Bianca G.

Why did you choose Humber?

Before this program, I was in the Bachelor of Nursing program at Humber College, so choosing this program at Humber College was easy for me as I was already familiar with the online learning systems and everything in between. With the nursing program, the professors were experts in their field, and that pushed me to trust that the professors in the Workplace Health and Wellness program were also going to be professionals that I can rely on. I also know that with Humber College, each program includes an internship/co-op/practicum aspect which allows the students to learn first-hand experience with placements. I enjoyed the practicums in the nursing program, and knew that I would also benefit from this aspect in the Workplace Health and Wellness program as well.

What are your career aspirations?

I switched my career aspirations many times over the past couple of years as each year of the program I learned something new that I wanted to learn more and focus on. As my career aspirations constantly change, one thing remains the same: I would like to work in the health and wellness field for a company who supports their employee's wellness. I spoke with many hiring companies and all of them have agreed that the health and wellness of employees are still not being prioritized by employers. It is why it is important to make workplace/employee wellness known so that employers can provide the sufficient funds and energy to meet and satisfy the wellness needs of the employees. There are many career roles that this can be filled with, whether that be a Wellness Coordinator or Wellness Consultant or Health and Safety Specialist or Health and Safety Advisor. Another approach can be diving into other aspects of the program such as a Project Manager, Knowledge Translation Specialist, Wellness Coach, or Disability Manager. Due to this program, I don’t have just one career aspiration, I have many.

How have the faculty helped you on your road to reaching your goals?

The faculty in the program were all knowledgeable in the health and wellness field, and in turn, knowledgeable in the courses they taught. This helped with the learning experience as we were able to get insight from the professionals in the field. The faculty were always supportive with the students, and for some, we got to really know them. They shared their stories and experience, and we got to see them as a professor, professional, and person. Most would stay behind after class, which allowed us to ask questions or debrief on what was just taught and many professors were flexible with their assignments to fit the students' needs. This enhanced my learning experience as it reassured me that they were supportive in my learning objectives.

What would you say has been the single best learning experience in the program you are in?

The single best learning experience from the program is the Capstone Project in which my colleagues and I developed over the course of our last year. Our task was to develop a health and wellness workplace proposal for the faculty of Health Sector Regulatory Compliance at Humber College that was to be implemented. We collected our data using research, needs assessments, surveys, and one-on-one interviews with the faculty to lead us to our final project. We proposed a research page for the faculty members which would include weekly content of blogs, videos, and posters based on health and wellness topics, more specifically, physical, mental, and nutritional health. We also planned to collaborate with other programs within the Faculty of Health and Wellness, such as Wellness Coaching, Fitness and Health Promotion, and Food and Nutrition to lead live online classes for the faculty. We wanted to collaborate with those programs in order to demonstrate that workplace health and wellness doesn’t come from one profession, but it can include other professionals in the field; it is a team effort. This project allowed my colleagues and I to dive deep into everything we’ve learned in the past four years in creating a feasible and realistic project. Our knowledge from each course was used in the birth of our Capstone Project, and continues to be used, and I think that future students will benefit in this experience.

What elements of the program are best preparing you for your career?

The variety of courses included in the program have been best preparing me for my career. We were able to critically think and explore each avenue from the courses and implement vital information and skills set we learned into our final project of the program and eventually into the workplace. The courses range from Food and Nutrition to Occupational Health and Safety, Human Resources to Global and Environmental Health, Wellness Coaching to Disability Management, and so on. The courses are developed in a way to help the students extract the vital information learned and put into practice.

We were also fortunate to have professors in the program who care about what they are teaching, which evidently makes it interesting and easy to learn from them. When it is noticeable to see a passionate professor about each lesson or project they have created and prepared for the students, it helps the students feel motivated and supported throughout the course. Having understanding professors who are also innovative throughout the years have been vital to prepare me for my career.

Would you recommend this program to others, and why?

I would highly recommend this program to others because of the diversity of courses, the Capstone Project in year four, the internship aspect, and the professors. The courses will provide the workplace health and wellness knowledge needed in the field. The Capstone Project will be the opportunity to create your own workplace health and wellness program for an actual group of individuals – this will be the chance to take everything that was taught and create a realistic and feasible program that this group will be able to use and enhance or meet their wellness needs. The internship aspect of the program is the chance to showcase yourself to a company using the skill set, and knowledge learned from the past years in the program. At the same time, the internship will provide you with the ability to learn, during real-time, from the experts themselves! The professors were such a huge support system throughout the program and as we were the first cohort of the program, we were learning from each other. They were and continue to be an amazing group of professionals in the field and future students will be lucky to learn from them.