[Alumni Throwback] Jen Giang

Alumni Throwback, People of VSA
December 12, 2018

What’s your current career path and how has your experience with the association helped you towards this path?

I’m currently the Digital and Special Projects Coordinator at BCS Group, a boutique marketing and PR firm in Toronto. I’ve had the opportunity to work on so many different projects and events while on VSA, it has definitely helped me get more experience that I now can use towards my day job.

What is your work attire like?

Business-casual

What was the push you needed in order to join the association?

I had a lot of sponsors within the Vietnamese students association who had the confidence in me to push me towards those positions.

If any, what reasons kept you back from joining the association earlier?

I joined at the right time.

If you could go back, would you change anything about your time with the association?

If I could go back, I wish I was more involved with Waterloo’s VSA while I was attending the University instead of spending most of my time with UVSA. I really believe that VSAs are the frontline individuals who are in contact with the most students.

What obstacles did you have to overcome in order to become the leader within the Vietnamese community you are today?

There are many obstacles to overcome, growing up in Canada, I had to learn a lot about the Vietnamese culture, and once I learned it, I had to learn how to use that knowledge to inspire other students to want to learn about our culture, background, food etc. Knowing, and understanding is very different, and I am still trying to understand everything, and learning to translate that to young students to inspire them to join the Vietnamese community, and help build it up.