I have had the privilege of experimenting with different career paths on my path to becoming a teacher.
- Construction
- My dad is a contractor, and I was lucky enough to be able to work for him on and off pretty much since I was old enough to swing a hammer. I learned countless valuable skills, habits, and knowledge from working in construction. Due to my time with a tape measure, math, specifically fractions were second nature to me. I learned how to fix up and maintain houses and got experience with electrical, plumbing, framing, finishing, and everything in between. In addition to learning all of those things, I learned that construction was not something that I wanted to do long term.
- Support Worker
- In 2017 I worked for Kindale Developmental Association as a support worker in one of their group homes. I worked with adults with significant developmental diversabilities helping them with all of their daily activities from making dinner, to personal care, to going to the grocery store. It was an amazing and rewarding experience that certainly had its highs and lows. This experience taught me some valuable tools for working with individuals with various unique developmental backgrounds which will translate very well to teaching students of diverse backgrounds and abilities.
- Accounting
- In 2019 I worked for the accounting firm BDO in Salmon Arm. It was a great place to work, and I learned a great deal while I was there. I learned through my time in accounting that the teaching of financial literacy was sorely lacking in the education system when I when through school. We learned nothing about taxes, investing, saving, simply spending less than your income was not covered. I truly believe that these things need to be taught in depth to children so they can start making smarter financial decisions from a younger age. There is a stigma around talking about money that is silly. If I had known then what I know now about finances, I would have made some different decisions with my money.