Now, as an alumnus and co-chair of the program committee with Leadership Calgary, Butler is part of an interconnected mentor/mentee relationship that aims to provide leadership capacity in a collaborative way.

Six years ago, Butler was looking for intellectual stimulation and to connect with people who cared about the importance of community, so she enrolled in Leadership Calgary. “It was more about the people I would meet, rather than the program and the curriculum,” Butler says. “I became connected to individuals I wouldn’t have been connected to otherwise, but my world also opened up because of the curriculum itself.”

Leadership Calgary was initiated in 1998 as a way to encourage aspiring leaders to work collaboratively in building a strong community. Each year, 30 individuals are accepted into the 10-month program.

“The program gave me a way to move forward with my life in a more meaningful way. I had a tool to decide what engagements I would focus on,” Butler says. “It gave me a greater sense of personal responsibility to my community and the people around me.”

Today, Butler works as a consultant with both for-profit and not-for-profit companies, dealing with change management and organizational culture. The 34-year-old owes much of her success to Leadership Calgary. “It affected my work, it affected my family, it affects everything I do,” she says.

Anna Vesala had a similar experience with Next Up in Alberta’s capital city. She had been to numerous conferences and workshops focusing on personal development, but the duration of the Next Up program intrigued the 28-year-old. The six month program runs from October to May every year. Next Up launched four years ago in B.C., but also runs in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and is a leadership program focusing on environmental and social justice.

“I had an environmental economics degree and wanted to put it to use,” Vesala says. “It was an intense way of making connections with a lot of people who were mobilizing for change in their communities. It was getting deeper into community and not just studying it theoretically.”

Vesala completed the program back in May and today she serves as the executive director for Edmonton Bicycle Commuters’ Society. Even though Vesala has completed the program, she continues to stay in contact with other Next Up participants and says the program played a key role in building her personal and professional network.

“I feel better equipped now to assess what’s happening on a local, provincial, national or international level and have the connections to dig out information and not just accept what the mass media is telling us,” she says. “These are life skills that can be taken to any context.”

While the time commitment for a program like Next Up can seem intense, Vesala says to get the most out of it you have all distractions aside and really “make yourself present” during the sessions. As an alumnus of the program, Vesala will return as a coach this fall to help guide the next round of participants through their leadership journey.

Similarly, Butler has remained involved with Leadership Calgary every year since she completed the program in 2006. The 30 participants in the program are split into groups and each group has a guide, which is a role Butler served the year after she completed the program. There is also a program team made up of previous participants that works with the current group and the guides. “There’s a tiered mentor program in place,” Butler says. “As a guide I learned just as much from my group as they taught me.”

Francesca Gabaldon, above: “I don’t want anyone to feel lost and alone, like my mom when she came to Canada.”

RECYCLED: This article was originally published in October 2007

Dozens of women sit at hexagon-shaped tables eating from paper plates piled high with rice noodle salad, cornmeal tostadas, meatballs and bison cranberry stew. International potluck cuisine, I call it. One woman skillfully nabs a chocolate-dipped strawberry with her chopsticks while a young girl in a frilly pink dress happily eats with her fingers. Their meals are interrupted by some yelling at the front of the room.

“I want to apologize,” Lynn Berry shouts over the jackhammers ra-ta-ta-tating one floor below. “Normally they aren’t doing construction at night. I don’t know long this will go on.”

I think back to the conversation I had with Berry yesterday, when she gave me directions to this gathering at Bow Valley College in downtown Calgary. “There’s so much talking going on at these sessions,” she said, “sometimes I think I need to bring a blow horn because there’s so much energy.” And that was sans jackhammers.

Tonight’s potluck is a graduation of sorts for this year’s New Horizons Mentoring Program. Established in 2004 by the Youth in Motion education foundation, a charitable organization with offices in Calgary and Toronto, the six-month program pairs mentors with immigrant protégés. It’s designed not only to help immigrant women find jobs and settle into their new lives in Canada, but also to give mentors an intimate window into cultures around the world. Through monthly get-togethers such as this one, as well as phone calls, e-mails and one-on-one meetings, mentees get help in their search for meaningful work. But as mentors discover, immigrant women, no matter where they’re from, inevitably encounter hurdles.

