Marissa Bumanlag began her journey at the University of Windsor in 2010, as she completed the Bachelors of Arts (Honours) program in Political Science with a minor in Philosophy. In addition, she has completed her Governance Training Certification from Ryerson University in 2017 for nonprofit management. With both programs, Marissa was able to apply experiential learning as well as theory into her employment after graduation.
In 2017, Marissa was hired as a Teacher with Sylvan Learning Windsor. Sylvan Learning Windsor looks to help students from kindergarten to grade 12 with mathematics and English preparatory programs with after school tutoring. In 2018, Marissa was then promoted to be the Lead Teacher where she was responsible for facilitating teachers’ lesson delivery as well as managing administrative tasks and contact with parents and community partners across Windsor-Essex County. Marissa was able to utilize her interpersonal, oratorical, and written communication skills developed in her undergraduate degree in order to delegate tasks appropriately with staff when it came to lesson planning and instruction hour.
Simultaneously, Marissa started her internship placement with Workforce WindsorEssex during the last semester of her undergraduate degree as the Windsor-Essex Local Immigration Partnership (WE LIP) Intern, where she helped organized the Changing Health Access Together event (CHAT) with the Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) for newcomers in the community. These focus groups placed the foundation for the report addressing newcomer barriers with the health care system. Later on, Marissa was hired as a Research Associate with Workforce WindsorEssex where she is now responsible for conducting research and analytical assistance to community stakeholders, entering and coding responses from focus groups, while developing and facilitating presentations about local labour market information to the community at large.
Through reflecting on her education, Marissa’s degree was able to allow her to get a head start on her career as an educator and curriculum developer in the community. In September of 2018, Marissa will be continuing her studies at the University of Windsor for her Bachelors of Education in the Primary-Junior Division and afterwards will be completing her Masters of Education in policy and leadership development. Marissa would like to note that she is “extremely thankful and gracious for the time and support that the faculty at the University of Windsor has provided her in order for her to pursue her dreams of becoming an exceptional educator and community catalyst in Windsor-Essex County”.