Faculty of Art
After many years as a UBC undergraduate, Shaina will be graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Canadian Studies and a double minor in Sociology and Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies. Her studies and interests have taken her around Canada, Europe, Asia and East Africa to work, travel, study and live. As a woman of mixed European and Asian heritage, Shaina became more interested in how her own migration story fit into larger narratives of histories of migration to Canada. (Hopeful) plans after graduation include more travelling, continued involvement with ACAM and learning how to swim!
ACAM 10: Our Alumni in 2025
What have you been up to since graduation?
2016: graduation from UBC with ACAM minor
2016-2018: Assistant Language Teacher with JET Programme in Okinawa, Japan
2018-2019: Masters at Toronto Metropolitan University, Immigration and Settlement Studies
2019-present: public servant with federal government, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. I have been a board member/decision maker of the Refugee Protection Division adjudicating in-land refugee claims for asylum seekers requesting Canada’s protection.
What have you learned from your ACAM experience that you still carry today?
My time in ACAM has been responsible for many other opportunities I was able to pursue after graduation, an ACAM professor wrote my letter for JET, and I carried those lessons of learning and interrogating migration history during my time in Okinawa, Japan which has a very interesting migration history with the USA and South America. An ACAM professor wrote my recommendation letter for graduate school, and I used experiences from JET and ACAM when applying to start an entry level job with the federal government in immigration and refugee matters. Now that I am back living in Vancouver, it feels grounding to feel connected to ACAM’s community initiatives even though I am no longer officially a UBC student.
How has your ACAM experience equipped you for the challenges and opportunities you’ve encountered in exploring and developing your career?
Through my Canadian Studies major, I began taking courses related to Asian Canadian immigration in Canada, this was an incredible experience and so different from my other courses in Canadian studies, it felt relevant and it showed me that my family’s story was also part of Canadian history. Since ACAM, I have expanded my interests in migration stories of many different groups, and now I work in the federal public service deciding refugee claims in Canada. I feel ACAM helped me see that interest in learning people’s migration stories is relevant, important, and something that you can make a career out of.
