Grad in charge of plans

By Amy Saunders

saun0081@algonquincollege.com

Students can often go away to school without any idea what they want to do with their lives but with the feeling that eventually everything will fall into place.

Pamela Bolwes was one of these students.

Now working at the Museum of Civilization as an events coordinator just two years after completing the events management program at Algonquin, Bowles started her education at Queens not knowing where it was going to take her.

“I did my BA in psychology,” the 27-year-old said. “I quickly realized that a degree, though thought-provoking, doesn’t really get you a job.”

She finished her degree and was working as a waitress when the solution to her career issue.

“I actually met with a career councellor and we talked about what I’d like to do,” she said. “I kept saying things like social and events and she said, ‘What about events management?’ It was like, ‘Eureka!’ A little light bulb went off.”

So started her one-year stint at Algonquin. During the last semester of the events management program, the students do a placement at an organization somewhere in the city. Before committing to any old place, Bowles waited for the perfect opportunity to show itself.

“The people who ran my program were really good about placements and matching you to what you wanted to do,” she said. “I did my placement here at the museum.”

After finishing her placement, she graduated and went back to waitressing, holding out for that perfect job opening. It came about a month after her graduation from the museum. Since she liked working at the museum and it was a top-notch job, Bowles took the position.

“I never had to do the job grind,” she said. “It’s definitely about being at the right place at the right time. I couldn’t think of a better place to be.”

Her job as an events coordinator covers a variety of areas from choosing flowers to matching wine to food to bringing in audio and video technicians. I always keeps her busy.

“I’m a coordinator of information. I get people in contact with people they need to speak to,” she said. “I organize people to provide me (with) what I need.”

She gets to express her creativity in the different raffles the museum holds. Also, since she is the one who plans most aspects of an event, she gets to decide how green they are. In the last gala the museum held, all of the menus were printed on recycled paper and all the centre pieces where potted plants that could be taken home.

“This was a personal thing,” she said. “We’re not required to have any green events.”