McMasterAlumni

A degree in Life Sciences often conjures images of a career in health care, or maybe working in a laboratory, or even working in health policy development – not necessarily a career in the beauty industry. For Belicia, making the move away from what she thought she wanted was about making a choice that would blend her passion for fashion and skin care with the knowledge she gained from her time at Mac. Ultimately, taking that leap would put her on the path towards a dream career in PR that seeks to amplify storytelling through media and influencer relations.

In this first episode of season 2 of Unconventional, Belicia talks about how the five-year plan she came up with as a teenager adapted and changed while she was in University. And rather than panicking, she learned to roll with it, follow her heart, and, with a little creativity, carve out a career path that was uniquely hers.

As one of a handful of black billionaires around the world, it’s safe to say that Michael Lee-Chin has had a successful career. But the path from landscaper to world renowned business leader has been far from straightforward.

Having arrived in Hamilton from Jamaica to attend McMaster in 1970, he found himself feeling a bit disorientated – things were very different from the life he had been living in a small rural community on the Caribbean island. But it was the nurturing and supportive environment McMaster provided that helped him strengthen his confidence and achieve his goals. It’s an experience he is grateful to have had and one he speaks of fondly.

In this episode of Unconventional, Michael discusses his purpose-driven approach to cultivating success and reflects on the ups and downs of an amazing, and often humbling, career journey.

Like many students when they start university, Lavan had no clear plan for his future and was there because he felt it was expected of him. But it was going to university that helped him discover a sense of curiosity and by the end of his fourth year he knew he had developed three broad interests: how history influences current events; an interest regarding refugee and war stories; and third, writing. Figuring out how to bring all three together would take a little while. A unique volunteering experience led him to a Master’s in International Development and eventually, to working with the UN in Africa.

This episode features Lavan’s unique and interesting journey from not knowing what to do with his life to finding something completely fulfilling.

Chris has always had the entrepreneurial spirit. From wowing audiences with his own magic show as a teen to launching his own digital marketing business while trying to earn a business degree at McMaster. The business degree, didn’t quite work out and Chris switched gears, finishing university with a degree in Sociology. He eventually fell out of love with digital marketing and the business he started closed its doors. But that entrepreneurial spirit wasn’t about to burn out. Now, he and his business partner own and run Obie, a digital platform that enables businesses to quickly find and capture knowledge at work.

In this episode, we hear how Chris has taken risks, turns and welcomed unexpected opportunities to take a career journey that is far from conventional.

Jaclyn is a self-professed super fan of the movie Twister, a weather enthusiast and has always been interested in the inner and outer workings of the planet. While at Mac, she was exposed to several career paths and even a post-graduate research opportunity that would allow her to continue work done for an undergraduate thesis without leaving the country. But something just didn’t feel quite right. Taking a leap of faith, Jaclyn moved across the ocean to take a MSc Applied Meteorology and Climatology at the University of Birmingham in England. Now, she’s a meteorologist for the Weather Network where she gets to apply her knowledge while chasing storms just like they do in the movies.

In this episode of our podcast, Jaclyn shares stories about cultivating success by taking risks, pushing your own boundaries, and following your heart, wherever it may lead you.

Leaving McMaster wasn’t easy for Tuba, mostly because of what he calls the “post-university abyss of having to find a career.” But on a whim, he tapped into his natural entrepreneurial spirit and submitted a video application to a founder development style program called Next36. It was the kind of program that helped Tuba realize that all of his passions and his experiences actually did fit together and suddenly, that abyss didn’t seem so dark. Now, he’s the co-founder of Crescendo, a technology platform that helps equip businesses and professionals with the diversity education training to help make workplaces thrive.

In this episode, Tuba walks us through the series of cross-country moves, 90 degree turns, and unexpected wins that took him on a journey unlike anything he’d expected when he graduated. He’ll even tell us where the nickname Tuba came from, much to his mother’s chagrin.

Music and IT don’t seem like an obvious pairing, but for Avery they are a harmonious match. Having developed a love for creating music at a young age, she followed her passion through to university thinking that she would make it a full-time career. But, for several reasons, that wasn’t entirely in the cards. Best known for playing the medieval recorder, an instrument not regularly in demand, and a specialization in baroque music, also not commonly requested, she found she was working hard to make ends meet. The stress and pressure were starting to turn the thing she loved the most into a burden.

In our première episode, Avery tells the story of her career journey and the multiple zigzags that took her from the orchestra pit to becoming the Director of Research IT at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. It’s a journey, she says, that meant looking at other interests more closely, relying on a sense of determination, and a few McMaster connections along the way.

Angela never had a master plan in mind when she started university and, as she is quick to point out, she still doesn’t have one. Yet, more than a decade after graduation, she has managed to carve out an impressive career in education. Following a passion for helping non-Indigenous educators reflect on their responsibilities towards teaching Indigenous content, Angela found that being a teacher doesn’t mean you have to be confined to a classroom. So, in 2016, she launched a coaching practice to help individuals cultivate meaningful transformations in their lives.

This episode features Angela sharing her story and all of the ups and downs of pushing personal boundaries, taking chances, and finding some amazing life lessons in the most unexpected places.

As far as Collins is concerned, he’s still navigating his way through the journey. Since graduating from Mac in 2013, he’s received a joint Doctor of Medicine & Master of Surgery with Masters of Business Administration (MD-MBA) degree from McGill University; started and built a cult classic menswear fashion brand in Montreal (Maison Leporem); and has performed global health research on access to tuberculosis diagnostics and worked on a UN-operated project in Geneva – just to name a few of his accomplishments. Recently, he has found himself back home in Africa working as a member of a global management consultancy, McKinsey & Company, advising local governments and NGOs on public health and infrastructure across the continent.

In this episode, Collins explains to listeners that the journey isn’t always going to be obvious at first, but if you follow your heart and do the things you love to do, you’ll find your way.