By Dessa Bayrock (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 10, 2012
“It’s kind of sudden, eh?”
Carlos Vidal has a slight grin on his face as he leans back in his chair, but there is no trace of nervousness despite the fact that he’ll be leaving the continent in less than two weeks. It is, in his words, “kind of sudden.”
Vidal has been the president of UFV’s Student Union Society for almost exactly a year and a half. He’s been attending UFV for five years, and he graduated last June with a Business degree in Human Resources Management.
This semester he took one course at UFV and continued in his role as SUS president, but the urge to move on has been tugging at him since convocation.
So when Vidal got a job offer in Hong Kong, he knew it was the right move.
“Everything’s kind of falling in place for me to get up and go,” Vidal says with a laugh.
Hong Kong is a logical choice for Vidal, runs a YouTube channel dedicated to comedically teaching basic Cantonese phrases and slang. His educational videos are quite popular – which Vidal explains actually helped get him the position.
“The manager of the company is a fan of mine on YouTube,” Vidal says with a laugh, “And when he found out I was applying he was actually really excited.”
Vidal leaves for Hong Kong on October 14, and SUS will have a board meeting on October 12 at which the board will select an interim president. Vidal speculates that it will probably come down to Shane Potter (VP east), Chris Doyle (VP social) and Greg Stickland (VP internal).
Vidal will be teaching English and doing some marketing for a company called Eureka, but he also sees it as an opportunity to improve his Chinese and keep up his YouTube work.
“It’s been a bit more difficult because I haven’t been around as many Chinese friends,” Vidal explains. “So if I can get better at the language and be surrounded by the language again, I’ll be able to pick up more words and things.”
Eventually Vidal plans to go to graduate school, but more than anything he stresses the importance of experience.
“You don’t want to graduate with just your degree and that’s it,” Vidal says. “You want to have some kind of experience in the field that you’re studying in before you graduate.”
One thing Vidal treasures from his time at UFV is the experience of being able to see the institution grow in the years that he was here.
“When I first came, it was still UCFV. So many things were very small,” Carlos says with a smile. “Being able to see things like the campus rec program grow … changing to a university, plans starting for building a student centre … just the growth of UFV.”
This is something Vidal urges every student to get involved with.
“UFV has a lot of potential for exciting things to happen, and I just want students to be involved in that growth. Leave something behind; be part of the growth. Be part of what’s happening here.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
