On today's episode, Emma chats with Janna Malo, a UVic psychology graduate and rowing and rugby team member, who recently opened an inclusive, multidisciplinary health clinic in Victoria called Allies Integrated Health.

Janna's clinic is rooted in trauma-informed and community-centred care and offers services such as acupuncture, naturopathic medicine, massage and counselling, with a strong focus on accessibility and people-first values. Janna is also the former owner and founder of Fired Up, a Victoria fan favourite ceramics studio.

Janna talks about her how her psychology degree led to a career in entrepreneurship, plus what she's learned as a neurodivergent person, and how following her own curiosity has led to unexpected places.

Resources from this episode

• Allies Integrated Health
• FiredUp
• Futurpreneur
• The UVic Co-op Program
• Accessing career support

Connect with us

• Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter
• Follow UVic Co-op and Career on social media

• (02:20) - Janna’s day-to-day as founder at Allies Health and as a mom
• (03:16) - Janna tells us what drew her psychology at UVic
• (05:15) - How Janna’s experience with varsity sports shaped her career
• (06:30) - What a term abroad taught Janna about herself
• (07:20) - How engaging in community at university can help you discover yourself
• (08:45) - Janna talks about how & why she launched her ceramics painting studio
• (11:22) - All about Allies Integrative Health and how it came to be
• (14:40) - How Janna’s AuDHD diagnosis helped her create an inclusive health care space
• (16:30) - Why it’s okay to be messy and to make mistakes
• (17:46) - Janna speaks about how to let curiosity guide you
• (18:36) - How Janna connected with the FuturePreneur program to launch her businesses
• (19:50) - Janna’s advice: Don’t wait until you have it all figured out (live life to the fullest all the time)
• (21:48) - What Janna is planning for the next 5 years (hint – she’ll follow her gut)
• (22:40) - Rapid fire questions
• (22:00) - Favourite study space on campus
• (23:13) - Favourite study snack
• (23:27) - Go-to drink of choice
• (23:55) - Favourite outdoor space to spend time in
• (24:02) - Favourite piece of advice (you don’t have to have it all figured out)

Lyana Patrick is a UVic double alumna who holds an undergraduate degree in creative writing and history (BA 1997) as well as an MA in Indigenous Governance (2004), and whose co-op experiences made a major impact on her career trajectory. Lyana also earned her PhD in Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia.

Lyana is Dakelh from BC’s Stellat’en First Nation and her Indigenous identity has shaped her career path—she is a professor at Simon Fraser University where she teaches courses about Indigenous health and justice, and is also an award-winning filmmaker. Her documentary about the Stellat’en and Saik’uz communities’ intergenerational fight to restore the Nachako River east of the Kitimat mountain ranges, was released last year, and draws on Lyana’s body of work going back to her time at UVic.

Resources from this episode

• Nechako: It will be a river again - documentary
• Aisha's story - documentary
• The UVic Co-op Program
• Accessing career support

Connect with us

• Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter
• Follow UVic Co-op and Career on social media

• (02:58) - All about Lyana – her role at SFU and the Indigenous health classes that she teaches
• (05:39) - Lyana tells us how her passion for journalism led her to carve out a career in storytelling
• (07:08) - Lyana shares how UVic and her studies in History, Creative Writing and Indigenous Governance helped her develop her career in film
• (09:30) - Lyana talks about how to tell Indigenous stories that honour and give back to community
• (10:32) - The skills and takeaways that Lyana gleaned from her co-op experience at UVic (hint – it includes leveraging shyness into a superpower)
• (12:32) - How doing co-ops in government led to Lyana’s first job after graduation
• (13:39) - How failing is just a form of learning
• (13:53) - How Lyana approaches Indigenous community-based research and work
• (17:47) - Lyana shares her favourite storytelling project – a half-hour documentary about the Canada/US border bisecting the Blackfoot Nation territory
• (19:36) - Lyana talks about how storytelling can humanize people and connect humans from across cultures and lived experience
• (21:37) - Lyana shares how she carries hope and how she champions students’ growth
• (24:25) - Rapid fire questions
• (24:40) - The professor that made a huge impact on Lyana at UVic: Elizabeth Vibert
• (26:31) - Favourite on-campus spot: Multifaith Centre
• (26:52) - Favourite off-campus spot: Blue Fox Café
• (27:12) - What would Lyana do more of if she could do it all again?

On this episode, we are speaking with Julie Claveau, a UVic physics and astronomy graduate who manages Earth Observation satellite programs and previously worked as Canada’s deputy mission manager for the James Webb Telescope.

She is also an advocate for diversity and inclusion, and is a blogger, a Youtuber, an avid World of Warcraft gamer, a violist, a dancer, a baker, a gardener and a mom of three.

We talk with Julie about learning to trust yourself, following your passion, dismantling imposter syndrome and so much more!

Resources from this episode

• The UVic Co-op Program
• Accessing career support

Connect with us

• Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter
• Follow UVic Co-op and Career on social media

• (02:32) - Julie breaks down the steps in her career path - from working at McDonalds to working in government
• (04:58) - What Julie has learned from her diverse career experiences (hint…it’s about trusting yourself)
• (06:37) - How Julie turned her passion for space into a career in science
• (08:40) - Julie shares what she’s most proud of from her time at UVic and in her career
• (10:42) - Julie tells us why it’s key to have diverse perspectives and lived experience to solve problems in science
• (12:40) - How Julie strives to achieve work/life balance in these busy times
• (14:30) - Julie shares advice about how to carve out a career in science
• (16:40) - How to get rid of imposter syndrome (even Julie has it!)
• (17:55) - Julie tells us how her time at UVic inspired her pathway
• (19:58) - Why you shouldn’t underestimate your own special mojo
• (21:10) - Rapid fire questions
• (21:29) - Julie’s favourite class at UVic
• (22:03) - Favourite drink when studying
• (22:21) - Favourite campus building to spend time in
• (22:32) - Why Julie would do it all again and her love of physics