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In this episode:
0:11 – Meet Jamie & Jackie
0:27 – Why Pride matters
1:35 – Advice for recruiting
4:11 – Pride & allyship at Ivey
5:46 – The importance of role models
Transcript
[Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.]
Kate [K]: Welcome to the Career Management Podcast, where we bring you stories and strategies from students, special guests and the Career Management team. Make yourself comfortable and let's get started. Pride month is just 30 days, but Ivey's students and allies connect via pride clubs and events throughout the entire year. On today's episode, I'm speaking with two of our Ivey Pride Club leaders, Jamie and Jackie, on the value of connections and the power and pride for student recruitment strategies.
Jamie [J-HBA]: Pride, to me really means representation. So when I was a freshman and a sophomore, I think it was really important for me to be able to meet other queer individuals that were being going out there and doing super successful things, and to be inspired by them and to feel like I could do that as well. And I think that I'm in the position that I am in today, because there were these people that empowered me to fulfill my full potential.
Jackie [J-MBA]: The queer community has supported me, like, even if it's not a formal club, we we always just find each other and we have that automatic sense of connection. It provides a sense of safety, both in the classroom and outside the classroom. It's being able to connect with people and have those shared experiences. Um, we're always very supportive of each other, and it just provides space for us to all be ourselves without having to mask or pretend to be a certain way to fit in with other people.
[J-HBA]: So why that's important for me, as one of the co-presidents for Ivey Pride Club, is to try to be that beacon of hope, one could say, for these individuals that are entering Western, and to see that there are people who are like them that have been able to pull off really incredible things and that they can do so as well, and that they shouldn't be limited by their identity.
[J-MBA]: I think that you are going to thrive most in the place where you can be your authentic self. Um, you don't want to go into a place that doesn't share your values, that you don't feel like you can express yourself, because that just adds a whole other layer of stress and a whole other layer of just mental load that you have to worry about. And you're here for school. You're here to, uh, upskill, you're here to make connections, you're here to get that job. And if you're also worrying about fitting a certain way into society and into their program and acting certain way, dressing a certain way. That's going to take away from all the experiences you have at your school, be it at Ivey or anywhere else.
[J-HBA]: I think my word of advice for anyone that's like coming in to Western is really try to get out of the Western bubble. Obviously, there are obviously super smart people here, but I think there is so much abundance of opportunity that, quite frankly, like will not exist within London, Ontario won't exist within Canada, will exist. If you go down to New York, go to San Francisco and try to find opportunities that are down there.
[J-MBA]: Something that I found was when Frank and I went Out On Bay Street, everyone was just like, hey, you're queer, we're queer. Let's connect. Let's, let's get you a job. I want to meet you. Let me connect you with other people that are in fields that you're interested in. I think that innate support is just another manifestation of the queer community coming together to support each other.
[J-HBA]: So I think that there is a lot of value in being scrappy and looking for those opportunities. Ivey Pride Club is here to have some of those opportunities and try to find what we have and give it to our students, but I think it's super, super great to get out there and try new things and really get out. Um, go international and don't stay within just Western University in the States, I would say is you want to make sure that you have really strong referrals and the way that you can find those strong referrals, especially as a queer student, is just finding people that are allies or also queer, because those are people that are going to be a little bit more willing to go back for you. Right? I got my current job because I went to a VC dinner, and that was mostly for queer individuals that also had allies come. And then one of the allies there actually went up to me and told me straight up that she wanted to be my mentor. And then that mentorship relationship has eventually turned into giving me a really strong referral. That got me an interview that that got me this job. So I think that it's really important to just have those super strong connections, make sure to foster them over a long period of time, and then from there, taking that and converting it into jobs is a little bit more natural and a little bit easier.
[J-MBA]: I've had people be like, oh, you know, I didn't know what drag was and I didn't know that 2SLGBTQIA, the “2S” was Canada-specific and I didn't know what that meant. So it was really interesting to hear that from students who aren't from Canada. But also, I had a connection with one of my classmates today who said that his mom is a psychiatrist, that's for kids, and was one of the first psychiatrists that, um, worked with trans kids at SickKids. And he volunteers and just really is grateful to be part of that experience and being able to give back to our community in that sense. And I think it's really great to hear these stories and see people who are actively learning and not just, you know, putting on the flag and kind of rainbow, watching it being like, go pride! Yay! And from the very beginning, I've been very, very welcoming. It's like Kate was the one who interviewed me
[K]: (Kate laughing)
[J-MBA]: to get into Ivey and even from that, even from that moment, it was, you know, like there's a safe space for me here at Ivey when I came and visited Ivey in the summer to show my girlfriend, Lindsay (Lippman, recruiter) was like, yeah, sure, I'll bring your girlfriends. Everyone I communicated with had their pronouns in their email signatures, and that's not something that was done at other schools that I applied at and throughout the program. I really appreciate to like even professors we have have the little Ivey ally in their email signatures, and I just think that goes that extra mile, even though it's his email signature, even though it's something small, it just shows that little bit more effort and care from the university and from the program. I came out later. I didn't know I was queer until I was in university, but I remember end of high school, um, Adam Lambert kissed someone on stage and it was a big thing. He was blacklisted. He was taken off the air because it was not acceptable for same sex, uh, I guess I don't wanna say relations, but interactions to happen on stage and I very, I don't remember Ellen, but I also remember Rosie O'Donnell coming out, and that was a very big career ending thing, almost career ending thing for her. And I think moving forward to where we are now in 2026, it's still very important to have those role models and figures that people can look up to and see themselves in. When you see people in those positions, it's like, oh, I belong here. I can do that too. I can aspire to be whoever I want to be. There's a place for me in that space or that industry. And I think even just looking back on that, like 2009 was not a long time ago. It really wasn't. And I was in I had graduated university by the time that same sex marriage was legalized in the United States. Right. And I was in California for that. And that was a huge thing. That was only 11 years ago. So all this to say, I think it's it continues to be important and will continue to be important for a long time.
[K]: Thank you for listening. If you're ready for the next step, check out another episode. Book a one on one coaching session via 12Twenty, or get connected with a student Career Mentor through your LEARN community. No matter what's next, you've got this. Take good care.