Alum of the Month: Stephen Hextall
November 20, 2024
Getting involved in extracurricular groups while attending university can change your educational journey. VIU alum Stephen Hextall experienced this for himself when he shifted his learning focus and moved towards an education path and career in climate change adaptation and mitigation. This was the result of taking classes with Dr. Jeff Lewis and becoming the Awareness of Climate Change through... Read more
Alum of the Month: Jennifer Lindley
October 11, 2024
It was while working at a job in another field that Jennifer Lindley decided she wanted to try a different career path. She thought the Forest Resource Technology program was a good fit because it explored a variety of forestry avenues, including reforestation and silviculture. Jennifer graduated in 2022 and currently works for the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure as Project... Read more
Alum of the Month: Yevgeniya (Jane) Lytvynenko
August 13, 2024
The chance to be part of a successful volleyball team motivated Yevgeniya (Jane) Lytvynenko to choose Vancouver Island University for her studies. She quickly became a player that no one would forget, helping to lead the team to two national championships. Other accolades include CCAA Player of the Year, PACWEST Player of the Year and, after helping lead the team to a nationals championship, MVP... Read more
Alum of the Month: Melissa Ayling
May 22, 2024
One assignment changed the trajectory of Anthropology alum Melissa Ayling’s life. The paper she wrote for an upper-level Anthropology class about baklava and its significance to Middle Eastern identity sparked a passion for studying ancient food systems. “I hadn’t realized that the relationship between food, culture and identity was something you could even study, but I knew then that it was the... Read more
Alum of the Month: Clair Morgan
April 30, 2024
Clair Morgan graduated from Vancouver Island University with a Bachelor of Design in Graphic Design. After graduation, Morgan opened Cosmo Packaging in Chemainus, a brick-and-mortar business specializing in branding and package design. She later transitioned out of this into managing creative projects for start-ups and established companies. “Cosmo grew quickly over four years, attracting clients... Read more
Alum of the Month: Mary Anne Molcan
March 21, 2024
For Mary Anne Molcan, having her lino-block print selected as part of the Boston Printmakers 75th Anniversary North American Print Biennial was an exciting moment. It was amplified when her piece Plexus was also featured in Artscope Magazine, which wrote a review of the artwork featured in the biennial. “It was an absolute honour to have my work profiled in Boston by Artscope Magazine,” said... Read more
Bringing to light the stories of trailblazing women
March 3, 2024
VIU Education grad Haley Healey writes books about boundary-pushing women A desire to share the stories of extraordinary historical women led VIU Education grad Haley Healey to become a published author in 2020. Four years later, the high school counsellor by day, author by night has published five non-fiction adult and children’s books highlighting boundary-pushing women as well as a fiction... Read more
Alum of the Month: Dr. Morgan Mowatt
February 13, 2024
Dr. Morgan Mowatt is an advocate for Indigenous sovereignty in Indigenous-state relations. As a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow in Indigenous governance at the University of Victoria, the VIU alum is researching the application of Indigenous authority-making processes to Indigenous-state diplomacy. Their interest in this area of research started when they were an undergraduate student at VIU. Mowatt... Read more
Alum of the Month: Jordyn Monaghan
January 27, 2024
Jordyn Monaghan is passionate about supporting the community with a trauma-informed, harm-reduction and strength-based approach. That passion guided her through her undergraduate degree at VIU, where she studied Psychology and Criminology. Monaghan is now doing a Master of Science in Forensic Psychology at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We caught up with her to find out more... Read more
Alum of the Month: Perry Bulwer
January 14, 2024
Coming to Vancouver Island University (then Malaspina College) in the early 1990s was a turning point in Perry Bulwer’s life. He had dropped out of high school in 1972 to join a fundamentalist Christian cult when he was just 16 years old. When he got out 20 years later, he described himself as “intellectually starving.” The Liberal Studies program helped him overcome his religious indoctrination... Read more