Tonight’s jackhammer symphony is a small glitch compared to the onslaught of obstacles new immigrants confront every day: language barriers, cultural differences, housing problems – even shyness can be a major challenge. I learned a lot about these stumbling blocks while living and working in Afghanistan for most of 2004. Based in Kabul as a stringer with the Toronto Star, I started and ran a monthly political newspaper for a Canadian non-governmental organization. Rah-e-Naw (translation: enlightenment) was written and produced mostly by women.

Although the dozen women I worked with were aspiring journalists, many were timid and shy. They lacked self-confidence. That was understandable: their spirits had been beaten down for years by Taliban men who believe that women are weak and feeble and should be cloaked in burkas. Even today, many women in Kabul (which is far more liberal than rural Afghanistan) don’t go out at night because, as the newspaper staff told me and believed, no respectable woman is seen in public after dark.

One 17 year old, Ellaha, was painfully shy at first, rarely making eye contact. She always wore bulky, dark clothing. But after several weeks as the newspaper’s graphic artist and editorial cartoonist, she transformed into a determined woman who cracked jokes, wore colourful clothes and made regular trips to the male-dominated printing house.

Gawhar, a journalism student at Kabul University, blushed and giggled – a lot – when we met. But after a few months of hard, dedicated work, she began to shine as the newspaper’s star, crafting impressive investigative articles. She single-handedly broke a story about election corruption after ferreting out Afghans who had several voting cards, which they discreetly sold to political parties, who in turn stuffed ballot boxes. The story was a coup for Gawhar because it beat all international journalists in Kabul and received a mention in the New York Times. Our newspaper, published in three languages, focused mainly on Afghanistan’s first-ever democratic elections. After a few months, many of the women proudly evolved into assertive journalists, interviewing male wannabe politicians – a bold move because women, in typical Islamic tradition, aren’t accustomed to questioning men.

Three years later, I’m thinking of Gawhar and Ellaha as I look around the room at Bow Valley College. I’m wondering about the mentors, about what they feel while coaching and guiding their charges. After my experiences starting a newspaper, I know this type of teaching can be frustrating, but if you persist and remind yourself frequently of the goal at hand – helping women get careers – the personal rewards run deep.

Mostly young but established professionals, the mentors tell me that, indeed, they “get” as much from their mentees as they give. They learn about their mentees’ foreign (and sometimes quirky) cultures and customs. They are humbled by the strength and courage of their mentees. They are emboldened; one mentor summoned the nerve to start going on blind dates after hearing how her mentee arrived pregnant from the Philippines. They translate everyday expressions such as “What’s up?” and explain what “camping” is to women who are baffled by the familiar tent-and-trailer icon on highway signs. They talk about Canadian office attire; one mentor spent a full hour discussing socks with her mentee. Some mentors are from immigrant families themselves; they empathize with their mentees’ daily struggles. Some simply cherish the opportunity to help other women.

“I really love working with women,” says mentor Lynne Perry-Reid. “I feel like there’s an automatic connection, no matter what culture you’re from, when you’re working with other women. It’s always a very caring, nurturing environment. It’s not competitive; everyone is working together.”

That’s so true. When women gather for a common purpose, a natural, instinctive bond often forms. Men do it too, usually while playing sports – it’s called male bonding. From my experiences, women tend to connect and relate differently. We have “hen parties” full of cackling and uncontrollable laughter. We nurture, support and inspire each another. We touch each other softly on the arm. We hug.

When the jackhammers stop rattling, Berry, New Horizons’ project manager in Calgary, looks up from the floor, from the source of the noise down below. “As always,” she says, “we begin with our bragging session. Anybody like to speak first? Remember we are all friends here.” Mentees may be uncomfortable speaking to a crowd, but getting out of their comfort zone is part of the program here.

Larisa Kulikova, a Russian who arrived in Calgary last year, stands up. “Most of us know that I work for a bank,” she begins with a thick accent. “The first week for me was a shock. I didn’t understand people. I had to read a lot of information online. It was so overwhelming, I asked the branch manager to switch to a teller position. I’m thinking, ‘I’m going to be fired.’ But I have a wonderful branch manager. She let me switch. Now I have more breath. I ask for help.”

After so many months in Afghanistan, I know too well about women being afraid to ask. In Canada – everywhere in the western world, for that matter – we’re raised and encouraged to question things. But in many countries, women are taught not to probe, especially one’s superior. It’s considered rude, disrespectful.

Before Kulikova sits down, the women break into applause. “That’s a very good message,” Berry says. “It’s always better to ask.”

