Alum of the Month: Mary Clare Massicotte
October 20, 2023
A self-described lifelong learner, Mary Clare Massicotte enrolled in VIU’s Master of Education in Educational Leadership program in 2020 at age 64. By this time, she had retired from her full-time career with the federal government and started her own consulting business. Completing a master’s... Read more
Alum of the Month: Telma Dos Santos
September 8, 2023
Telma Dos Santos was working as a health care assistant when she first heard about the Activity Assistant certificate at VIU. The program is designed to provide further training for people who have previous experience as a health care aid or community support worker and want to create programming... Read more
Alum of the Month: Spenser Smith
September 6, 2023
Struggling with substance use in his hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan, Spenser Smith decided to come to a residential treatment centre in Nanaimo. Following his treatment, he made the decision to stay in the city after falling in love “with the rainforest, the wildlife and the small caring... Read more
Alum of the Month: Brian Timmer
July 31, 2023
As a SCUBA instructor at Sundown Diving, Brian Timmer swam amongst the kelp forests in the waters of Nanoose Bay. During heatwaves in 2014 and 2015, he witnessed those kelp forests disappear. A few years later while attending Vancouver Island University, he worked for the Mount Arrowsmith... Read more
Alum of the Month: Lee Cooper
June 18, 2023
French-inspired and set in a 19th century brick-and-beam building, L’Abattoir sprouted up among the cobblestones of Vancouver’s Gastown neighbourhood more than a decade ago. The restaurant’s executive chef and owner is Lee Cooper, who graduated from VIU’s Culinary Arts program in 1997. The... Read more
Alum of the Month: Ashley Kuramoto
May 20, 2023
From student to teacher to published author Since graduating from Vancouver Island University in 2011 with her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education degrees, Ashley Kuramoto has been working her dream job as a teacher. She’s also a mother and, most recently, a published author. In recent... Read more