From the Career Awareness Committee

From the Career Awareness Committee

Virtual BCIT Meet the Students Night

By Aaron Shufletoski, BCLS

The Career and Awareness Committee hosted the annual BCIT Meet the Students Night on Friday January 29th using the Zoom Platform. It was a well-attended event, with 62 attendees, split almost evenly between BCIT students and professional land surveyors. Even with the challenges of not having a face-toface meeting, it really felt that there was a good connection made between the two groups.

The structure of the evening was very similar to the in-person events held in previous years. Starting off the event was a detailed presentation by the new Secretary of the Association, Lesley Sick, BCLS. In her first public appearance in the role, Ms. Sick led everyone on a historical tour of her life so far. It was very interesting, informative, and a great way to meet our new Secretary and see how excellently she fits in the position. The Committee would like to thank her for volunteering her time and wishes her all the best in the future serving the Association and its members.

To encourage and spearhead some interaction of the attendees, everyone was split into three groups to discuss some of the professional challenges our members face. Dave Swaile, BCLS led a discussion on natural boundaries, Patrick Randall, BCLS discussed safety challenges in urban and rural settings and Gurpreet Kooner, BCLS illustrated differences between public and private practice. The students had time to experience each group, and the committee would like to thank Dave, Patrick, and Gurpreet for their time volunteered in a very daunting task.

The last planned activity was a round of “Chapman Games”, named in honor of ABCLS Life Member Bill Chapman who has been our leader in getting everyone off their chairs to compete for cash and swag in the past. This year, the author kept things lively and challenging and many prizes were won by the students (with a few land surveyors attempting to win as well). The evening closed with an open floor to any students that had any questions and any professionals that had anything to add. A few stories were told, but the most important thing is that we made our future members feel welcome and encouraged them to reach out to the existing membership for advice, direction and employment – and in that we had great success. Lastly, the committee thanks ABCLS staff Kelly Stofer and Ellen Wilson, and then Vice President Dave Rutherford for organizing the event. We hope to see everyone at next year’s event no matter what form it takes. ✥