PCG Vancouver Organizes Mentor Session for Filipino International Students in Victoria

Consul General Arlene T. Magno welcomes the participants to the mentorship session for Filipino international students held at the University of Victoria on 13 August 2023.

A panel of mentor volunteers from the University of the Philippines Alumni Association of BC (UPAABC) highlighted five industries around which students could potentially build their future careers in Canada – Education (Ms. Anita “Cookie Aytona), Employment Integration (Ms. Mary Tecson), Engineering and IT (Mr. Jasper Mallonga), Project Management and Financial Services (Ms. Vicki Rubio Buechler), and Immigrant Entrepreneurship (Ms. Rhona Doria).

The mentors, who were all members of the UPAABC and who came from different professional backgrounds, spoke of their respective journeys in Canada, including the various challenges they encountered in settling in.

The afternoon session focused on settlement supports and community integration services and a discussion of the BC Labor Market Outlook that emphasized the availability of employment opportunities in the province over the next years. The speaker was Mr. Stephen Andrada, a UPAABC and FilNet member who also facilitated the mentor panel in the morning.

Around 20 Filipino international students from the University of Victoria and Camosun College attended the event, most of whom had just arrived in Canada within the last few weeks.  They appreciated the importance of the activity and expressed the hope that it could be held regularly, as they expect more Filipino international students to be arriving for the Fall and Spring semesters.

The mentorship sessions are an offshoot of the Filipino Migrant Workers and International Students Conference that the Consulate organized earlier this year. The whole day activity was organized in partnership with the UPAABC and the assistance of Tropang UVic, an organization of Filipino students at the University of Victoria. END