Disability-Specific Career Development Program Panel Event: Pursuing Careers Alternative to Your Degree / Academia

Date & time: Thursday, November 14th from 4:30-6:00pm (PST) via Zoom: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/65642581539?pwd=EpjcaUyESNHgIfJZ1drLynmyk5nzaK.1

We invite you to join Amrita Aggarwal, Lucia Lorenzi and Adrian Cheng as they discuss their unique journeys that lead them to pursue careers alternative to their degree/academia! Each speaker will provide insight into the challenges and opportunities they encountered while highlighting how their academic experiences shaped this transition. Attendees can expect to gain inspiration and motivation related to alternative career pursuits, practical career advice from a disability-specific lens and connect with a community of like-minded individuals.

Each speaker will share their personal journey and then transition into a Q&A; please bring questions for them!

If you have prepared questions in advance, feel free to email them to dscd.program@ubc.ca so we may inform our speakers

About the panelists:

Amrita Aggarwal (she/her) is a passionate storyteller and strategist, helping organizations attain an equitable and sustainable future. She envisions leveraging her energy and enthusiasm to affect positive social change in her community. She was raised by a theatre family and attained a unique blend of education in fine arts and business which all coalesced into her becoming a natural facilitator and strategist, leading organizations into a more inclusive future one policy and one conversation at a time. She is currently working as a Leader, in Anti-Racism at Vancouver Coastal Health.

Lucia Lorenzi (she/they) is an artist and independent scholar who resides on unceded kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) territory. Their practice is grounded in trauma theory, Black studies, and disability justice, reimaging health as access to resources for all. She is currently a Master of Public Health student at the University of Victoria and a Learning Research Officer and Instructional Designer at Egale Canada.

Adrian Cheng (he/him) currently holds the position of Control Operations Associate at a major banking institution within the control operations teams. Leading up to this position, he had accumulated seven years in the banking industry with experiences including customer service in bank branch operations and helping to facilitate commercial transition projects in commercial banking wholesale teams. Within the banking industry, Adrian had accumulated experiences working with different scopes of impact collaborating with middle managers, c-suite executives and cross border executives.

As a proud graduate from UBC holding an undergraduate degree in Human Geography, Adrian has expanded his horizons post graduation, while simultaneously fostering the values that UBC helped to instill in him. With a personal passion for disability inclusion starting from his experience in student politics in the AMS and Disability Resource Groups in UBC, Adrian also has experience working with such organizations as Canucks Autism Network and the Pacific Autism Family Network. Adrian had found a point of cross pollination between his work in banking and his passion for disability advocacy.