Currently, I am a full-time accounting and financial management student at the University of Waterloo, and I have done 2 co-op terms at the Canadian Space Agency in the finance and space health departments. I would love to hopefully inspire others who love space and give hope for those who may not see a direct link between their field of work and space through my story. -- When I was younger, I wanted to be an astronaut and had a side passion for space. Then, I had to choose university programs. Given I didn't know what I wanted to do, I chose accounting and finance as I could easily jump into any industry later.

In university, I joined UW Orbital on the events planning side (my university's cubesatellite design team), and became a project manager for a national space hackathon called ActinSpace. These experiences really helped to grow my passion for space again. For my 3rd co-op work term, I made up my mind to look for a job at an aerospace company which would allow me to practice my French communication skills, was located outside of my hometown of Toronto, and had a position in their accounting and financial team. I thought to myself that these were very niche criteria, making this a very unlikely and rare find.

One morning before class, I happened to see a message about co-op opportunities at the Canadian Space Agency. I ended up getting both the interview and the job, and all my friends can attest to how excited I was when I got the news! (They even have a video of me doing my happy dance haha) Now, I work as part of the financial analysis team and the space health team – we’ll see where it takes me!

As I have just started my career in the space industry, I remain open-minded -- it is definitely subject to change and I will see where God leads me. At the moment, I am looking in the space health industry to see how I can use my experiences to help in a full-time position. I would also love to attend the International Space University in the next few years for their Summer Space Studies program or the Masters program (or both, undecided) to explore what other angles I could help in.

For those who are unsure of how their career journey ties together yet: To be honest, I had no idea how all my experiences would tie together given that I had very diverse passions in healthcare, space, event planning, marketing and accounting among others. I had trusted God by taking the offer to work at the Canadian Space Agency, and joined the Health Beyond (space health) team as a financial and general project support member, aiding in event planning and written communications. Looking back, I see now how all my experiences that I didn't think would tie in, were pulled into the fabric of my everyday work. Super cool! Hopefully this can help alleviate some pressures for those with multiple passions as well :) Feel free to shoot me a question on LinkedIn!

I would also like to share that the people I have met at the Canadian Space Agency are some of the most passionate people I have met about their job and domain. They are always patient when sharing and discussing space topics with me when I pepper them with questions about the different space missions or initiatives. There are several people I know who give talks about space out of their free time, and their passion is obvious and contagious. We have an Astroclub for employees who would like to learn more about space and astronomy together at lunch (which I am a part of), and is vibrant with enthusiastic faces. I'm so grateful to be able to work and be part of the team at the CSA, sometimes it still feels so surreal!