Emma Harman is currently the Oakville Community Foundation’s Communications Associate thanks to the RBC Career Launch Program. Matched in September, Emma has been an integral piece of the Communications team during the busiest time of the year!
Emma is half Japanese and half French-Canadian and was raised just outside of Chicago, Illinois before moving back to Canada in high school. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Communications and Psychology from the University of Waterloo and was a perfect match for the Communications team with a four-year background in freelance Illustration and Character Design work.
Her interests are varied – ranging from creative hobbies like illustration, painting, creative writing in various genres and fashion design to computer related work including web design, coding and hardware. Emma also has two dogs: Leon, a chihuahua, and Marsden, a dachshund mix, both who take part in sports at a local canine club.
Emma was instrumental in designing the Oakville Resiliency Report in a digital format, as well as assisting in our corporate brand evolution throughout our social campaign. According to Emma, this was her first experience working for a non-profit organization, saying, “I was afforded a large breadth of experiences, both during work hours and after, that I wouldn’t have gotten in a larger organization.”
The RBC Career Launch program is a one-year paid internship that gives new graduates the opportunity to gain practical experience and develop skills. The year consists of six months in a retail RBC branch, three months with a charity and three months in the RBC head office. The Foundation has benefited from the skills and dedication of RBC Career Launch associates in the past.
According to Emma, the program and her RBC Career Launch Manager, Raynah Monteiro, gave her the space, experience and support to decide what she wanted to do, saying, “I appreciate their mission to end the no-experience; no-work cycle that many new grads are stuck in… Raynah has a true passion for fostering young professionals into the people they were meant to be.”
As for the future, Emma noted that the RBC Career Launch Program has helped solidify her decision to attend a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program which she will be seeking to do in Fall 2022. As her position with The Foundation comes to an end, she shared that her time at The Foundation was very illuminating and appreciates all the work everyone has done to accommodate her.
We wish Emma all the best in her future endeavours and are grateful for all of the excellent work she accomplished during her time at The Foundation!
