Sarah Croft

Killol Chokshi is an international graduate student from India who is currently working on his MSc in Pharmacy at Memorial University. Chokshi has been in Canada for the last five years and is excited to soon have two educational credentials from this country. Not only is Chokshi working hard to complete his Masters degree, but he is also a dedicated volunteer to five different organizations in St. John’s which include, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Eastern Health (Long Term Care), St. John’s Farmers Market, Graduate Student Union and the Internationalization Office. Although a lot of his time is taken up with volunteer work, Chokshi accepted a part-time work placement with Choices for Youth as a research assistant. During this position, he conducted a thorough literature review focusing on social enterprise and social return on investment relating to youth at risk.

“There were many aspects of this job experience that helped me develop new skills and polish my existing skills” – Killol Chokshi

Choices for Youth

Every year, Choices for Youth works with hundreds of at-risk youth from across the province. They have been serving youth in the community for over 20 years. They use supports to help at-risk youth find stability, to give young parents independence, and to help youth caught in the system find healthy transitions to adulthood. Choices for Youth continue to strive to reach those they are not reaching yet, and to serve those that they have already reached more effectively.

Choices for Youth believes in the philosophy that everyone has the right to safe housing; a standard of living that promotes physical, mental, emotional, psychological, and social development; protection from abuse; and participation in any decision making that affects their lives. In respect to this, they offer programming to help these youth find housing, education and employment while also helping them maintain these.

Interview

1. What inspired you to apply for the part-time work placement with Choices for Youth?

“I was looking for an employment opportunity which would utilize my research skills, which I learned in my Master’s Program. It is very difficult to get a position in research without any experience, as such there are very few jobs available in research. I saw the advertisement for part time research assistant which required to perform a literature review in the field of social work. I had the skills, but the field was completely different, but I trusted my skills, hard work and references. I applied for the position and got an interview. I provided many excellent references and I think that helped me secure the position.”

2. During the part-time placement with Choices for Youth, what were your main job duties/tasks?

“My main duty as a research assistant was to conduct a thorough literature review on the topic of “Social Enterprise” and “Social Return of Investment” with respect to youth at risk. I looked into six different databases through the MUN Libraries and searched for articles, papers and news reports. We determined fixed set of combination of search terms to obtain more relevant and concrete articles. The articles were then used to identify themes of employment under social enterprise aspect. Some results from the review were used in generating a report “Untapped Potential” for Choices for youth.”

3. Can you compare your knowledge of social enterprise before and after the placement? What have you learned?

“Frankly speaking, before the placement I had no knowledge of what social enterprise meant. After the placement I have an in-depth knowledge of what social enterprise means, its impact on people, especially those who need help in employment. Social enterprise has a dual role of running a business for social cause as well as helping the people who need employment the most. Social enterprise has a long lasting role. Many social enterprises are generally directed towards employing people from diverse groups like physically or mentally challenged, youth at-risk, homeless, single parents and so on.”

4. What professional/personal growth did you receive by working at a social enterprise?

“I learned a lot about how Choices for Youth works. They help youth at risk by providing counselling, employment, training, shelters and much more. They have different training programs. They help people who are in dire need of very basic and necessary day to day goods. Their scope of helping is not limited to specific group of people, they address the needs of many people from diverse areas and groups. They have started two programs under the social enterprise, and they are doing well in terms of business and employment.”

5. What was the most valuable part of this experience?

“I think there were many aspects of this job experience that helped me develop new skills and polish my existing skills. This is the first time I had an opportunity to work outside university environment, for a research position and it was a new experience. I had to learn how to develop correct search combinations, and needed to organize complex search results in a simplified excel file. I am from the field of Pharmacy (Applied & Basic Science) and I needed to shift to social science so I learned how to transfer my skills for the work. While working, I had to provide a weekly update/report, and whenever they saw my report they had nothing else but “Brilliant” to say! This appreciation of hard work made me strive for excellence each week. This is something I seldom got for my work in grad school, so I was very happy with my effort being recognized by my managers at Choices for Youth.”

6. Do you think this experience has impacted your future career path?

“Yes, it has. Working in a completely different field from my area of expertise has made me realize that if I put in hard work and dedication, I can excel in any field. This experience has helped me open myself to opportunities beyond pharmacy. I am ready to take on the challenge if I change my field in the future, because I know with hard work, dedication, good work ethics and professionalism I will be able to excel.”