
When I'm doing my trade work as a Naval Warfare Officer, days at work are long and intense, and I often don't have the energy to approach studies in the evenings. When we go to sea for periods, I communicate with my professors and create a plan that accommodates both the expectations of the course and my professional obligations. When my schedule changes in these ways, I section off my weekends and protect my time from social events / commitments so I can prioritize my studies.