Later, Berry tells me that running New Horizons feels like “herding cats” sometimes. Still, the program boasts a 95% success rate, with almost every mentee landing a job – many en route to their chosen career. At the beginning of each intake, Berry meets with mentors as a group. She tells them that while the program is “career focused,” mentors are urged to help mentees “figure it out” when they stumble in any way. Not to do the work for them, but to show them where to go.

“I’ve learned over the years that you can’t really separate life skills or personal issues from employability issues,” says Berry. “And mentees, and quite often mentors, have a lot to learn, and a lot to give.”

Sitting in a wired office four stories above Jasper Avenue, TEC Edmonton’s executive VP of business development is equipped with two computers, a well-used Blackberry and, unobtrusively off to one side, a much-scribbled-on whiteboard. The writing is a clue to Dr. Randy Yatscoff’s roles, past and present: he combines his technical PhD and real world business experience to grow new companies.

“This is like a third career,” Yatscoff says with a smile. “I was a university prof; I moved up to CEO of a biotech and have been a member on a number of boards; and now I’m able to use the skill set I developed to help other people move their companies forward.”

For the past three years, Yatscoff has been at TEC, first as a CEO in residence and now in his current role of leading business development. TEC is a joint venture between the University of Alberta – where Yatscoff maintains a position as an adjunct professor in the faculty of medicine – and Edmonton Economic Development Corp. TEC forms a community of small businesses with shared meeting rooms for accessibility in downtown Edmonton. The organization’s mandate is to diversify the economy and provide stimulus by developing new technologies.

“You have great technologies that are coming out of the university, but they need to get some traction in the city,” says Nadia Andersen, communications manager at TEC. The organization is geared to help new companies commercialize their ideas and get off the ground.  There’s subsidized office space in the business incubator and a stable of more experienced business and tech mavens – like Yatscoff – to help out. TEC keeps four CEOs and two entrepreneurs in residence on staff to advise young executives as they grow their businesses and monetize their ideas.

“Of any part of my job that I find most satisfying, it’s the mentorship,” Yatscoff says. Wearing a crisp suit and tie, he talks about potential pitfalls that young companies might stumble into, for example, a company’s founder should not continue on as CEO. It’s hard, he says, watching a company neglect sound business advice – but they need to make the decisions. “You get scars on your back, and you need to learn from that, and you need to learn quickly,” he says. “Mentorship helps prevent you from making these mistakes.” On the other hand, watching companies grow and seeing ideas get wings, “that’s where I get my job satisfaction from: seeing new technologies being developed – but seeing individuals being developed too.”

More than 650 people approached TEC Edmonton for help in 2009. Those companies, projects and ideas, Andersen explains, have a four-stage process to pass before they can benefit from the up-close-and-personal mentorship that business grey-hairs like Yatscoff can provide. As a result, she explains, the final pool shrinks considerably from 650. After an initial assessment, TEC’s VenturePrize and Alberta Deal Generator programs give companies resources to develop good business pitches. The third stage involves developing business plans and financing strategies before, finally, signing an agreement with TEC. “That’s where we say: we’re going to work with you and we’re going to give you some deliverables,” Andersen says.

Those deliverables might include space in TEC’s business incubator and access to the experienced talent of veteran CEOs and their business networks. Both of those deliverables continue to benefit Maziyar Khorasani, a VP with Biolithic, and the company that won last year’s VenturePrize. Biolithic’s office is down the hall from Yatscoff, whose networks and advice have been a resource to Khorasani for the last year. “It’s hard to find someone with life science experience in Alberta – especially successful life science experience – so I think Randy has done well in that space.”

Yatscoff was the CEO of Isotechnika, an international pharmaceutical company based in Edmonton and publicly traded before his current role at TEC. “I think he likes to help, but he evaluates companies too. He tries to pick and choose companies that he thinks have a chance at success,” Khorasani says. Just a year into its corporate life, Biolithic is developing low cost diagnostic devices that would eliminate the need for doctors to send medical samples away to an offsite lab. Biolithic’s relationship with Yatscoff began after the company consulted a number of other CEOs in residence. In the end, the four person team connected with Yatscoff at a business presentation, and felt that he was the best fit as a corporate mentor for their company. “He’s definitely passionate about what he does,” Khorasani says, “he’s definitely there when you need him and he goes the extra mile.”

