NC Career Services is kicking off the Winter term with a suite of virtual programming and supports for students as they prepare for and adapt to the world of work.

The Career Services team, in collaboration with the Centre for Student Engagement and Leadership, Community Employment Services (CES) and NC Alumni Relations, will be hosting a variety of live and prerecorded online sessions to help students learn critical skills that relate to employability and find success as they embark on their career journeys.

The offerings are specifically designed to support students looking for employment upon graduation this Spring, or for those searching for full-time, part-time, and seasonal positions including co-op and work-integrated-learning experiences, which may be required as part of their academic requirements in the coming months. A session lead by staff from CES will also address job searching during the pandemic, with tips for how to look at opportunities and industries with a new lens.

Sessions begin the week of January 25 and continue through February with highlights including:

• January 28 – LinkedIn Session with career success specialist and NC alumna Madi Fuller, hosted by Alumni Relations (1-2 p.m.);
• Using InterviewStream and MyCareer tutorials;
• Essential Skills workshops;
• Alumni panel with a focus on accounting;
• Entrepreneurial Session hosted by Dean Spironello from the City of Niagara Falls;
• Taking your Headshot at Home;
• Go To College They Said podcast episode with a focus on career and mentoring;
• Resume Preparation: Connecting the Dots;
• Job Searching/Opportunities in Midst of Pandemic session hosted by CES; and
• Professionalism in the Workplace.

Students can view a full list of available sessions and learn how to access them via the MyCareer portal’s Career Events page. Students access MyCareer by logging onto their MyNC Portal, clicking on ‘More Applications,’ then ‘All,’ then scrolling down to select the MyCareer icon.

Virtual Career Fair 2021

Career Services has also partnered with CES on NC’s first-ever Virtual Career Fair on February 17 (9 a.m. to 4 pm.) to connect current students, alumni and community members with potential employers virtually.

Students can prepare for the event through an upcoming Virtual Career Fair prep session February 3 (9 to 10:30 a.m.) and by taking advantage of additional online resume and review sessions being offered January 25 through February 11 by appointment via MyCareer. NC’s Virtual Career Fair will also be the topic of an upcoming NCSAC Ask Me Anything Instagram live event on January 25 at 1 p.m. (a second session will be added – details to be confirmed).

Registration for students and other job seekers opens February 1. More information can be found at careerfair.niagaracollege.ca.

Career Services will also be offering additional programming for students through February and into March, which is National Co-op Month. Stay tuned for details.

Tune into Jan. 21 session featuring radio host Shannon Burns, Class of 2013

Members of NC’s alumni community are sharing words of wisdom with current students as part of a new series, Ask an Alumni Anything.

On January 21 (2 p.m.), the series will feature CHUM 104.5 and iHeartRadio Nights host Shannon Burns, who graduated from the Broadcasting: Radio, Television and Film program in 2013.

Presented by NC Alumni Relations with support from the NC Student Administrative Council, the initiative gives students an opportunity to pose questions to successful NC alumni via Instagram Live. The sessions are generally 45 minutes to an hour long and are moderated by NCSAC president Tom Price.

Alumni engagement officer Jana Boniferro noted that the series was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to connect with students and offer them support and advice during challenging times.

“Our alumni are always willing to help the students because they have been in their shoes. This is one situation where everyone comes together to help each other in any way they can,” said Boniferro. “Although our alumni have not experienced college life during a pandemic, they can certainly offer relevant advice as industry professionals who are pivoting in their industries to get through this.”

NCSAC president Tom Price noted that the Ask an Alumni Anything initiative highlights the continued collaborative partnership between Niagara College and NCSAC.

“The opportunity for current students to connect with and ask questions of alumni, who are leaders in their disciplines, is invaluable to their academic and personal success,” said Price. “The alumni open a window into their time at Niagara College and underscore how studying, engaging, and networking provides the entire student community the same opportunities to succeed.”

The series was launched on November 12, featuring Jeff Blay, creative director, Enterprise Canada. The event was presented in collaboration with the College’s Marketing department as well as NCSAC.

It continued on December 3 with the multi-award-winning retired world-class sledge hockey Paralympian Kevin Rempel, founder and CEO of The Sledge Hockey Experience. Rempel is a double graduate of the College (Event Management, 2009; and Business Administration – Marketing, 2005).

While the events are geared to students, they open to the entire college community via Instagram Live. Boniferro noted that members of faculty have been engaged with the events to connect with their alumni from their programs.

Plans are in the works to continue the Ask an Alumni Anything series on a monthly basis.

The Niagara College community is cheering on members of its alumnae community who have been nominated for the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce’s 2020 Women in Business Awards.

Niagara College is a sponsor for this year’s WIBA which recognize the leadership and success of women in the Niagara business community.

