Meet Our 2018 Canada Summer Jobs students
As summer is around the corner for many, it is already in full swing for these university students. This means that right as they put their textbooks down they were picking up their resumes to find a summer job. These students joined the team here at Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga-Dufferin thanks to Pam Damoff, MP for Oakville North-Burlington, and the Canada Summer Jobs program. Read on to get to know our wonderful summer students!
Laura Belford
Title: Event & RD Coordinator
Program: Laura goes to Queen’s University. She just graduated in psychology, and is starting teacher’s college in the fall.
Fun Fact: “I love to dance!”
Favourite thing about her job: “Habitat is a multifaceted organization, so I love that every day here is different and there is always an exciting new project to work on. I also love the atmosphere here. Everyone is very positive and hardworking, and it makes for an amazing work environment.”
Matthew Burgess
Title: ReStore Associate
Program: Matthew is going into his second year of philosophy at Western University.
Fun Fact: “I speak a little Mandarin. I took it in school for two years.”
Favourite thing about his job: “Favourite part of my job is meeting new people and seeing smiling faces everyday.”
Evelyn Creary
Title: Education Program Assistant
Program: Evelyn is going into her fourth year at Western University for consumer behaviour and Spanish.
Fun fact: “It’s weird to say, but I’m trilingual. I learned French in Belgium and Spanish in class at Western.”
Favourite thing about her job: “With every call I make or person I talk to, I’m educating them on what Habitat is really about and why our work is so important in the community, which I love. I also contribute to building more houses faster for the families who need them through getting donations that either save Habitat money or bring in money that can go straight to our build.”
Basel Daibes
Title: ReStore Associate
Program: Basel is going into his second year of studying biomedical and electrical engineering at Carleton University.
Fun fact: “I’m a twin!”
Favourite thing about his job: “I don’t hate coming to work, so that’s a good thing. I used to work in retail and it was really boring, but someone’s giving me something to do here and you meet new people, I like that.”
Hurmat Ejaz
Title: Popup ReStore Associate
Program: Hurmat is going into her third year of studying environmental science and GIS (geographical information systems) at the University of Toronto.
Fun Fact: “I was doing my co-op here in high school with Habitat, so that’s how I know about them.”
Favourite thing about her job: “I like being out there and talking to people in the community. You get to interact with people, instead of just sitting at a desk.”
Kyle Fritz
Title: Site Supervisor Assistant
Program: Kyle is going into his third year of political science and English at Laurier.
Fun fact: “I love escape rooms.”
Favourite thing about his job: “There’s so many, but I really think that my favourite is that I have a place that I can come into every day and it’s not just a place of work. It is giving back to the communities that we are part of, and I think that that’s what really is the most important part of my job. What I do, what other people do, it all comes back to the same thing. It’s about supporting the communities and supporting families and giving them a hand up in the community.”
Sherina Harris
Title: Brand Ambassador
Program: Sherina is going into her third year of studying journalism at Ryerson.
Fun fact: “Sharks are my favourite animal!”
Favourite thing about Habitat: “I love telling stories, so my favourite thing about my job is that I get to talk to people and write about the great work that Habitat is doing. It’s been an incredible experience to talk to families who have become homeowners with Habitat. Hearing their stories and sharing them through writing has inspired me to continue using what I’ve learned through studying journalism to contribute to Habitat’s vision of a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live.”
Jay Kazi
Title: ReStore Associate
Program: Jay is going into his second year of political science at Laurier.
Fun fact: “I love to eat.” Jay’s favourite food is burritos, and he says Burrito Boyz is easily better than Chipotle. The secret to ordering at Burrito Boyz is that “You gotta get the mixed chicken and steak burrito with everything on it.”
Favourite thing about his job “Probably working with the volunteers. We get a lot of volunteers that I meet, so it’s good to get to know them and see the reason that they’re volunteering and why they’re helping out. I think it’s a pretty enlightening experience.”
Gabriel Noblecilla
Title: Database Assistant
Program: Gabriel goes to Laurier University, and he is entering his third year in the business administration program.
Fun fact: “Love playing tennis.”
Favourite thing about his job: “Being a part of change. Verifying all of the information, donors, making sure the information is correct.”
Angela Trojanovic
Title: Popup ReStore Associate
Program: Angela is going her into fourth year at Western University in a program called media information technology.
Fun Fact: “I’m a crazy cat lady. I’m probably going to have about five cats when I’m older. I have a little baby kitten right now.”
Favourite thing about her job: “My favourite part about being a community ambassador is really being able to go out into the public and engage with people and spread awareness for Habitat.”
We hope you enjoyed meeting our 2018 Canada Summer Job Students and learned a bit about why they love working for Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga-Dufferin.
If you would like to learn more about Habitat’s programs and how you could get involved, check out our programs here. We have a program and opportunity for everyone, no matter your age or your type of donation, whether it is time, a financial donation, Gifts-In-Kind or items for our ReStore.
Stay tuned to Habitat’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to see the great projects our summer students are working on!
By Sherina Harris and Evie Creary
Updated: July 2, 2021