Yatscoff’s relationship with Biolithic reflects the careful selection process that needs to happen between companies and their corporate mentors. Yatscoff says there’s a definite selection criteria that a company should look for in a mentor; a mentor should give advice not directives.

“You have to trust a mentor and be open minded – they might tell you things you don’t like – but you still need to think for yourself. Make decisions. Don’t let the mentor overpower you,” he says. “Have a network – don’t just rely on one mentor – because no one approach may necessarily be the right approach.” TEC uses a lead mentor for each company they deal with, but also use a team approach.

Rod Precht, president and founder of Exciton Technologies Inc., a company that applies silver to medical devices to prevent the spread of disease, approached Yatscoff in 2007. At the time, Exciton had just received its first patent and was looking for a way to grow. After a business pitch, Yatscoff came on board and helped Precht and Exciton raise over $4 million. “That money has allowed us to bring a product to market.” Exciton now has 13 employees across offices and wet lab space at TEC.

Nine years ago, when the company was getting started, Precht says that Exciton had a hard time attracting interest and capital from established firms. “Now we have a product on the market and we’re getting the feedback that it’s working the way it was designed to work. And we’ve got a lot of the companies we originally approached coming back to us saying: what are the terms for marketing and distribution?”

For young companies and young entrepreneurs that want to benefit from having a corporate mentor, Yatscoff has a few words of advice: “Take risk, be open and do things differently, and be mobile.” Yatscoff says these were lessons that he learned throughout his career even though he had to learn without the help of a mentor. He learned to be mobile in moving from southern Ontario to Winnipeg and then to Edmonton as a university professor. He also had to take risks in order to move ahead, “I took a big risk: I gave up a tenured faculty position to go to a biotech that didn’t have a lot of money.” It was a no-guts-no-glory type of move. “There was no financial security,” he says of the move made away from a tenured position in his early 40s. “It was a big risk to go to something that had less than six months cash.” With a smile he says, “I look back on what I did and think… whoa.”

When he looks at young companies and young executives with new ideas, he likes to see the same sort of passion and burgeoning ideas. “A young person is all over the place – they’ve got a lot of ideas, but I’d rather have a person like that, who’s creative, where you have to focus them, rather than an individual who has tunnel vision.”

Part of his job as a corporate mentor is to focus people and help them hone in on their passions. “Good entrepreneurs have vision,” and he jokes, “but maybe too much.”

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If someone asked me fifteen years ago what a mutual fund was, I would have drawn a blank. Since then however, by getting money mentors and by using the resources available to me like books, articles and the Internet, I’ve learned about investments, debt, saving and savvy spending.  And I’ve realized that money management and its sometimes confusing jargon isn’t nearly as difficult to understand as you might think. A little bit of knowledge coupled with some guidance is all you need to become financially successfull.

The majority of Canadians haven’t received formal money training through education or the services of a professional financial advisor. Many learn money skills through firsthand experiences which are often difficult – like a maxed out credit card or being declined for a loan. According to a study conducted by BMO Bank of Montreal in 2008, when younger professional Canadians finally get around to asking for financial advice, more than 90 per cent of the respondents polled said they discussed and received money advice from their parents as their number-one source of information. Second to that, they received advice from friends. Along the way we glean nuggets of financial information from people we trust – these are our money mentors.

My first money mentor was my mom and she encouraged me to buy my first Canada Savings Bond at 10 years old with $100 I’d received for my birthday. When I turned fourteen and got my first job at the local library shelving books for $400/month, I met my second money mentor named Ryan. Ryan worked at the local bank across from the library and he introduced me to mutual funds and also gave me advice on how to save for my fast approaching university education.

Since graduating from university in 2005, my savvy aunt, a Toronto-based multi-millionaire interior designer, has mentored me since toward developing habits and behaviours of self-made millionaires. Like many multi-millionaires, she doesn’t necessarily look the part, driving fancy cars and living in a mansion. Rather, she saves money by making frugal choices like driving a 2002 Toyota Highlander, carrying a stylish Roots bag, wearing second-hand jewellery, and traveling in economy class. According to her, not living how rich people “should” live has been critical to her success.

Her top piece of money advice to me has been this: it doesn’t matter how much money you have, if you don’t learn how to keep it, you’ll never be rich. That’s right, you could have $1 million and if you spend it all on image boosting non-assets like cars and stereo systems, in the long run, you’re no better off than the person with $10,000 who spends it the same way.

