UNews - Priscilla Patel

Perseverance pays off for Patel

caroline.zentner — Mon, 30 May 2016 20:01:33 +0000

When Priscilla Patel first came to the city in 2009 to begin her studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, she saw land, lots of land, in fact, more land than buildings. And the buildings — most of them single-storey, were so unlike the highrises in her native Malaysia. The bustling neighbourhoods of her homeland were replaced by far more sedate streets.

She, her three siblings and their mother, Malti, left Penang so Priscilla could study new media at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, qualifications she would need for her dream job of being an animator at Pixar. Her father, Ashok, stayed behind in Malaysia to run the family’s textile business. The family became aware of the U of L through a Study in Canada event. Even so, her first sight of the Lethbridge landscape was a shock.

“I remember calling my dad up right away and telling him ‘You’ve got to book me a plane ticket; I need to come home now,’” she says. “I remember him saying ‘Just try it out for a month. If you don’t like it, you can come back.’”

Seven years later, she’s graduating (with distinction) with her second degree from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. Along with a Bachelor of Fine Arts she earned in 2013, she will soon add a Bachelor of Management to her credentials.

“I’m glad I took the risk. I’m very thankful for my family because, without them, I wouldn’t be here. To have an education and to have so much support, not many people get that,” she says. “The Faculty of Management, I think that was my biggest support. I made friends with many of my student colleagues and professors. I don’t think I could have found that social network anywhere else and I’m very thankful for that, and for having profs who encourage students to come talk to them about anything.”

Priscilla found her way to the Faculty of Management after completing an internship in the marketing department at Lethbridge College. Even though she was passionate about graphic design, her supervisor, Carmen Toth, saw that she was also a people person. Toth suggested she consider marketing and, after a year of working as a general clerk at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Library, Priscilla heeded the advice.

“I loved it,” she says of her time as a management student. “The first class I took was Marketing 2020 with Mike Madore. As soon as I got in that class, I said ‘Yup, this is it. This is where I belong.’ I’m very grateful because I experienced a real connection with my professors in the Faculty of Management.”

While each of the professors she encountered in the program played a role in helping her attain her degree, it was Madore and Dr. Mike Basil who especially motivated her to always do her best, she says. Priscilla credits the faculty with helping her learn presentation skills, how to handle pressure, manage a team and multi-task.

“If you ask any of my peers who started the program with me, they would tell you I was shy and I wouldn’t want to present,” she says. “If you ask my professor about the case analysis I presented last semester she’d say ‘I would never have known.’ Giving presentations boosts your self-confidence and makes you want to do the best you can. They always say you want to learn how to sell yourself. If you can’t sell yourself, no one’s going to want to listen to you because time is money.”

She, under Basil’s supervision, also did an independent research study investigating the predictors of celebrity effectiveness in advertisements.

“I found out that I love marketing research, collecting and analyzing data and being able to test my hypothesis,” says Priscilla.

Priscilla continues to work at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Library and has taken on a special project for the summer, reviewing teaching materials in the Faculty of Education’s Curriculum Laboratory. Once the project has wrapped up, Priscilla hopes to begin her first career position and she’s ready to go wherever that might be.

When Priscilla crosses the stage and receives her parchment at Friday’s convocation ceremonies, her thoughts will be with her father, who won’t be able to attend. While he planned to join his family in Canada much sooner, economic circumstances have delayed his departure. Ashok hopes to be in Canada within a couple of years.

“I’m graduating with distinction and I want to make my dad proud. I want to tell him ‘I actually did it, taking six classes for three semesters. It paid off,’” she says, wiping away a few tears.

A family of support

trevor.kenney — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:07:27 +0000

Only once did Priscilla Patel look over her shoulder and wonder if she'd done the right thing. It was then that she relied upon her father's reassurance to settle her fears.

Now, one semester later, Patel still looks to her father for guidance but fear has given way to excitement, and trepidation has been replaced by a confidence that helps support an entire family.

"Priscilla has really grown up," her mother Malti says. "I see a lot of difference in her since coming down here, she has totally matured."

The Patel family members have all come a long way. A year ago the entire family was in its home country of Malaysia, Priscilla set to graduate from high school, excited about a future she hoped would lead her to the United States and a dream job with animation studio Pixar.

That's when Trish Jackson of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's International Centre for Students happened upon Malti at a Study in Canada event.

