Zongmeng Li: Preparing For The New Journey

I love the opportunity to meet our clients in person, it is the absolute best part of my job as a facilitator with SOPA. When we travelled to Saskatoon in May, I spent the afternoon getting to know Zongmeng better.

Zongmeng Li completed all 5 SOPA courses and is an enthusiastic ambassador for the program. She is a Biotechnologist from China, and her dream was to explore the world while searching for her dream job as a Quality Assurance and Quality Control specialist in a food company. She was drawn to Canada as its integrated, “family feel” communities appealed to her lifestyle. When preparing for the move, her research brought her to SOPA, the program immediately gave her a great first impression of Canada, and it was a reassuring, welcoming presence. As a busy professional, she really enjoyed the convenience of preparing for her new journey online, and took advantage of the whole SOPA experience. She is now settling well in her new city of Saskatoon, and is enjoying meeting new people. She recently secured a job in her field as a Lab Assistant at ALS Environmental. Looking back at her course work, she most values the practical skills and preparations. Additionally, the feedback, conversations, and guidance from a real facilitator was invaluable to Zongmeng, she feels this is how SOPA stands out and refers to the program as having the “whole package!”

Lisa Williams is an experienced facilitator and project leader with roots in assisting her community members to overcome barriers to employment. As a cultural Anthropologist, she is thriving on the SOPA project, as she is passionate about working with newcomers and helping them feel more prepared to move to Canada. Lisa enjoys working online with clients in their home country, but is the most fulfilled when she gets the chance to meet her clients face to face after they have arrived!