If you want to adopt a money mentor, look for some of the following characteristics.

1. A good money mentor will have demonstrated their ability to build their net worth steadily over time through a combination of debt reduction and asset growth – like investing money or buying real estate.

1. A good money mentor keeps and maintains a meticulous budget, living within their means. One of the primary reasons people go bankrupt or don’t have savings is due to improper cash-flow management. They spend more money than is available and run out. Often, they’re without a budget, or they blow their budget out of the water. A budget is a tool to keep you on track.

1. Good money mentors are savvy spenders – the best way to shop is to first determine whether you actually need the product or just want it. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it; no matter how good the sale is. Being an overzealous, debt-ridden shopaholic is unhealthy and won’t help you achieve financial independence. A good deal you can’t afford is never a good deal. But, if you’re primed for a purchase, try paring down (choose the iPod Shuffle vs. the Nano) or buy ‘used’ through reputable online websites. For regular household items, buy in bulk or shop in stores with concrete floors. Also, sign up for loyalty programs so you can collect points – everyone loves freebies!

1. They’ll give of their time and be willing to teach you things like how to make more money at your career, save more, and how to invest wisely. They also give money and their skills to worthy causes.
2. If you want to sharpen your financial skills before you get a money mentor, you can also learn a tremendous amount from books and Internet Resources.

• Globe Investor (www.globeinvestor.com)
• Morningstar (www.morningstar.com or www.morningstar.ca)
• Buck Investor www.buckinvestor.com
• Yahoo! Finance www.finance.yahoo.com
• Any of Warren Buffet’s books
• Authomatic Millionaire by David Bach
• Wealthy Barber by David Chilton
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki’s
• Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko
• How to Make Money in Stocks by William O’Neil
• Value Investing by Janet Lowe

By getting a money mentor to give you guidance, you can take your natural desire to create financial freedom for yourself, learn some technical financial skills, and implement them to build your net worth.

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Today’s leaders aren’t born; they’re groomed – and not very well, according to Mary Donohue, adjunct professor of business administration at Dalhousie University. “The biggest problem is we don’t train leaders anymore,” she laments. “We just presuppose that people can lead.”

It’s a trend she hopes the National Mentoring Program can help reverse. “We don’t provide enough opportunities to fail in our society, and that’s why the NMP is so important,” she says.

The program pairs university-level business students with executives and managers from Molson Coors Brewing Company. The students complete paid internships with charities over a 16-week period. Molson Coors personnel work in an advisory role, meeting with students or talking to them by phone on a weekly basis in short 20-minute bursts. The mentors are a sounding board, Donohue says, there to help students navigate the sometimes-mysterious travails of office life. “No one really teaches that,” she says. “Kids have to learn it on their own.”

The program began as Donohue’s graduate dissertation at Central Michigan University. After working in the upper echelons of corporate communications and public relations, including a stint as executive director for the Molson Indy Festival Foundation, the 46-year-old headed back to school. She was eager to dig deeper into the relationship between mentor and protege. She also wanted to examine what impact philanthropy had on leaders. “Nobody in the world had really begun to look at the positive effects of mentoring on the mentor.”

The NMP gives managers a chance to test different leadership styles in an environment that’s free from everyday pressures. “It was built on an environment where you can test, you can fail and then you can succeed,” the professor says. “My goal is to train a million mentors over the next five to 10 years,” she adds.

The author’s experience teaching ethics and ethical leadership to undergraduates at Ryerson University in Toronto also influenced the shape and tenor of the NMP. Students today don’t trust businesses, Donohue says. Examples of corporate malfeasance have convinced many that the pursuit of a corner office isn’t worth the effort. The career path personified by Gordon Gekko – the fictional junk-bond dealer played by Michael Douglas in Oliver Stone’s 1987 movie Wall Street – has lost its cachet. The greed-is-good ethos championed by Douglas’s character (and pursued to tragic ends by the likes of Goldman Sachs and AIG) is, if not dead, certainly gasping for breath.

“Greed is totally OK, it’s great,” the professor says. “Everybody needs to make money. But you can also make money and help others, and that’s where mentoring comes in.”

Mentoring is also a great way to engage and build trust with young business talent. Millennial kids – also known as generation Y and echo boomers – too often get dismissed as whiners whose sense of entitlement is out of step with their place on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder. Donohue isn’t buying it. “These kids are going to grow up,” she says. “They’re going to be great.”

