OCV Students Attend

Launch 2020

by Abeed Zaman

Many high schoolers were lost in confusion when confronting the big decision of post secondary. OCDSB took initiative and held the Launch 2020, a district wide event with tens of thousands of students attending to listen to motivational speakers and stories from post-secondary students, and visit university booths. Speakers gave life lessons like Jay Gosselin’s “The Most Important Skills for a Successful Adult” (I'm sure teachers watched that) to scholarship info by Janet MacDonald to meteorologist Mike Robinson’s “Storm Hunting”. In all, the event was well rounded with diverse topics that hopefully cleared the way for students to make a sure decision of post-secondary. Here are some comments from OCV students about the workshops they attended:

Jay Gosselin

Mike Robinson, from "Storm Hunters"

"I attended "Everything you need to know about scholarships." She had some great suggestions about where to find some good scholarships. (Seniors, check out scholartree.ca and scholarshipscanada.ca)"

- Grace Catton

"I also went to "Everything you need to know about scholarships" and I learned that many of the scholarships extend deadlines, meaning they don't have applicants. Millions of dollars go unused!"

- Abeed Zaman

"I went to "Applying to University - A Tutorial." This was a very clear presentation. All of the necessary steps for applying to university were clearly outlined and explained."

- Owen Duncan

"I went to "Life in Residence." This workshop gave me the opportunity to see how the residence program works, as well as hear about all the ‘hidden’ amenities that students can benefit from in post-secondary!'

- Caroline Soler

"I also attended "Applying to University - A Tutorial." As a student who was initially quite nervous to apply through OUAC, Kennedy Wonnacott thoroughly explained the process and cleared up any questions."

- Aaya Mahdi

"I enjoyed the keynote. Tina Varughese was an amazing speaker. I found her presentation to be both funny and engaging with interactive polls placed throughout the seminar. The presentation itself focused on unconscious bias as Varughese spoke about the way that we subconsciously make assumptions about different groups of people based on factors like gender, age, race, and sexuality. Overall, I found the presentation to be thought provoking and very well done."

- Talia Freedhoff

Keynote: Tina Varughese on Unconscious Bias

by Grace Catton

For most graduating students, it was a relief to know that they could spend a day exploring their options for post-secondary life through the virtual Launch 2020 fair. It was a well-planned, interesting collection of speakers and exhibits, one of which being Tina Varughese’s captivating keynote presentation on unconscious biases.

Her keynote began with a few polls that she released, trying to explore the audience's prior knowledge about unconscious biases, and where they come from. She explained that most of our biases fall into seven key areas... gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, age, weight, and disability, and invited the audience to explore their own biases using an online harvard study. “A lot of you said you thought you did have unconscious biases, but maybe you have some that you didn’t even know about. A lot of you said ‘No way! I don't have any,’ but quite frankly we all do,” said Varughese. She explained that she felt that it was very difficult, almost impossible to break these biases, and that what we must do instead is manage and mitigate them through awareness, education, and empathy. “For now, we do the best that we can... until we know better.”

She delved into the process of “othering”, and how microaggressions make people feel “less Canadian” due to aspects of themselves that are entirely out of their control. She addressed the common microaggressions asserted towards women, like maternal bias, the shocking wage gap, and concepts like the “child bearing age”. “Women will often answer questions meekly, or even make their statements sound almost like a question,” she said. “I encourage young women to take up space physically, mentally, and emotionally. Be confident in your convictions, your thoughts, your perspectives: be bold, be big!”

Personally, the thing that resonated with me the most was when she began describing her career path, and how she journeyed to become the speaker she is, doing the job that she loves: “A lot of you at the age of 17 or 18 won’t know what you want to do, and I’m going to tell you right now: that’s okay!” She went on to explain that her career path was not a straight line, and that oftentimes even when you think you know what you want to do, you’ll sometimes end up in a different place then you originally thought. “I did my political science degree with the full intention of becoming a lawyer. I took my L-SATS, went ‘huh?’, and then went back to school for commerce. My career was not a straight line, and in fact I only stumbled into the career I have today!”

