Webfolio

Helene Tran 

740 Clement Avenue 

Kelowna, B.C. V1Y 0H5 

416-707-9310 

helenet@student.ubc.ca

 

Education: 

University of British Columbia 

Bachelor of Dental Science in Dental Hygiene                       April 2023 (expected) 

Niagara College Canada 

Ontario College Advanced Diploma in Dental Hygiene      Oct. 2020 

University of Guelph 

Bachelor of Science – Biological Science                                 Sept. 2008 – Apr. 2011 

Michael Power St. Joseph High School 

International Baccalaureate Diploma                                        May 2008 

Extended French Diploma                                                               May 2008 

Qualifications: 

St. Mark’s Training 

CPR/AED HCP                                                                                       July 2021– July 2024 

College of Dental Hygienists of British Columbia 

Registered Dental Hygienist                                                           July 2021- Feb. 2022 

National Dental Hygienist Certification Board 

National Dental Hygienist Certificate                                         Oct. 2020 

Work Experience: 

Canada Border Services Agency 

Bilingual Student Border Services Officer                             May 2013 – Sept. 2020 

City of Toronto – Parks, Forestry, and Recreation 

Piano Instructor                                                                                 Sept. 2007 – Sept. 2018 

Au Pair – Bonnet Family in Paris, France                                Apr. 2017 – Aug. 2017 

French Ministry of National Education 

English Teacher                                                                                   Oct. 2014 – May 2017 

TDSB Music by the Lake Camp 

Conductor’s Apprentice                                                                  June 2012 – June 2012 

University of Guelph Department of Food Science 

Research Assistant to Dr. Keith Warriner                                Feb. 2010 – Mar. 2011 

City of Toronto 

Lifeguard/Swim Instructor                                                             June 2007 – Aug. 2009 

Volunteer Experience: 

Southridge Shelter 

REACH Program – Student Placement                                     Sept. 2019 – Feb. 2020 

Rapelje Lodge 

Long Term Care – Student Placement                                      Sept. 2019 – Feb. 2020 

Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation 

CIBC Run for the Cure Volunteer                                                Oct. 2006 – Oct. 2018 

Humber River Hospital 

Dialysis Unit Volunteer                                                                    Sept. 2013 – Sept. 2018 

The Hospital for Sick Children 

Child Life Volunteer                                                                          Jan. 2013 – Sept. 2018 

Toronto Jazz Festival 

Box Office/Information Booth Volunteer                               June 2009 – Sept. 2018 

Habitat for Humanity at the University of Guelph 

Co-President                                                                                         Sept. 2011 – Sept. 2012 

House Build in Beaumont, Texas                                                 Feb. 2012 

Vice-President                                                                                     Sept. 2010 – Sept. 2011 

House Build in Thibodaux, Louisiana                                        Feb. 2011 

Treasurer                                                                                               Sept. 2009 – Sept. 2010 

House Build in Biloxi, Mississippi                                               Feb. 2010 

House Build in Jacksonville, Florida                                          Feb. 2009 

Vietnamese Women’s Association of Toronto 

Program Assistant                                                                             Sept. 2005 – 2012 

Guelph General Hospital 

Perioperative/Day Surgery Volunteer                                     Sept. 2010 – April 2011 

St. Clair West Services for Seniors 

Program Assistant, Piano accompanist                                 Dec. 2007 – April 2011 

References: Available upon request 

Here is a collection of some of my best work through this term:

1. Revised Definition Assignment
2. Revised Peer Review of the Definition Assignment
3. Revised Formal Report Proposal and Progress Report with Surveys
4. Revised LinkedIn Best practices memo
5. Revised Memo to Evan Crisp
6. Revised Complaint letter and Response letter
7. Revised Peer Review of a Formal Report

This application package was created in order to apply for a volunteer position at Heart Over Heart (H20). I was interested in volunteering at this organization because it is a great opportunity that would involve my participation in group intergenerational interactions which involve seniors and older adults. The application package includes:

• Original job posting
• Cover letter
• Resume
• 3 letter requesting references

Application Package

Hello and thank you for visiting my Webfolio!

As my final assignment for the course, a web folio allows me to showcase my best work and reflections throughout the course.

A little more about me:

My name is Helene but you can pronounce it like “Helen.” I am originally from Toronto however, I made the move out to Kelowna at the end of 2020. I am a registered dental hygienist and I currently work as a community hygienist for Interior Health. Prior to becoming a hygienist, I worked as a Canada Border Services Officer for 6 years, and prior to that, I was an English teaching assistant in France. While living in France, I had the opportunity to travel to almost 30 countries. Although this may seem like a lot of countries, it was quite achievable seeing how for every six weeks of work, I had two weeks of vacation! In my spare time, I enjoy playing the piano, going on hikes with my border collie – Bandit, as well as baking all sorts of desserts.

I am currently a student in the Dental Hygiene Degree Completion Program at UBC. By furthering my dental hygiene education, I am hoping to gain more knowledge and ultimately, explore more options in the field that I love.

Please feel free to reach out to me at helenet@student.ubc.ca

Overall, this course has allowed me to learn new skills as well as improve other ones. I learned about writing with a “You Attitude” and polished up on memo writing and email communications. The skills and techniques learned in this class are extremely useful and applicable, and will serve me in the academic and professional worlds.

I believe that a strength of mine is editing. I enjoy reading my peers work and seeing their perspectives through their writing techniques. Many assignments in this course utilized the peer review process and this helped my writing immensely. The peer review process made me look at my peers’ work through a critical lens, which opened my eyes to different styles of writing. I was able to learn from their weaknesses and apply these concepts to my own writing.

