By Vanessa Broadbent (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 26, 2014
Every student can relate to the dreadful feeling that comes with thinking about finding a job after graduation, and this is no different for geography students. That’s why the department of geography and the environment, as well as the Career Centre and the UFV Urbanists, hosted a planning and urban studies networking event on Thursday afternoon.
The purpose of the event was to help students learn about their career options, as explained by Luke Garrod, fourth-year urban planning and geography student and treasurer of the UFV Urbanists group.
“This is an event to get all of the urban planning students or anyone who is interested in the field of urban planning together to network, and to share ideas and also to get former students here to discuss their transition from school to work or vice-versa and what it’s like to go into the field,” Garrod said.
The event featured a panel discussion of five UFV geography and sociology graduates, including current City of Abbotsford planner Amy Anaka, and was moderated by Derrick Swallow, president of UFV Urbanists. Guest speaker Matt Boyd was also there to discuss transit planning in the Fraser Valley. The panelists were asked questions ranging from everything from getting a master’s degree to challenges faced while job-searching.
After the discussion, students could network with one another, an essential part of every career, especially urban planning. Michelle Rhodes, associate professor of geography and the environment, explained that because urban planning is a “social kind of job,” it’s important that students learn how to engage in those communications early on.
“The networking event is intended to get students comfortable in that environment and to get them to a point where they can present themselves in a job interview with some skills already in hand,” she said.
Networking can be essential to students, and UFV Urbanists is trying to help students do so. Scotland Galloway, third-year geography student and secretary of the UFV Urbanists, said that the Urbanists group is trying to provide a group for students with similar interests to connect with each other.
“I think at the very least they get a sense of community, seeing students that are also interested in the same academic fields that they are, which can be difficult, I think, at UFV. It’s difficult to make those connections,” he said.
Although there are no more planned networking events in the foreseeable future, students can get involved with UFV Urbanists through their Facebook group to learn more about planning and to meet other students who are.