NC alumnae named among the finalists include:

• Lori Gill, Attachment and Trauma Treatment Centre for Healing (ATTCH) Niagara, who was nominated for a Community Impact Award;
• Sarah Pritula, Community Crew, who was nominated for an Excellence in Non-Profit Award;
• Rebecca Winstanley, AutoTrim & Signs / Elements Graphic Design, who was nominated for a Young Professional Award;
• Rachel Dedinsky, Giant Shoe Creative Agency, who was nominated for a Young Professional Award; and
• Marissa Hartley, Chz Plz, who was nominated for an Excellence in Hospitality & Tourism Award.

This year marks the 20^th annual WIBA. Winners will be announced at virtual celebration n on November 19 from 7 to 9 p.m. For details about the WIBA visit gncc.ca/women-in-business-awards/

Mark “Suki” Suknanan never won the French award in school.

The science award eluded him, too. 

So when the Broadcasting — Radio, Television and Film alumnus won Canada’s Drag Race in September, performing as Priyanka and becoming the country’s first winner of the reality television show based on RuPaul’s Drag Race, it made up for all those other times he was overlooked.

“I was never chosen for sports teams or I came in sixth or seventh in track,” Suknanan said. “Even when I was on YTV, although I was the favourite for some kids, it wasn’t until I started doing (drag) that I won.”

Still, to the outsider looking in, it might appear that Suknanan was winning all along. Even before he graduated from Niagara College in 2012, Suknanan landed a job working with specialty channel YTV, eventually becoming a host and writer for the children’s series The Zone Weekend on the network. 

He spent more than five years doing that when Canada’s Drag Race became the opportunity knocking. It was a chance for Suknanan to make Priyanka a household name and take him in a direction he only started considering three years prior. 

Priyanka is born

It was Suknanan’s 26th birthday and he hired a drag queen to help him and his friends celebrate. The experience convinced him that he didn’t just want to watch such performances. He wanted to do them.

“I was already going out and watching drag queens and seeing how free and confident they were. I just so enjoyed it,” Suknanan said. “It was being in the audience and feeling like all your problems went away and I wanted to be that person for someone else.”

Soon after, Priyanka was born. Suknanan worked hard to get his alter ego known and it paid off when she was voted Toronto’s best queen in Now’s 2019 reader poll. 

There were other accolades, too. But the people Suknanan was most worried about convincing of Priyanka’s merits weren’t the audiences for which she performed. It was his family.

Suknanan said he “lucked out” with a mother who supported her son when he came out as gay at 23.

“You never know how parents will react and it made me think how great some parents are until you come out and then it’s ‘Sorry, never talk to me again,’ ” Suknanan said. 

But when he came out as Priyanka at 26, Suknanan recalled a conversation that took some time for the family matriarch to absorb. She figured it was just a phase. Still, she kept silent because she didn’t want her son to be afraid to express himself, Suknanan explained. 

After seeing performances, though, “she started getting on Team Priyanka,” he said. 

These days, Suknanan’s mother is in charge of mailing Priyanka merchandise to fans. 

Coming Out

Through it all, though, Suknanan kept his sexual orientation and Priyanka a secret from his father. It wasn’t until she scored a coveted spot on Canada’s Drag Race, which aired on national television last summer, that Suknanan came out with his mom’s unyielding support and the cameras rolling. 

“As a gay kid, it’s very normal to keep secrets because growing up, you’re so unsure of your sexuality, of who you are and how you’re attracted to people,” Suknanan said. “I would say hiding it from my dad was easy because I didn’t know better.

“When I came out to him, it was a big weight off my shoulders. It’s amazing how conditioned people in the LGBT community are to hiding things. So when I came out, he had to accept me.”

The episode struck an emotional chord with viewers. But there were other moments in the series that left audiences wondering if Priyanka would survive another week of challenges, including lip synching performances and makeovers. 

One week, Priyanka would finish on top. The next?

“It messes with your head because you’re doing well and then all of a sudden you do something and you’re in the bottom.”

Still, Suknanan didn’t give up — he worked harder, in fact — and Priyanka would earn her crown. The win is notable not just because she was the show’s first victor.

“I get to be this person of colour who gets to be a representation of what (drag queens) do,” Suknanan said.

The win comes with a $100,000 prize that Suknanan isn’t sure how he’ll spend. It also comes with opportunities that would have taken much longer without the chance to perform for a national television audience, he said. 

Proud Niagara College alum

As far as Suknanan has come in his career, however, he hasn’t forgotten his time at Niagara College, including teachers Peter VandenBerg and Tom Otto. Both instructors supported and encouraged him to chase his dreams, he said.

The practical elements of the program also set Suknanan up for success.

“The thing I loved about Niagara College that I’ll say until the day I die is, I love how hands-on the experience was,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I was getting up for school. I felt like I was going to work.”

As such, his advice to others focuses on doing the work, too.

“This applies to anything. You have to work so hard that you give your dreams no chance but to come true,” Suknanan said. “You have to work hard. It’s not just going to land in your lap. You have to fight for it.”