Emily Dimytosh is a testament to that belief. The 19-year-old bachelor of commerce student is midway through her second summer with the NMP. While most program participants complete a brief internship with a charity, Dimytosh used the experience as a springboard to launch her own environmental consulting agency.

She now manages a team of summer students as the program director for Practically Green Solutions. The Georgetown, Ont.-based outfit helps small businesses assess and overcome a range of environmental challenges, in areas like energy efficiency, procurement and waste management. Dimytosh says running her own business has allowed her to put classroom knowledge to use in a real-world setting.

“I’ve learned more in my eight months with the NMP than I have through almost three years at Queen’s School of Business,” she confesses.

Her fledgling company doesn’t turn a profit – yet. Seed money came from the NMP, which initially kicked in $7,000. Dimytosh used the support to raise an additional $12,000 through the YMCA of Greater Toronto’s eco-internship program. Another $6,000 came from the federal government. The young entrepreneur credits her mentors at the NMP for helping the startup business build a website and foster connections with the local chamber of commerce.

Are potential clients startled by an enterprising student barely eligible to vote peddling lofty concepts like sustainability and corporate social responsibility? “I’ll admit when you first walk into a room there’s always that moment of shock.”

But reservations invariably give way to nods of approval as Dimytosh presents a measured business plan that’s crafted especially for small businesses. There are lots of opportunities for companies to burnish their environmental credentials, she says. “But I also know that as small business owners they’re wearing many hats already and [can’t] add another one.”

It’s exactly this kind of know-how that puts a smile on Jeremy Kalenuik’s face. “It’s quite satisfying to be able to help a student along and help them understand how the workforce works,” he says.

Kalenuik, a planning and execution assistant manager at Molson Coors in Edmonton, is a first-time mentor with the NMP. Since April, he’s worked with a third-year business student from the University of Alberta who volunteers with the YWCA. She checks in by phone each Friday. “I’m there for support and guidance,” Kalenuik says.

gen-Y isn’t your average crop of understudies, however. In three months of weekly meetings, Kalenuik, 31, admits he’s had to rethink the way he communicates with someone who’s grown up completely ensconced in platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter. The experience has been challenging. “It certainly helped me understand that different people upload information in different ways,” he says.

Workplace managers had better learn to bridge such generational divides – and quickly, Donohue says. “Once these students get into the workplace, you actually have to know how to speak with them, and that becomes your problem as a boss,” she says.

This is the age of endless internships, job offers that evaporate just as you get ready to sign the contract, and constantly shifting networks. Finding a new opportunity is no longer about simply applying to a posting or only about meeting one key person (though it doesn’t hurt). Which means that job seekers need to bone up on their math skills and combine two or more strategies to make a move.

Black Bird Tees resume T-shirts, via Cool Blog

Twitter + LinkedIn

HOW IT ADDS UP Establish your personal brand on Twitter, tweeting about the industry you want to enter, then drive people to LinkedIn for the hard facts about your education and work experience. Also seek out the Twitter-based search engines like Twitter Job Search, a beta site that lets you refine your search by such parameters as location, salary, job description and tweet frequency. From our browse it looks good for people working in advertising, sales and management. Sample positions: Sales rep at Molson Canada in Toronto and finance clerk at Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. Bonus: Looking international? Check out the nifty Google-powered Job Map widget.

+ How to Find a Job on Twitter, Mashable

+ LinkedIn: The secret to the online business network’s success, the Telegraph

Mentorship + Internships

HOW IT ADDS UP Finding a position is about who you know. But it’s also about what who you know knows. Follow? A mentor has made mistakes so you don’t have to. Pair that with an internship (or two) and you can bank work experience and a reference.

+ Deloitte Women’s Initiative for Leadership Learning, Alberta Venture

+ What to Look for in an Internship, Santa Clara University

Education + Volunteering

HOW IT ADDS UP School isn’t just for credit; it’s an opportunity to discover areas you’re interested in (and will likely succeed at) and make connections that take you beyond graduation. Volunteering in your area of education opens up your network, shows commitment to your field and might lead to your next job. One person from Ontario that we spoke with volunteered in a national organization with members across Canada, which put her in touch with her future boss, an entrepreneur in Western Canada looking for a second-in-command. U

+ LifeHappens: School, Unlimited

+ Online Education, Unlimited