Carving a new path: Turning challenges into a university career

Education and Academia
Written By Stuart McNish

Guest: Adam Pankratz (university business school lecturer)

As a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, Adam Pankratz’s job is to communicate the challenges of business to his students, which range from undergraduates to masters-level students – and make it interesting. This was nowhere near what he envisioned for his career when he graduated with a linguistics degree and worked in the hotel industry. As with all careers, it is never a straight line. But his difficulties with finding a job that matched his skills led him to the world of business and an entirely new path.

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Carving a new path: Turning challenges into a university career
Carving a new path: Turning challenges into a university career

As a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, Adam Pankratz’s job is to communicate the challenges of business to his students, which range from undergraduates to masters-level students – and make it interesting. This was nowhere near what he envisioned for his career when he graduated with a linguistics degree and worked in the hotel industry. As with all careers, it is never a straight line. But his difficulties with finding a job that matched his skills led him to the world of business and an entirely new path.

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Studying what it means to be human in a complex world
Studying what it means to be human in a complex world

Nick Bostrom’s job is to think about humanity – after all, as a philosopher in a complex world that has the rise of artificial intelligence, there is a lot to think about. When he started out in his career, academia was the only field where he could do that kind of work. But in today’s world, his work at the Future of Humanity Institute has gained importance as society starts to question how humans work with technology and artificial intelligence, and what that means to being human.

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Discovering a passion for analyzing public policy and politics
Discovering a passion for analyzing public policy and politics

For Roger Pielke, the best part of his job is having ears on the ground for public policy. His role as a professor was not surprising, coming from a family of academics. But his passion wasn’t discovered until a chance trip to Washington, DC, where he discovered how politics and policy can turn on a dime and require trust in order to function.

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Cultivating a career in prevention education
Cultivating a career in prevention education

Cathy Peters is an advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves. But she would describe her role as being in prevention education, cultivating her passion for the vulnerable. Her work in preventing child trafficking taps into that passion. This is a path that is almost custom-made for her, as an avid storyteller and absorbing others’ stories by learning and listening. “If I sound a little bit passionate,” she says, “I am.”

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Stuart McNish
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Studying what it means to be human in a complex world