AOK: Alumni of KPU

PALEK TREHAN There is a high probability that you have yet to come across an individual whose educational journey has been as unconventional as Trehan’s, which began at KPU during the 2008 global recession and finished during the 2020 global pandemic. Needless to say, it was a long, rewarding and unique 12-year odyssey. Throughout her educational journey, she was fortunate to work across several industries with many reputable organizations, including Hudson’s Bay Company, Terry Fox Foundation, Fairmont Waterfront, Better Business Bureau and Computershare Canada. She found her homecoming at KPU, where she has been working in the Office of Registrar for almost five years now; her most recent position being the curriculum and graduation coordinator. Trehan holds a bachelor of business administration in entrepreneurial leadership, co-operative education option. She is working towards her master of science in management from the University of Illinois. BBA ’21 ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP

VANESSA MOHAN

Since graduating from KPU, Mohan has gone on to work for the New Westminster Police Department. With her bachelor’s degree in criminology, she was able to get a job working as a CPIC

operator. BA ’19 CRIMINOLOGY After Singh graduated with his computer information systems diploma in May 2019, he got a job as a software engineer and API integration expert at VoPay, a payment processing company.

DIP ’19 COMPUTER INFO SYSTEMS

DAVNISH SINGH

JESSICA CHAUHAN Since graduating from the fashion design and technology program in 2017, Chauhan has had an incredible experience exploring all parts of the fashion industry. She has worked as a design assistant at Lululemon and then moved to become the head designer at Brunette the Label. She now finds herself working as a freelance fashion and graphics designer, collaborating and working with companies across North America.

BDES ’17 FASHION & TECHNOLOGY

Since graduating with a diploma in public relations in 2016, Butler has gained experience in a variety of sectors, including real estate, technology, not-for-profit and public safety. She has always had a desire to do work that positively impacts her community, which led her to a position with the communications and public affairs team at E-Comm 9-1-1, British Columbia’s largest 9-1-1 emergency communications centre. After two years working for the organization, she has now stepped into a communications manager position where she is responsible for overseeing a variety of external and internal communications efforts, including 9-1-1 public education, crisis communication and both traditional and social media. Butler is also working alongside public safety communicators across the country on the development of a national communications strategy for the implementation of Canada’s Next Generation 9-1-1 system. DIP ’16 PUBLIC RELATIONS KAILA BUTLER

CHLOE PARKER

While Parker only just graduated, she has thrown herself right back into learning by pursuing her master’s degree of counselling psychology at Adler University. It’s with the help and passion of her professors at KPU that Parker felt inspired to pursue this program, which is getting her one step closer to helping as many people as she can.

BA ’21 PSYCHOLOGY WITH MINOR IN COUNSELLING HONEYLYN AMAGA After Amaga graduated in 2018 from graduate nurse internationally educated program (GNIE), she started a hemodialysis specialty program which was sponsored by St. Paul’s Hospital. Amaga is currently working at 6D hemodialysis unit. Her transition from being a fresh graduate from KPU to getting a full-time job has been smooth and she thanks KPU for all the resources provided to students. CERT ’19

GRADUATE NURSE INTERNATIONALLY EDUCATED

CUONG DINH

Dinh got promoted to marketing manager at a drone technology company. KPU’s part-time program allowed Dinh to work full-time and finish school.

BBA ’21 ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP SAMANTHA MERZ

Merz is a receptionist at Macdonald Commercial Real Estate Services. She has been a freelance writer for Prizm Media Inc. and Valnet Inc., while also being a published poet. Merz enjoys singing with the Vivaldi Chamber Choir and playing

badminton. DIP ’16 PUBLIC RELATIONS

Bellec’s debut novel, Someone’s Story, won the Reader Views Young Adult Book of the Year back in March. He also makes music and recently released a Canada Council for the Arts grant-funded music video he worked on for eight-plus months. His second novel, Pulse, was released on Dec. 1 to tremendous buzz on the indie scene. After his award-winning debut, Bellec flipped genres and penned a dystopian sci-fi horror about a mysterious creature attacking the world’s biggest music festival. He has campaigns running with Rue Morgue Horror Magazine (a Canadian company) and multiple indie PR agencies (one of which is Canadian - R&R Book Tours). The book will be free for a limited time.DIP ’13 ACCOUNTING

Since graduating KPU, Kurdziel has worked for the Surrey School District teaching and assisting students, including special needs, learning disabled, and handicapped. He got to work at different elementary and high schools as well as having some classes of his own. He also worked as a B.I. for special needs clients outside of school and helped with summer camps for kids and teenagers of all ages and with all types of differences (special needs, learning disabled, handicapped). Now Kurdziel has returned to KPU get his second degree in both psychology and counselling after which he plans to take the PDP program at SFU.