She ended her keynote with a few suggestions about the process of being mentored. She explained that because of an effect called affinity bias, oftentimes we will want to work with people who remind us of ourselves. However, it is when you work with people who are completely different than you that you learn the most. She told everyone to challenge this bias, and to try to find a mentor that was a different gender than them, and at least two levels ahead in whatever path they want to take. She said that when it comes to being mentored, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Overall, Tina Varghese’s keynote was relevant, interesting, and gave students the opportunity for introspection and self-accountability. Though she by no means made unconscious bias a laughing matter, she livened her tone with humour, sarcasm, and wit. Her presentation was on-theme, with advice about post-secondary education and self-discovery, and yet allowed for students to step outside of their personal concerns about their future, and instead shift the focus towards a larger issue. It was an excellent introduction to Launch 2020, and an enlightening, entertaining presentation.

For info on mentorship programs

Visit Tina Varughese's site for more info

Student Panel

by Alvina Shafqat

In our OCDSB Launch 2020 student panel, we had six former students who all took different careers paths. They each spoke about their own life and what they are looking towards in the future including how COVID-19 has had an impact on them. Chyna Levey, Chelsea Lackey, and Choukri Ali went to Woodroffe High school, Ava Stevenson went to South Carleton Secondary school, Sincere McNab went to Gloucester High School, and Rhys Fitzgerald went to Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary school.

They each chose a different career path and when asked what they had planned for their future, Chyna spoke about how she wants to become a manager at her current occupation at Dollarama, since she has always loved retail and enjoyed helping the customers.

Sincere is currently at a level one at his apprenticeship at Brick and Stone Mason and hopefully wants to be level two. In Grade 11 he decided that school was not for him and with the help of his guidance counselor they were able to get him a paid co-op using apprenticeship.

Chelsea is currently in Algonquin College studying as a vet tech in a two-year program although because of COVID she believes that it will possibly take much longer than that. As a high school student she didn’t know what she wanted to do until October of her senior year but she decided to take biology and chemistry as well as co-op as it's something she thought she was going to need in the future.

Ava had always loved cooking and baking and decided that she wanted to become an entrepreneur. She had taken classes and was supposed to go to cooking school but when COVID hit she decided to start her business.

Rhys wanted time to find himself and figure out what he wanted to do and took a gap year to do so. A gap year benefitted him because he was able to realize that he had wanted to become a firefighter and with COVID he took his life coaching certification, focused on his health and gained a lot of self-improvement.

Choukri is doing a joint major in political science and communication in the University of Ottawa. Before choosing her program she had a lot of help from guidance counselors who gave her tips and she was involved in many workshops.

There are different ways to introduce yourself to the pathway of your choice, although many of these former students did co-op in highschool and choose their pathway based on that such as Chyna who did co-op at 16 and chose a pathway that was related. There are many myths about all these kinds of career paths such as the fact that taking a gap year doesn't make you lazy and that there are ways to find success. Chelsea was told that she wasn’t going to be able to do it because it was difficult but she still did it. The myth about college is that the professors are easier but that's not the case and college is as hard as university. Ava was not sure about starting a business so young, but realized that she had a passion for it and began her process.

When asked about where they lived Sincere said that he lives at his parents' home as it's cost beneficial and there is no need to cook. Chyna moved out at 18 and by 19 she bought her first home, and Ava lives in residence and it's beneficial as it's only a 3 minute walk to her class although there is not enough space.

They all have their own hopes for the future, and Chyna hopes that one days he will be able to either run the Dollarama that she currently works in or become the store manager. Sincere wants to continue his current apprenticeship. Ava hopes to expand her website wildrunbakedgoods.ca and hopefully open up her own store. Rhys is in the process of working towards becoming a firefighter and one day volunteer for the Red Cross. Choukri hopes that she can get into law school and inspire others arounds her, and Chelsea wants to create a lasting impact on animal care.

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