"When we met Miss Trish, everything changed," Malti says. "We found that this university was what we were looking for, it had a lot to offer her."

Jackson, an international recruitment officer, extolled the virtues of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and the burgeoning new media program being offered in the Faculty of Fine Arts. Little did she know that she was recruiting Malti as much as she was wooing Priscilla, because there was no way the Patels were sending Priscilla to Lethbridge on her own.

"It's not very often we find a student who has a parent and siblings who are relocating with them, so this was a little bit of a special situation for us," says Jackson.

Along with Priscilla and Malti came her three brothers and sisters, 12-year old Natasha, nine-year old Nashania and seven-year old Darren. Only Ashok, the father, stayed behind.

Suddenly, Jackson was more of a resource than she'd ever been before.

"I think my biggest role was trying to answer questions before they actually arrived," Jackson says.

"Beyond student support it's really difficult for our office to provide a lot of support to the family. Aside from trying to answer questions and providing some contacts in the local school division for the younger children, most of the support the family ended up needing came from the Immigrant Services Department of Lethbridge Family Services."

Malti gives Jackson a little more credit.

"Miss Trish was constantly in touch with us, whatever questions we had she was always willing to answer," she says. "What we wanted to know about the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, the city, even the education for our other children, she guided us in every way."

It was a bold decision to come to Canada but one that sent a strong message to Malti and Ashok's children. They seem to understand that the risk their parents have made is for their best interests and have embraced the transition from Malaysia to Canada. Leading the way is Priscilla.

"I love it here, it really is amazing," she says. "Getting to know people has been so easy, I really think it's better than where I'm from in Malaysia. I find people have so much respect here, they respect you for who you are and what you do."

The new media program has been everything she could have imagined.

"I don't know where to start, I've only taken five classes but they've all been great," she says. "Right now I'm not even sure what area I want to pursue. I want to go into animation but at the same time I feel like I want to do film, I want to do graphics, I want to do everything."

Priscilla truly lives the campus experience. She's active with the International Centre, has joined student clubs and taken in everything Canadian.

"I love the snow. Even though a lot of people tell me I'll hate it soon I don't think so, at least not yet," she says. "After coming here I started involving myself in skating and going to hockey matches, I just wanted to try everything."

Priscilla's brothers and sisters have followed her lead. They quickly adapted to their new schools, are active in local choirs and activities and have excelled academically.

Malti rests easier now knowing that the new life she and Ashok have chosen for their children seems to agree with them. She has also embraced her new surroundings, first by volunteering for local organizations this past fall and through the Christmas season, and recently by taking a part-time job.

While the family thrives here in Canada, it isn't without sacrifice as Ashok stays behind to support their new life.

"My dad's amazing," Priscilla says of Ashok, the managing director of a textile company. Malti finds it tough without her husband but instead looks at the situation from his perspective.

"I have my children with me and Priscilla, she understands what mom is going through and she helps out in every way," she says. "My husband is alone there and he has to take care of it alone and that is hard."

The plan is for Ashok to reunite with his family here in Canada in two or three years, just in time for Malti and her children to become Canadian citizens and for Priscilla to graduate (she's planning on taking summer courses to finish her degree earlier).

Now, it's hard to believe Priscilla ever had any doubts about coming to Canada – but there was that one day.

"When I landed in Lethbridge and I looked around and all I saw was prairies and mountains, I wanted to go home," she says. "I wasn't sure if I could do it, but my dad told me it's about change and I have to learn how to adapt and it turns out that it's pretty good now."

GET THE FACTS

• The Patels are from the Malaysian island of Penang. The average maximum temperature in Penang only varies from 30.4 degrees in September to 32.2 degrees in March.

• Jackson has been to 14 countries since being hired as international recruitment officer in August 2007. She heads out on a seven-country trip through Latin America this month.

• Priscilla and her siblings all attended international schools growing up. Priscilla's final years of study at Taylor's ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ College in Kuala Lumpur featured a Canadian-based curriculum developed in Ontario.

• The family pays great reverence to their father Ashok as Natasha brought a picture of him to the interview, telling her mother that he was a part of the family and should be part of the experience.

UNews - Priscilla Patel

Perseverance pays off for Patel

Related Content

A family of support

Related Topics

A family of support

Related Topics