BRIAN BELLEC

JOSEPH KURDZIEL

CERT ’16 SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER ASSISTANT

CHERRIE LO After graduating with her health sciences degree, Lo applied for nursing school at KPU. She found her passion for nursing through SFU co-op education while working with nurses across B.C. During the one-year gap between graduation and the start of nursing school, she went to Osaka, Japan to teach English to children. Lo was able to earn enough to repay the rest of her student loan for her health sciences degree. She has been working as a registered nurse at VGH for two years now and she loves her job. BSC ’20 NURSING

In February 2021, Hlavacek joined Oasis Adaptogens as its brand manager, working alongside CEO and founder Jeremy Hoffmann. As a recent start up, Oasis Adaptogens wants everyone to find their harmony by reducing stress through adaptogens. Hlavacek wears many hats in the business as brand manager and isn’t limited to just marketing tasks; whatever needs to get done, will be done. From content creating, social media managing, customer relations and general logistical tasks, Hlavacek is helping build Oasis Adaptogens to make a stress-free lifestyle available for

Sharma graduated from KPU with bachelor of arts, major in sociology. She decided to utilize her people learning and social skills in a corporate work environment and is now an HR coordinator at LMI Technologies Inc. Sharma is so grateful for obtaining her degree in this field as she was able to study the sociology of work and occupations which has helped her in learning about race, gender and culture in a workplace. This program helped Sharma develop good communication skills and to be able to process and analyze data. In her current role, she deals with people’s personal information and helps employees solve problems related to work on a daily basis. The soft and hard skills that Sharma has learned from this program has definitely made her a good fit in her current role. BA ’18 SOCIOLOGY

Gress has published three books. He received his first editorial review, has done over a dozen interviews and will be doing his first book signing at a commercial store. In addition, the company that did the editorial review loved his third book so much it submitted it for an award in November. Gress is working on the fourth book of his My Urban Fantasy series in which he will be including more LGBTQ+ characters. Gress thanks KPU for giving him a great education. ASSOCIATE SONIA SHARMA

ANDRE GRESS

OF ARTS IN CREATIVE WRITING ’14 & BA ’19 CREATIVE WRITING PAULA HLAVACEK

TANIA ROSIER

everyone. BBA ’21 MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Rosier is the owner of Guided Path Wellness, a personal development consulting company that guides individuals on their own healing journey. Rosier is also a public speaker, author, professional singer and recording artist as are several members of her family. They can be found on many platforms under Gryphiitii, Tonya Joyce, Jacob Bellamy, Jesen Jzshionrah, Eli Burns and others. In addition to this, she works with the provincial government as a CSW for the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction. BA ’18 CRIMINOLOGY

Since graduating from the public relations diploma program at KPU in 2016, Seney has worked as a PR and communications professional for some of Canada’s most well-known and respected brands, including Interac Corp. and Lush Cosmetics. With a passion for social impact and storytelling, Seney has secured international coverage on groundbreaking initiatives such as Lush’s #TransRights campaign that sought to raise awareness on the importance and need for stronger legislation to support the trans community. Seney is a communications specialist at Interac Corp. where he works cross-functionally to bring key campaigns to life that are focused on community investment and advancing Interac’s position as Canadians’ most trusted financial services brand. Seney is also passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion, and has worked throughout his career to elevate the voices of vulnerable groups and share his own story of resilience as a member of the LGBT2Q+ community. DIP ’16 PUBLIC RELATIONS

Since 2019, Hicks has been using what he learned in his degree working at the Delta Archives as the only dedicated archives staff member. Hicks is responsible for collecting, processing and making available the historical records of the community as well as records of the municipality. It’s really rewarding work and Hicks can’t see himself doing anything else.

