Partner Organization: Gulf of Georgia Cannery Society, Richmond, BC 

Julian shadowed the Executive Director at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery Society, gaining an understanding about the overall operation of the national historic site and the involvement of the different stakeholders. Tasks completed included reviewing and archiving media and marketing materials, collating admission prices, observing/participating in school and public programs, budgeting, grant and annual report writing, and visitor experience assessment.

I have learnt that those who are working at the museum are passionate about using the museum to help promote sustainability and diversity. The school program of Fishy Business I attended really highlighted this for me as the kids were shown and understood what it means to be sustainable. These were elementary school kids having it click right there that overfishing is bad. While looking at trends and capturing the current moment is still my main field of interest, I highly respect the work being done at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery. 

A stated goal for this practicum is to be able to bridge my education with actual real-world application. I realized how quickly I could parse information and pull out pertinent parts. It felt good to see it in action as I am still shaky with graduation so close in my future. While the ability to market those skills will be a challenging part, a part of my anxiety is also around falsely marketing myself. Through my work today, I showed that might not be as big of an issue as I had originally assumed.