Classroom ready
KPU prepares alum to succeed as an educator
The best educators teach through their wealth of experience and knowledge. At Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), our unique approach to education has prepared alum Vanessa Magtibay to bring value into the classroom.
Before Magtibay started at KPU, she was enticed by KPU’s different approach to post-secondary education. “I felt quite nervous about going straight to university,” she shares. “I always thought classrooms were in lecture halls with 100 students in a room and a professor that didn’t know their students’ names.” These feelings led her to pursue the distinct small classroom experience KPU provides. “Out of all the university presentations I attended, I only applied to KPU because I knew it would be the perfect place for me,” Magtibay reflects. “It was a very welcoming start to university.”
As Magtibay began her education at KPU, she explored a variety of subjects. Initially starting in the Faculty of Science, she shifted to the Faculty of Arts and found her true calling. “I loved all the arts courses I took at KPU,” Magtibay shares. “They allowed me to open up and express my creativity in unique and different ways.”
While progressing through a Bachelor of Arts in General Studies with a minor in journalism, Magtibay would attribute her success and exceptional grades to dedicated KPU instructors. “I was able to build connections and good relationships with my instructors,” she reflects. “They knew me by name and I wasn’t just known as a student number.” Beyond classroom success, KPU instructors would also aid her ability to become confident. “It was an experience that taught me so much about myself as an individual, and as a student,” she describes. “Because of KPU, I learned that I can do anything I put my mind to.”
Magtibay would complete her program and become equipped with a broad skillset to pursue her lifelong dream of attending a professional teaching program and following in her grandmother's footsteps. “Ever since I was young, I knew I wanted to become an educator,” she describes. “My grandma was a grade five teacher in Surrey for 42 years and hearing her stories about her love of teaching encouraged me to pursue the same path.”
As Magtibay enters a professional teaching program and prepares to share her skillset with learners, her education represents the potential that comes from a distinct approach to learning at KPU: where thought meets action.