KEVIN HICKS

BA ’14 HISTORY WITH MINOR IN POLITICAL SCIENCE

Since graduating, Muratoff has become a professional artist/writer. She has won awards for her 3D art and been published in a magazine. She has also written a fantasy book series and published 10 novels in that series, with more to come.

DIP ’13 FINE ARTS AMANDA MURATOFF

CONNOR GRIFFITHS After graduating, Griffiths joined the travel/tech startup Leavetown Vacations as the revenue coordinator. Leavetown was acquired by the RedAwning Group less than a year later. After leaving Leavetown in early 2020, Griffiths and his brother launched a vacation rental management business, Lifty Life Hospitality, which manages vacation rentals throughout B.C. and Alberta in destinations such as Whistler, Tofino, Kelowna and Canmore. In addition, he is the digital marketing manager at Hostaway.com, operates three of his own Airbnb properties and is an Airbnb Community Leader.

BBA ’18 ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP PETER SENEY

BLANCHE MONABEKA

Right after her last exam at KPU, Monabeka got a job at Réseau-Femmes, a Francophone non-profit organization. As a youth worker, she teaches young people in the Francophone community about healthy relationships and how to prevent youth dating violence. The BA in psychology with a minor counselling has given her the will to pursue a master’s in counselling psychology so she can continue to help youth and families in the Francophone community and beyond.

BA ’21 PSYCHOLOGY WITH MINOR IN COUNSELLING

DAVE BAUDER (R) After graduating from the building construction program taught by Don Currie in 1984, Bauder continued with an apprenticeship and received his full interprovincial qualification. He worked with Thorpe Construction before it was taken over by Stuart Olson Construction where he worked his way up the ranks to foreman, assistant superintendent and project superintendent. Bauder’s extensive experience has provided opportunities for leadership in the field of construction where he has overseen projects in excess of $300 million. Today Bauder is a construction manager for Bird Construction, the fifth largest construction company in Canada. He is currently responsible for overseeing site personnel on construction projects all over the province. The knowledge base provided by KPU’s program and Currie allowed Bauder to reach his potential. To this

day, Bauder keeps in touch with Currie. CERT ’84 CARPENTRY/BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

JORDAN DINESEN

Since graduating from KPU’s ENTR program in spring 2020, Dinesen continued his sales and entrepreneurial skills and advanced at CubicFarm Systems Corp. At CubicFarms, Dinesen sells commercialscale agriculture technology and is at the forefront of the company for global prospective sales opportunities. DIP ’18

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT & BBA ’20 ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP Since completing her psychiatric nursing degree, Jewell has been working full time in federal corrections with female offenders. She completed her masters in counselling to be a better mental health clinician and recently began her PsyD in clinical psychology! Since graduation, Jewell has also travelled the world, hiked to the base of Everest and met a lot of beautiful people.

BPN ’16, PSYCHIATRIC NURSING

CHELSEA JEWELL JANGIR BRAR

After graduating with a bachelor of arts at KPU, majoring in English and minoring in history, Brar went on to attend UBC for a bachelor in education in the latter half of 2020. She is now a high school teacher in Surrey and Delta and is planning to continue her education in the coming years. She hopes to make a difference for future

generations. BA ’20 ENGLISH WITH MINOR IN HISTORY

As an adult student working full-time in the hospitality industry, van den Broek really enjoyed the flexibility and intimacy KPU provided her. After completing a business diploma and legal secretary certificate with criminology and political science electives, she worked for the African Children’s Choir. After receiving some advice from a political science Instructor, she started volunteering with the Langley RCMP Detachment, which quickly led to a fulltime job. Twenty years later, van den Broek continues as a federal public servant at RCMP BC headquarters in Surrey. She has worked in many units, including major crimes, federal policing and community policing. In addition, she has also worked for Corrections Canada in several institutions and at Abbotsford headquarters. Although van den Broek was working within her desired career, her political passion couldn’t take a backseat. She was elected as a Langley City councillor in 2014 and in 2018 became mayor of Langley City. CERT ’04 APPLIED VALARIA VAN DEN BROEK