A Collingwood transplant was recently awarded with a national fellowship, but credits her homegrown roots to some of her success.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with Gabrielle Bouchard, 31, engineer and recent recipient of the Action Canada Fellowship.
Q: Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school?
A: My family moved to Collingwood in 2003. I went to high school at Jean Vanier (now Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School).
I worked at A&P in the summers. (laughs) It’s not A&P anymore.
I really miss it.
My parents still live in Collingwood, in Georgian Meadows.
Q: What took you away from Collingwood?
A: I moved to Hamilton to do my undergraduate studies in engineering at McMaster University.
Q: What made you want to pursue engineering as a career?
A: I wanted to make a positive difference in the world, and engineering seemed like a positive way I could affect people. I really enjoyed science and math generally and I liked building things.
Q: After McMaster, where did life take you?
A: While I was at school, I got really involved in outreach through the university. I would go into schools in marginalized areas and talk to kids about engineering. I thought, for young people, going into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields could open a lot of doors for them. Doing outreach through the university really opened my eyes to marginalized communities and more rural communities.
I got to do all sorts of cool stuff. I spent one summer in Nunavut working with Indigenous children.
Collingwood is a small town. Compared to a lot of rural places, it has a lot of opportunity and the schools are fairly good.
(Outreach) opened my eyes to the inequalities that can exist in other communities for young people. As a society, I think we need to make the opportunities for young people growing up as fair as possible.
After that, I got really into (the outreach).
I visited most Indigenous reserve in Southern Ontario and spoke about careers in science and math.
Q: You also have a YouTube channel called Gabby on Government. Can you tell me about that?
A: Through the outreach work, I started directing outreach at the University of Oxford in the U.K.
Although there were inequalities in education, some of the bigger inequalities exist in factors outside of education. For example, if they have access to afrer-school programs or if they’re eating breakfast in the morning.
A lot of these inequalities that children face can be tied back to government policy.
That’s how I got interested in politics and government.
If the average citizen is more involved in civics and understands civics, our society will be better.
Canada will be a better place to live.
That’s how I got from outreach to my YouTube channel. (laughs)
Q: What are you doing currently?
A: Right now, I live in Toronto and work as an engineer. At night, I’m a political organizer. I run my YouTube channel. I have a few other volunteer hobbies.
I was also recently accepted to the Action Canada Fellowship.
Q: What is the Action Canada Fellowship?
A: I didn’t really know about it previously. It’s a pretty prestigious fellowship. This year they accepted 13 applicants.
The idea is you get to travel around Canada and meet important and influential people; the ‘movers and shakers.’
You get to meet emerging leaders from across Canada. Of course, travel is restricted this year, so that reach has been reduced a little bit, but we’re making the best of it.
Q: How did you feel when you found out you were one of the people chosen for the fellowship?
A: I was really excited! The fellowship is very government and policy-heavy, and not an area that I have formal training in, so to be selected was really exciting for me.
It sort of legitimized some of the work I’ve done outside my day job.
Q: Do you credit your Collingwood upbringing for any of the success you’ve achieved?
A: People who grow up in Collingwood have a lot of advantages. We have great schools and outdoor recreation.
I absolutely do. It’s a great place to grow up.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way, letting them tell their own stories in their own words. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