A weakness that I struggled with throughout this term was following all assignment instructions and keeping up with deadlines. Instructions and deadlines for the assignments were included in the lesson unit, the course schedule, the textbook and the instructor’s blog. I would oftentimes miss details that were mentioned in the instructor’s blog because I didn’t reference the source regularly. It is necessary to follow assignment directions carefully by reviewing all of the resources, making note of the requirements, and planning for assignment due dates well in advance.

Professional writing and communication skills are essential to my career as a student and as a dental hygienist. In the modern world, we are constantly communicating in the written form in emails, text messages, and through conventional letters. The skills learned in ENGL 301 will be undoubtedly be applied through my communication with my colleagues at work, in addition to my peers and professors at school. Overall, ENGL 301 was a very practical course and my professional writing technique has greatly improved as a result.

The web folio assignment was a great project to tie everything that was taught throughout the term. The process allowed me to look back and reflect on all the work I completed this semester. In particular, I was able to reflect on my areas of weakness and my mistakes and learn from them. Oftentimes, when assignments are returned back, there isn’t usually a chance to revisit and self-reflect on the work done. Taking a look back on the term’s assignments and editing them was a great way to exercise the learned skills and techniques.

I also learned that it may take multiple edits and multiple perspectives in order to come up with a finished product. It was necessary to reference the instructor’s feedback as well as the peer reviews when editing my work as things may be missed if there is only one round of revision.

The design of the web folio was something out of my comfort zone. I am particular with choosing an appealing theme, however the technical formatting aspects of the page are what I struggle with.  I had never used UBC Blogs aside from this course, therefore navigating the website took up much of my time. I learned that it is important to have an aesthetically pleasing page that is clear and concise, especially in professional and business contexts. This will help to grasp the reader’s attention and set yourself apart from others.

In the third unit of this English Technical Writing course, we were tasked to write a formal report draft. This included doing research relevant to our initial proposals, organizing and analyzing information and data, and in my case, distributing surveys through the UBC survey tool and asking interview questions to my colleagues at the dental department of Interior Health. I found this assignment to be quite challenging and upon hindsight, following the writing outline that was included in my initial formal report proposal would have been a beneficial guideline.

I found that data collection was one of the most challenging aspects in creating my formal report draft. I was fortunate enough to have a connection that works at a daycare, which allowed me to fulfill my survey portion of the data. Conversely, getting in touch with all of the dental staff in my department proved to be very challenging as a result of everyone’s differing schedules. Not to mention the recent mudslides in British Columbia that left some of my colleagues stranded on the island or on the coast. As a result, I omitted the interview data portion of my formal report draft until I could collect all of the interview responses, which also affected my conclusion/recommendations. As of now, I believe that I have the basic framework for my formal report but hopefully after I can collect of the interview responses, I will be able to write a more complete and cohesive formal report.

As for the peer review portion of this unit, I found that this activity was very informative and eye-opening. Fortunately, my peer is also a dental hygienist, so I had brief idea of her chosen topic and vice versa. I also valued her opinion because we both work in the same professional field. Through the peer review process, I am able to reflect upon my own writing technique. I am able to note certain strengths and weaknesses in my peer’s work, and apply their strengths into my own writing. And with her feedback, I noticed that there are still aspects of my writing and formatting that I need to work on and develop. Overall, the process has broadened my outlook on writing techniques by giving me exposure to differing opinions and different writing styles.

In the past, I have had the opportunity to create a LinkedIn profile for a previous school course therefore, I had some familiarity with the platform. However in this second unit of the course, we actually had to research the best practices for using LinkedIn. This activity allowed me to better understand the thought process and methods in creating a profile on a professional social media network. I feel that I am better equipped now that I have learned some of the best practices and how to effectively engage in social media networking.

As for the process of brainstorming and preparing my report proposal outline, I believe that this process was incredibly beneficial by allowing me to plan ahead. I am learning that there is a lot of thought and process that goes into creating a formal report and by preparing an outline of my report, I am able to thoroughly form my ideas and tackle one section and a time – which is less intimidating in my opinion. Nevertheless, I am reflecting on my report proposal progress and I am struggling with the survey section as I am unsure on how to make my survey questions not personal, given the context of my report. I am currently contemplating on revamping my survey so that it does not include any personal questions, but still provides me with useful data for the report.

 

The peer review for my partner’s proposal was really eye opening. I was able to learn about a novel concept that was out of my realm of knowledge, as well as a necessary changes that need to be implemented. Through the peer review process, I am able to reflect upon my own writing technique. I am able to note certain strengths and weaknesses in my peer’s work, and apply their strengths into my own writing. Overall, it has broadened my outlook on writing techniques by giving me exposure to differing opinions and different writing styles.

This assignment allowed me to reflect on the importance of being clear and concise with my words when writing. Learning about the three types of definitions taught me that there is not one straightforward way to define a term, which also encouraged me to explore the many possibilities I could convey a thought or a message. In technical writing, it is crucial to understand the purpose for writing as well as the audience the message is intended for. This allows the writer to tailor the tone and language of their writing as well as focus on the level of detail needed to communicate efficiently.

I recognized that the peer review portion of the assignment made me more aware of how my audience understands the information I am trying to purvey. By peer reviewing my partner’s definitions, I was able to note their strengths and my areas of improvement, and therefore, apply what I had learned to my own writing. Based on my partner’s critique, I realized that I needed to work more on organizing my information and elaborating on certain terms as well as adding descriptions to my images as the message I am demonstrating in the images are not clear to the reader. Furthermore, while conducting a peer review, I needed to meticulously read over my partner’s definitions in order to point out their strong areas and their areas of improvement. This in itself, helped me to notice certain details and made me conscious of my own writing.

Overall, this assignment was eye-opening and ultimately, helped me to become a better writer. I learned that catering to your audience is important in order to get your message across. It should never be assumed that your audience will understand your writing, even though you perceive it as coherent.