New alumnus shares how she found her fit in SFU Geography

New human geography alumnus Olivia Ghilarducci remembers walking into class on campus for the first time five years ago.

“I was wearing a dark blue shirt with palm trees on it and a pair of shorts. I remember being so scared, so lost, and kind of feeling directionless,” she recalls.

Ghilarducci, a Canucks and Blue Jays fan who loves reading, writing and playing Dungeons and Dragons, says that at 17 years old and only three months out of high school, starting university felt overwhelming, especially while facing personal pressures and uncertainty about her major.

But sometimes uncertainty is part of the journey, and Ghilarducci forged ahead.

In her first year, she signed up for SFU’s Water Polo Club, (“which was a lot of fun, though I learned I was bad at water polo,” she jokes) and was working towards a French degree.

But when she took GEOG 100 and 111 with geography professors Nick Blomley and Andrew Perkins, respectively, her academic plans changed.

“I was so entranced by some of the concepts that I decided to fully change my major to human geography altogether.”

Ghilarducci likes the socio-political aspects of her major and how course topics weave together. In particular, she enjoys getting to examine topics like the environment, economics, social justice and political science within a unique spatial context.

“I think that is what sets human geography apart from other degrees and what drew me to it in the first place — it is nearly impossible to separate the different aspects of our life away from the spatial.”

Outside of her major, she also pursued additional certificates in both geographic information science (GIS) and urban studies and got involved with SFU’s Transit Enthusiasts Club.

Within the Department of Geography, Ghilarducci found a supportive and vibrant community. She credits professors in the Department for their engaging lectures, which made her “fall in love” with the discipline, and the Geography Student Union leadership team for all their work for their fellow students.

The people surrounding her throughout her degree also made a positive impact on her personal life.

“I have spent the last two years undergoing a gender transition, which had certainly been challenging at times...the SFU Geography community made me feel welcome and accepted the whole time and for that I am eternally grateful.”

Ghilarducci graduates this fall with a breadth of work experience after completing three separate co-op positions, including one in municipal government, one in federal government and one at an NGO.

Her first co-op position was in the City of Kelowna’s Planning Department, where she examined climate goals over the coming decades and worked to develop methods to ensure that measures to reach these goals were implemented equitably.

Her second co-op was with the Downtown Surrey Business Improvement Association as a safety research intern. In that position, in addition to organizing and facilitating events, she interviewed 120 businesses about their sense of safety in the area and compiled the data into a report for local stakeholders.

This year, she worked with Natural Resources Canada on the Clean Transportation Innovation Program, where she researched electric vehicle policy and compiled the data in an annual report on Canada’s EV initiatives and adoption.

Now that she’s about to cross the stage at convocation, Ghilarducci says she is realizing how much her time at SFU has impacted the person she is today.

“So many things in my life have changed since that first day five years ago,” she says. “I have a new name, a new major, and a new outlook on life.”

Reflecting back on what she needed to hear when she was 17, she says that she would tell someone beginning their first year that even though university can be stressful at times, it’s worth it to embrace both the good times and the bad.

“Every experience you have during your time in university will shape you into the person that you will become after graduation,” she says. “Enjoy the ride.”