Chang School Wrapped: 2024 In Review
December 19, 2024
As 2024 comes to a close, it’s time to celebrate the journeys, milestones, and achievements of our Chang School community. This year has been an inspiring testament to your dedication, resilience, and drive to keep learning – no matter where you are on your journey and what your goals are – career, personal, or otherwise.
This year marks three years of pulling together your list and, to keep things interesting, we’ve added in some new, fun facts that we hope will bring fond memories of the year that was.
So, without further ado, here’s your year wrapped.
By the Numbers: Your Learning Impact
This year, you collectively:
- Viewed the Introduction to Psychology course the most, giving it the number one spot it earned back in 2022.
- Viewed the Data Analytics, Big Data, and Predictive Analytics certificate the most for the third year in a row. Also, like in previous years, other popular certificates were Project Management, Occupational Health and Safety, Health Informatics, and Cybersecurity, Data Protection and Digital Forensics.
- Showed your interest in these certificates the most:
- Data Analytics
- Health Informatics
- Psychology
- Cybersecurity
- Project Management
From left to right: Junie Facey, Sheena Sheridan, and Krista Slade at the “Connecting Community and Building Bridges” event in January 2024.
- Attended Networking Event: Building Relationships in the World of Project Management the most for an in-person event and Mastering Self-Development: Building Habits for Lasting Growth with Nawja Zebian the most for a virtual event.
Thinking about a career in occupational health and safety?
- Read these articles on Chang School Stories the most:
- 5 Reasons to Choose a Career in Occupational Health and Safety
- What is Imposter Syndrome and How You Can Overcome It
- The Future of HR: What is People Analytics and Why it Matters
- How to Develop Your Unique Selling Proposition to Get the Career You Love
- What It’s Like to Work in the Film Industry: Jeanette Lee’s Story
From your most-read articles, you resonated with industry experts like Jermaine L. “The Jobfather” Murray, who talked about his personal experiences with “imposter syndrome”, and Career and Leadership Coach Ibiyemi Balogun, who gave her advice on how to stand out to employers in a competitive job market. You also wanted to hear about specific industries like occupational health and safety and why people want to work in that field as well as what’s new in HR with people analytics and a “behind-the-scenes” look at working in the film industry.
Celebrating Your Stories
We’re inspired by your journeys in continuous education every day. Here are just a few standout moments from our learners:
Annessa Dehaney with her parents, Marsha Plummer and Ryan Dehaney
- SlimmDuck Scholarship recipient Annessa Dehaney is on her way to becoming a nutritionist, inspired by her background in culinary arts and working with seniors in nursing homes.
- Anuja Varghese challenged the lack of representation for South Asian trans and queer women by giving them a voice in her award-winning story collection, Chrysalis.
- Andria Case, CTV Anchor Weekend News, Advertising ’91, and Chang School graduate who was an Alumni Achievement Award recipient and achieved a 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women recognition.
Milestones That Shaped 2024
This year’s highlights include:
Learn more about the People Analytics postgraduate program from Lead Certificate Developer, Daniel Spadafora
Launching Three New Programs: Postgraduate Certificates in People Analytics for HR Professionals and Program Evaluation. We also launched the Certificate in Programming for Game Development.
Linda Koechli has been serving as interim dean since April 2024.
- Introducing a Familiar Face as the New Dean: After nearly two decades of serving the TMU community, Linda Koechil was appointed our newest Dean, effective December 1, 2024. Look out in the New Year for a “Meet the Dean” feature on Chang School Stories to get to know Linda and her vision for The Chang School.
- Reimagining Info Sessions: We reformatted our information sessions on some of our most popular programs so you can get the answers to all of your questions about the certificates you’re interested in the most. We’ve also opened up the floor to former learners, recent graduates, and industry professionals, who can tell you directly the value of the program they completed and how it’s helped them with their learning goals and career progression.
Social Media Highlights
This year, you collectively:
- Interacted with this post the most: Recap photos from our first networking event of the year
Linda Koechli has been serving as interim dean since April 2024.
- Engaged with these topics the most: Announcement of our new Dean, Linda Koechli; What is a Program Evaluator, and Using AI at Work.
And overall, this was your favourite social moment of the year:
- Connecting with each other on LinkedIn for our Pivot Point Speaker Series event with Vanessa Craft
