Author: haillee murdoch

Sarah* grew up in Surrey, British Columbia where she attended Sullivan Heights Secondary school. She came to UBC in 2005 graduating in 2009 with a major in Political Science and a minor in Anthropology. Sarah had part-time experience in fast-paced environments, through this she learnt she wanted a career in an office-setting. During her university career, she held a part-time job doing transcriptions for movies which gained her typing experience, that she later transferred to the Rick Hansen Foundation (RHF). At RHF, she started doing part-time data entry and clerical work during her third and fourth year. After graduation from UBC, Sarah moved to a full-time position as an Assistant of Human Resources Operations and Finance at RHF while continuing her education at Kwantlen Polytechnic University to get her diploma in HR. She completed her Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) exam and felt she did not need to continue in her diploma program. Once her contract ended at RHF in 2012, she moved to YWCA as a HR Coordinator, gaining the experience she needed to move back to UBC as a HR Coordinator in Enrolment Services in October 2015.

Looking back at her first-year self, Sarah gave us advice to be easier on ourselves during our time at UBC and advice on how to get ahead. Something she would’ve differently done was to take more than 4 years to complete her degrees. As she said, going from a full-time student with a part-time job to a full-time student with a full-time job was too taxing on her wellbeing. She also regrets not taking time in her youth to travel when the opportunity presented itself, such as, GoGlobal or work coops that UBC or her high school offered. She was so focused on finishing school in the 4 year time frame that she felt that she missed out on a great experience that most of the friends participated in. Lastly, Sarah emphasized how much her extensive work experience helped secure a full-time position after graduation. She told us that gaining transferable skills was crucial for our future endeavors. And that we must use our social networks as much as possible, not only to lean on throughout our studies or our transition into careers, but to help us get ahead and create links in the working world.

Sarah’s degree has played somewhat of a role in her current career. But at large, we would say that it was just an accumulation of transferable skills that led her down her career path. It seems that it wasn’t so much about having an arts degree that might have been what launched her career or held it back. Firstly, Sarah started gaining real-life working skills prior to graduating from UBC, at RHF where she was doing data entry and clerical work. She was able to get this position because she had gained required skills like typing and authoritative skills from previous jobs. And once she graduated with a diploma, Sarah was able to move up in her job because of her new position in the world, with a post-secondary education. As we all know a post-secondary education in our society is seen a valuable and respectable, therefore enabling Sarah to move up from her current position. It gained her more authority and independence, as she was no longer seen as a student. However, Sarah’s personal degree did help her in her position as a human resource person. Her Political Science major helped as she said it was a field that analysed power relations, which helped in her understand workplace relations. As well as her Anthropology minor, a field that studies human culture, helped her understand people she would work with and come to interview.

As we understood the transitions of Sarah and her friends, we found that there were two distinct groups that emerged after graduation; One being the people who figure out what they wanted to do during university and figured out a degree they enjoyed that would help them: such as Sarah, who always knew that she wanted an office job, liked the business side of political science and gained the experience prior to leaving university. Whereas the other group didn’t figure out what they wanted in a career by pursuing post-secondary education. So, they held many different jobs throughout university and they got a degree in something they liked, or were good at. They continued to wander after school while travelling or holding odd jobs here and there to try and figure out their interest. As for Sarah personally, her transition was much smoother. Having started at the RHF prior to graduation, she was successfully promoted to a full-time position after graduation. Sarah found the transition from university to society was like the transition from high school to university, as she described it. Like we said, she already had an idea for what she wanted to do with her life, and had gained skills that she needed to help her get there. The biggest emphasis she had during the interview was on gaining transferable skills while you have the time to do so. Had Sarah not gained the skills she gained during her university experience, she may have never gotten the job at RHF which was where she began her HR career. She believes that that was why her transition to the working in today’s society was so smooth, because she had already acquired the skills necessary to compete in the working world. And while some friends couldn’t stick to one job for the required time to gain those skills, those who did, like Sarah, moved into the working world with ease.

Through our interview with Sarah, we found her experience from education to work to be relatively smooth. She held a stable part time job since third year that transformed into a stable full time job after graduation. Sarah never experienced long bouts of unemployment and was relatively lucky with employment opportunities after one had ended. However, society shows us that it is not that easy for recent university graduates. Finding stable employment is difficult even with a undergraduate degree, and not many are as lucky as Sarah when it comes to the transition of university to the work force.

To honestly answer this question, I think it is important to analyse each perspective that may be affected by questions of equality. I do however acknowledge that I am limited by not being part of one of these minorities and therefore must assume the perspective of these groups. My group analysed part of the UBC website in the context of accessibility to a person with a disability. Ultimately disabilities are on a spectrum because there is not a “one size fits all” when it comes to the umbrella term “disability”. It could be mental or physical, functional or non-functional. Therefore, something like universal design wouldn’t be the best fit, as every disability is different and their support needs to be tailored to fit their needs. Are there equal opportunities for these individuals to get involved on campus? It depends. I believe if the rowing team didn’t want me because I’m too short then they may be picky when choosing the best of the best for their team, yet something like work learn has such a variety of positions open that I believe they could accommodate to anyone.

