Dannaya Wall
Bachelor of Arts in History (Honours), Class of 2014
After I graduated from Crandall University, I moved back home to Coquitlam, BC. I knew eventually I wanted to continue my education in some way, but needed time to figure it out and so I started working. My first job out of school was a Teacher’s Assistant at an elementary school, I worked with the grade 2 and 3 classes, helped mark assignments, and worked one-on-one or with a small group of students who needed a bit of extra guidance. I think it was a good first job to have to ease my way into the workforce, but I knew it would not be long-term. A year later I got a job as a tutor for a local Vancouver husband and wife-run tutoring company. It specialized in using the Orton Gillingham approach to literacy, which is a very structured, sequential approach to teaching reading, spelling, and writing, and focuses on learning in a multisensory way. It was especially rewarding when I witnessed moments of understanding and improvement. While this was job was rewarding and allowed me to grow in many ways, I still knew that I wanted to pursue a Master’s degree. I tutored for about two and a half years, then chose to pursue a Master of Library and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia.
I started my Master’s program in 2018 and completed it in December 2019. During that time, I participated in a practicum at Regent College in Vancouver. I loved my experience there, from the physical library environment, to the employees, to the work itself. At the same time I graduated, one of the Regent librarians retired, so I applied for the job and was hired. I now work as the Technical Services Coordinator, meaning I oversee anything to do with cataloguing, classification, and physical and digital collection maintenance. It was somewhat of a strange start, as I had begun working at the beginning of March 2020, and a couple of weeks later (while I was still being trained), I was told I had to start working from home. It was an unexpected and stressful adjustment, especially because as such a new employee, I wondered if my position was secure. Thankfully it was. I’ve been in my position now for over two years, and I’m continuing to love it. There is continually opportunity for growth and learning and I truly feel like I’m very valued.
The most obvious impact Crandall had on me was the Rawlyk Library and former librarian Ivan Douthwright. I don’t think I would be where I am now if not for the library at Crandall. My first year as a student I applied for a job in the library, and Ivan hired me. I think it was the experience of working there that clued me in to libraries being a career possibility, but also gave me the practical experience that I would later need to draw from during my Master’s degree and later job searching. Additionally, since leaving Crandall Ivan has always been a faithful reference for me in various applications I have submitted over the years. The fact that I ended up at Regent College, a school that has various ties to Crandall and the post-secondary Christian world in general, was not random. Crandall certainly played an important role.
