Learning is a lifelong adventure. For Joey, those life lessons included discovering his passion for office administration and learning how to fuse his passion as an administrator with his knowledge as a nurse.
Part of the human experience is to never stop learning. Every day we pick up new pieces of information, building on our foundations of knowledge. As this foundation grows, some may choose to advantage of their newfound skills and build out new specializations. Joey, a student in the Office Administration – Health Services program at Mohawk College, recently broke ground on his new specialization, leaving an 8-year career to learn more about office administration.
“I chose office administration, specifically health services, because of my background. I worked in Thailand as an office administrator for eight years, and I’m a registered nurse in the Philippines, where I’m from,” said Joey. “When I went to Thailand, I became a coordinator for a school with a couple of teachers working under me. I was kind of like a manager, and it made me realize that I wanted to change my career into the administration field, as I didn't really like to be at people’s bedside in the hospital. I wanted to study more about this and go deeper. So, I decided to start doing research.”
Joey knew that he wanted to merge his experiences in office administration and nursing. As he planned this next step in his life, Joey was faced with a major choice: where would he go to learn? “I knew that if I went home to the Philippines, I would have to start over from the beginning. I figured, ‘if I need to start from the beginning anyway, I should choose a good place to start. Canada is the good place I chose,’” said Joey. “The things that I learned based on my experience in administration for eight years, as well as being a nurse, linked well and I found that experience very helpful when I came to Mohawk College to study office administration.”
Since joining the program, Joey feels his skills have improved, and that his attention to detail is paying off. “I'm enjoying my program right now, I think my favourite part of the program is the importance of details,” said Joey. “If you're going to study office administration, you have to really pay attention to specific guidelines because you're going to be working with specific departments or offices, which they always have their own guidelines and they always have their own format. With this program, I’ve learned to follow the guidelines very carefully, paying special attention to details.”
Having found a place at Mohawk College where Joey could pursue his knowledge, he now needed a venue to put what he’s learned to the test.
As he works to complete his program, Joey is also spending time working as a student employee at Mohawk through the Campus Student Employment Program (CSEP). “I work in the admissions department, specifically for domestic students, so I handle only domestic students who are interested in studying at Mohawk College. Most of my tasks include office tasks, like scanning, filing and the like,” said Joey. “A lot of the time I’m also calling students, giving follow ups with their admission requirements, as well as informing if they have a tuition fee, things like that. I’m calling, I would say, roughly 70 to 80 students a day.”
While he was nervous about not knowing how to do the job when he started, Joey received step-by-step guidance and mentorship as he became familiar with his new role. “My manager Eric is very awesome. He's the best teacher. He has guided me from the very beginning, and taught me everything,” said Joey. “Now, I’m in the second year of being a CSEP student, and I feel very comfortable with this position. I'm not stressed, I'm not so nervous anymore when I call the students, everything is running very nicely.”
The time that Joey has spent working as a CSEP student has tied directly into what he’s learning in class. “I would say, one hundred percent, this experience helps. The work I’m doing through the CSEP program is directly related to my program right now. I can put to use all the knowledge that I've learned in the class,” said Joey.
As he looks back on his experience as a CSEP student, he has advice for other students entering CSEP. “Listen very carefully, and be open minded, because that's how you learn things. If you're a good listener, if you have good communication skills, or even if you don't have that, that's fine. You will learn how to do those skills. As long as you are focused on your job, giving it your attention and love as well as care, you will learn everything.”
