Alumnus on a mission

Alumnus, Stephanie Christie, graduated with a BSc. in Agricultural Economics in 1996. She currently resides in New Brunswick and is an Account Manager with the National Bank of Canada where she maintains a mixed portfolio of agricultural and commercial clients. Stephanie deals with all sizes of accounts in the poultry, dairy, value-added processing and manufacturing sectors. Stephanie says her job involves more ‘sales’ than people may realize, “lending is a very competitive industry.”

A natural people person, what Stephanie enjoys most about her job is working with clients in the agriculture and agri-food industries. She likes nothing better than to get out and visit her agricultural clients and their businesses.

It was a natural fit for Stephanie to go into the agricultural industry. While she didn’t grow up on a family farm like some other NSAC students, her father worked with the Farm Loan Board for most of his career. After her first year at NSAC, Stephanie decided that the fields of economics and business were what she wanted to pursue.

The smaller class sizes were a great feature of attending NSAC. “It meant that everyone felt like a team and worked together on assignments, helping each other out to make sure everyone understood the material,” says Stephanie. That feeling didn’t end after graduation, “I recently had a business-related opportunity to call my former classmate and graduating class valedictorian whom I hadn’t touched base with in ten years. We quickly caught up on each other’s news, and it felt like I had just seen him yesterday”. Stephanie also extends gratitude to her parents, Bob & Carol Adams of Truro, for their support during her four years at NSAC.

Becoming bilingual has been a big asset to Stephanie. To help improve her French, she worked for a year in Quebec with Farm Credit Canada (FCC) which was her first employer after graduation. Now, she’ll be able to use the French skills acquired when she participates, along with 11 others, in a short-term mission trip to Rwanda. Stephanie was inspired to undertake this mission to the troubled country after hearing about her former manager at FCC, who, along with his wife and son, has recently completed 2 years of a 4 year commitment in Rwanda. Most of the mission work will be in the northern part of Rwanda. Kigali, the nation’s capital, will be the home base. When asked why she decided to do this, Stephanie said she “felt like it was the right thing to do.” They will be gone for a total of two weeks, leaving September 25, 2008.

Stephanie says that it will be important for her and the team members to be flexible. She has been told that one of the projects they will be involved with is a small construction project in a very poor area of the country, coupled with outreach opportunities to women, children and youth. “Our limits will be stretched here, since they are not used to seeing Caucasian people in this area”. The team will also be participating in a sports day at a school, visiting a coffee plantation, and meeting the “Guardians of Hope”, a centre that offers support and encouragement to those with HIV/AIDS, many of whom are children. The experience will involve project work such as those mentioned, and helping in whichever way the mission workers can. “Their needs change almost daily, but we know their needs are great,” says Stephanie.

Sustainability will be one of the mission’s key focuses and the team is made up of members with diverse professions; there is a maternity ward nurse, physiotherapist, pharmacist, youth worker among others. Given their varied backgrounds and the financial expertise of Stephanie and her former manager, the team are looking at opportunities to help by considering the feasibility of projects like micro-financing. There will undoubtably be many other opportunities to make use of the training and talents of the other team members.

Stephanie is looking forward to sharing her experiences with others in the hope that they will be inspired to get involved and volunteer in their own special way. She hopes that this mission trip will provide her with a ‘new’ or ‘renewed’ perspective. “While one person can’t change the world, one person can have an impact.”

The Alumni Affairs office looks forward to sharing details of Stephanie’s trip in the future. If you have any questions about Mrs. Christie’s mission or wish to assist in the team’s support-raising, please contact the Alumni Affairs office.