However, universal design would be great for the LGBTQ community, as everyone would be equal. However, a problem here is representation. On the UBC site there are no photos of androgynous men or women who may even resemble someone of the LGBTQ community which adds to the idea of “we”/ “normal”/ men and women and a “them”/ “not normal”/ others. Which we know to be not true as we’ve learned that gender is a social construct and nothing but a learned behavior. This lack of representation leads to discouragement and lack of involvement because they cannot see themselves where they may want to be. So, are there equal opportunities? Not when they are being discouraged from joining clubs or participating in UBC events.

As for international students, I think there are many great opportunities that are equally accessible to international students. For example, looking at AMS, it is very diverse and rightfully so as it represents the whole student body. There’s also work learn that is non-discriminative and colour-blind when hiring students. However, one thing I’ve personally noticed is that the UBC site itself is really hard to navigate and at times unclear. And that’s coming from me who was born and raised in the English language, so for someone who’s not as strong in English or it isn’t there first language may have ample difficulty trying to find the opportunities in the first place. That could definitely discourage them from seeking opportunities in the community. Are there equal opportunities? For the most part I believe so, however clear instructions and details on the website might encourage even more people to participate and it would help everyone navigate the site better.

Lastly, are there equal opportunities for Aboriginal students on campus? I believe no, because they don’t have equal opportunities to begin with. To explain, here in Canada the assimilation of aboriginal people in residential school was a cultural genocide, which was definitely the biggest discourager in perusing post-secondary education. The effects of those residential schools still reek havoc on the community today and still strongly discourages its kids from school. Only 1% of UBC’s population is made up of aboriginal people, which isn’t a lot compared to UBC’s population. There firstly needs to be better programs within the community to encourage these kids to go to school and for schools to create better relationships with the aboriginal population. But on campus I believe that there are good opportunities for the aboriginal kids who go to UBC like work learn and AMS and clubs and teams. Also, on the website they have those photos of people who are culturally ambiguous which often have people who look like they could be aboriginal to show some representation. Therefore, on campus I do believe aboriginal people have equal opportunities.

The data I collected showed that my network is mostly a homophily which I believe is due to my upbringing. I figure skated as a kid, but I loved hockey as well, yet I believe because of the way my parents were raised, both with quite traditional views (and mothers who fit stereotypical molds) they didn’t consider putting me in hockey because I am a girl and both of my brothers were put in to hockey. However as much as this is a personal trouble, it is just as much a public issue, because hockey was deemed “too rough” for girls and therefore steered parents away from signing them up. Segregating us girls and boys at a young age like my parents were, which is what C. Wright Mills’ sociological imagination said about how history affects our biographies. That can contribute to the fact that other than my 3 family members I only have 2 male friends who I am close with, which stems from the ideology of our childhood that girls and boys are different. However, I did enjoy figure skating because that’s where I made the majority of my close friends, and the rest I made in the French immersion program at school. But this too was predetermined for me, as both my parents got post-secondary education and wanted to put their kids in a more challenging and engaging program to encourage us to pursuit post-secondary studies as well, plus they could afford to live close to this school as well as send me to skating lessons. The reason why I made friends who are so similar to me is because we lived in a middle class area close to good schools and ice rinks. Along with the idea that my parents pushed us to pursue university, growing up with kids in the same situation led to a competitive environment that pushed me and my friend group to strive for the best.  I personally aspired to push beyond what my parents had achieved, as my dad went to college and my mom went to UVIC. Now UVIC is not an unimpressive school, but UBC is just a higher personal achievement, and I would be the first one of my family to attain such an achievement. The idea of where my parents went to school, and how their parents did not attained school and where my brothers and cousins may end up made me aspire to achieve higher personal goals. And my friend group desired similar things because we all came from similar upbringings with financial stability that allowed us to focus on experiences and learning. During my time here at UBC I have found that because my friends had similar aspirations and that many are here with me, our relationships have only grown stronger and I haven’t needed to make new friends here at UBC. Compared to my discussion group, those who grew up in Vancouver have found the same thing, since they are local and have friends who are quite similar to them they haven’t made very many new friends from university. Whereas the people in my discussion group who aren’t from Vancouver have found that most of their friends are from UBC due to the fact that they didn’t come here with many contacts or come from very different backgrounds from myself. Therefore, my network is compiled of people who resemble to me, partly due to my parents raising me how they did, yet compared to others with a related background it’s a similar story.