On September 16th, as part of the Healing the Wounds of the War Together project, we had the privilege of hosting our Professional Education Forum in partnership with the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) School of Business + Media.
The event featured discussions on the latest job trends in the Canadian job market, as well as presentations on business and media programs from one of the country’s top universities, complete with special offerings for Ukrainian learners.
As always, the highlight of the presentation was the inspiring stories and insights shared by BCIT graduates who are now successful professionals in Canada. They generously discussed their experiences, victories, setbacks, and provided practical advice on navigating their respective fields.
Following the educational part of the forum, participants had the opportunity to attend one of the five practical psychological workshops on various themes, including adaptation to a new environment, relationships with children, finding purpose in life, and coping with stress during forced relocations.
We were overwhelmed by the turnout, with nearly twice as many participants as we initially expected. This enthusiastic response only fuels our commitment to continue developing and creating new projects to support the entire community and newcomers from Ukraine.
To all forum attendees who showed interest and are working toward building their new lives - thank you!
To BCIT for their support of this event and their ongoing support for Ukrainian students since the beginning of the full-scale war.
We’d like to highlight and thank our forum speakers for their valuable insights, personal stories, motivating advice, and well-wishes:
• Kenton Low — Dean of BCIT School of Business and Media • Svitlana Kominko — Co-founder and CEO of Maple Hope Foundation, Business Administration Professor at BCIT • Elvira Mruchkovska — President of the UCC Vancouver Branch • Tetiana Senishina — Settlement Case Manager at YMCA BC • Kostya Yushchak — Engineer at PNG Engineering • Yulia Izmailova — Marketer at Return-It • Vlad Poligun — Account Executive at Attendify, Owner of Awesome Car Detailing • Olya Horodechna — Marketer at Gorilla Property Service • Valentin Kolomiets — Planning and Analytics Manager at Northern Feather Canada • Tetyana Koast — Co-founder and VP of Operations of Maple Hope Foundation, Financial Systems Manager at Sierra Wireless • Yulia Koverko — Office Manager at Canacord
Thank you to our psychologists who conducted the workshops: Yuliia Bohdanova, Nataly C-a, Anna Kutsina, Tetiana Seliverstova, Marina Ordinat.
This forum and the Healing the Wounds of the War Together (HWWT) project has been made possible thanks to funding from the Canada Ukraine Foundation and the support of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
We are still buzzing with emotions, gratitude, and enthusiasm! Stay tuned for more updates about our project – there are many more valuable events to come, both locally in British Columbia and online for residents from all provinces.
We invite you to review the photos from the event here.