The Department of Asian Studies is delighted to invite you to our annual Careers Night! Navigating life after graduation can be hard, so each year we bring in alumni with diverse experiences – at home and in Asia – to inform and inspire current students. This event will feature a keynote speech and round robin networking sessions. You will also have a chance to win raffle prizes (Asian Studies Merchandise)! Careers Night is the perfect opportunity to make connections, meet fellow Asian Studies students, and feel more confident in taking the next steps on your career path.
As a student:
* Ask the burning questions about what a degree in Asian Studies has to offer
* Gain extremely helpful networking tips (e.g. How to Use LinkedIn 101)
* Meet your fellow undergraduates and learn about their career and academic plans
* Gain an excellent head-start in planning your next move during and after UBC
As an alumni:
* Share what you did at UBC that helped you succeed
* Give back to your alma mater by providing your insights to the students of what they should be expecting
* Meet and make connections with other alumni, faculty, and students
* Meet potential employees among our diligent and passionate students
Event Program
(Dress: Business Casual)
5:30 pm – Doors open
6:00 pm – Welcome
6:15 pm – Keynote Speech
6:30 pm – Dinner Served
7:00 pm – Networking Round Tables: Ask Me Anything (15-min rounds plus breaks)
8:00 pm – Event concludes
Keynote Speaker
Carli Rebecca Fink, Career Strategist, UBC Career Centre and Faculty of Arts
Carli supports undergraduate Arts students in their career development through 1-1 advising, educational workshops, events with alumni and employers, and collaborations with academic departments. She comes to UBC by way of Ontario and Massachusetts, where she studied psychology and education and held roles related to health and wellness promotion, identity and belonging, university admissions, and academic advising at 6 educational institutions and 1 non-profit organization. Outside of her professional and academic pursuits, Carli enjoys outdoor adventures, all things musical theatre, reading, writing, and travelling.
Alumni guests
Kayla Black, BA ‘ 14 – Digital Transformation Specialist, Law Foundation of BC
Kayla holds a Bachelor of Arts in Korean Language & Culture from the University of British Columbia. Kayla joined the Law Foundation of BC in 2020. As the Digital Transformation Specialist, she supports the development of digital tools to streamline organizational processes, as well as provides training to support the successful adoption of these tools. Prior to joining the Foundation, she worked as program coordinator at a charity helping women and children in North Korea.
Gabriela Chen, BA ’15 – Regional Merchandise Planner, Lululemon
If there was one consistency while growing up, Gabriela found her lifestyle would always revolve around multiple languages. While living in Vancouver, Hong Kong and Tokyo, she continued to be curious about how people lived and communicated with changing times.
After graduating from UBC, she utilized her language skills by working with a Japanese trading company in Vancouver: interacting with local business owners and chain franchises. After four years with the corporate environment she joined Procurify Technologies, identifying market opportunities for the locally-founded financial technology start-up. In both experiences, she felt the strong disparity between available data and decision making roles and pursued certification in Data Analytics in hopes of contributing to data pipelines that intuitively guides business decisions. Gabriela currently supports lululemon’s product team in sales planning and forecasting at their Kerrisdale office.
Faiz Jaffar, BA ’17 – Member Services Manager, AGN International
While at UBC, Faiz took part in all the Asian Studies events, spent a year abroad, and appeared on national television in China. After graduation, Faiz received a scholarship to study in China, where he completed a Master’s Degree of Chinese Law (LLM) at Renmin University of China. While in China, Faiz has worked at a Chinese law firm, as legal counsel for a state-owned Fortune 500 company, and as a management consultant for international associations. In his free time in Beijing, Faiz volunteered with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Alumni Association. Together with the Canadian Embassy to China, Faiz helped advocate for Canadian universities in China. For his work, UBC honoured Faiz with the title of UBC Alumni Ambassador to Beijing. In 2022, Faiz returned to Vancouver, where he now works as a member services manager at AGN International. As manager he oversees membership activities for 10 offices across Canada.
Richard N. Liu, BA ’93 – Honorary Brigade Division President, St. John Ambulance, BC/Yukon
Educated at both UBC and Peking University, Richard’s family has long distinguished Canada-China ties for 3 generations. His career in Asia included areas of public relations, diplomacy, major events organisation to education. Richard now advises companies and organisations on a variety of sectors pertaining to Asia.
With both Chinese, Korean and Italian heritage in his family, and a passion for storytelling, Richard has been a Heritage Commissioner since 2018 advising Burnaby City Council on matters concerning the identification, management and preservation and/or restoration of buildings and sites with historical significance in Burnaby. He also sits on the Barkerville Heritage Trust, a national historic site with one of the oldest Chinatowns in Canada, as a board member at large for multiculturalism. Richard is also a leader in the development of a wide variety of volunteer projects from the Terry Fox Run to Special Olympics to the Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing; to St. John Ambulance in BC and across Canada.
Oliver Mann, BA ’13 – Communications Strategist, UBC Community Engagement + Freelance photographer and videographer
Oliver was born and raised in Vancouver, BC. He has always been passionate about different cultures and languages, studying French, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean. In his fourth year, he went on exchange to Ewha Women’s University in South Korea and interned for the BC government’s Trade Office in Seoul. After returning from Korea, Oliver started working as a Work Learn student in the Department of Asian Studies, at UBC, and was hired full-time as their Communications and Events Coordinator after graduating in 2013. Over the past decade, he has continued to work for UBC in a variety of communications roles at the departmental-, faculty- and VP-level. Oliver currently works in VP External Relations supporting how UBC partners with communities on Indigenous engagement and reconciliation, sustainability and climate change, and other community priorities.
Melody Pan, BA ’14 – IT Systems Manager, Waterproof Studios & Freelance Translator
Melody is a lifelong fan of Japanese Culture, Video Games and Technology. After finishing her studies at UBC, Melody joined Bandai Namco Studios as a J/E Translator /Interpreter both in Vancouver and remotely with Japan. Next, she applied her Japanese language skills at Waterproof Studios, a Vancouver-based provider of 3D CG services. There, she was also provided opportunities to lean on the job with the Production and Technology departments, and ultimately settled on a career of Technology, which has led her to her current position of IT Systems Manager. She also continues to use her Japanese skills on occasion as a Freelance Manga Translator.
William Strausser, BA ’17 – Data Analyst, UBC Arts ISIT
William graduated from UBC in 2017 with an Honours BA in Asian Area Studies. As a student, William pursued his interest in post-war Japanese cinema and studied abroad at Osaka University through Go Global in 2016. After graduating he joined the Department of Asian Studies as a Project Coordinator working on tasks related to conference planning, faculty recruitment, and data reporting. In 2019, he became the department’s first Head’s Assistant before leaving UBC in 2020 to enroll in a one-year full-time Japanese language course at ECC Kokusai College of Foreign Languages in Osaka, Japan. Returning to UBC in 2022, William later began his current position as a Data Analyst with UBC Arts ISIT, which he works with student and faculty data in Python, SQL, and Tableau to provide reports that support decision making in the Faculty of Arts.
Jennifer Ward, BA ’12 – Freelance Translator (Japanese to English)
As a longtime fan of anime and manga, Jennifer attended UBC with the goal of learning Japanese to pursue her passion. During her studies at UBC, she went on a one year exchange program to Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan, where she polished her language skills. After graduating from UBC, she participated in the JET Programme as a CIR for one year before beginning as a freelance translator. She started off working through an agency before making direct clients and has continued to work from home as a freelancer for ten years. She has since translated nearly fifty novels and hundreds of volumes of manga from Japanese to English for publishers such as Yen Press, Kodansha, Seven Seas, and others.
