Top Honours
“I figured I might need to create my own process to figure it out.”
Jennifer Turliuk ’06 combines tech and people skills for kids AFTER GRADUATING FROM THE COMMERCE PROGRAM AT QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY, Jennifer Turliuk ’06 landed the type of corporate job that was highly coveted among her peers—but not, it turned out, by her. “I couldn’t figure out what to do next,” she says. “I had done career testing and spoken to a career counsellor, and those had led me to what I was doing, which I didn’t like. I figured I might need to create my own process to figure it out.” Jennifer entered a competition to shadow an angel investor, and was selected as a finalist. She flew to the San Francisco Bay Area for the interview and, while she didn’t get the gig, she ended up using her time there to meet with and shadow founders and investors from Silicon Valley companies including Airbnb and Square. After writing an article about the experience for Forbes that went viral, she got so much mail she decided writing a book would be the best way to answer all the questions. And so was born How to Figure Out What to Do with Your Life (Next), which was published by Dundurn Press in March 2021. It’s one of four books she’s written, and writing isn’t even her main job. Since 2013, Jennifer has been running MakerKids, her Toronto-based business offering coding, robotics and Minecraft courses for children aged six to 13. She says her program is unique in that it incorporates lessons about people skills as well as technical education. 42
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The Alumni Hall of Excellence The Alumni Hall of Excellence celebrates alumni who embody and promote the ideals of Hillfield Strathallan College. By honouring this distinguished group of alumni, the College continues its tradition of inspiring others through the legacy of alumni who have come before them
Photos by Frank Zochil
Teaching Happiness
Jennifer Turliuk ’06
In the early days, parents of kids with diagnoses such as autism, ADHD and anxiety often said they were seeing benefits from the program that included, she says, “improved happiness and better behaviour and engagement at school. We started to realize there were certain things happening at our programs that were contributing to that, so we started adding social and emotional skills lessons to the classes.” Now, her formula is being studied by a team from the University of Waterloo, which is following participants through parental surveys for between six months to a year. Jennifer, who lives in Toronto with her 14-year-old Beagle mix Lexi, attributes her ability to keep so many balls in the air at once to her time at HSC. She transferred to the school in Grade 9 after being bullied and unhappy at public school, and says HSC’s focus on getting involved pushed her to do things she never would have expected. Her extracurriculars included leading a fundraising team for the social action committee and organizing a conference headlined by WE Charity’s Marc Kielburger. They were demanding roles that taught her how to multitask in order to stay on top of her schoolwork, she says, noting she went on to contribute to student clubs at Queen’s. “I actually, definitely learned this skill at HSC, and I am not just saying that,” she says, laughing. “At HSC it’s cool to be smart.”