Spotlight, First Year Liaisons – Emily Benson and Rhylan Crandell

Throughout all the chaos at BCIT, it’s important to have people you can count on, I’d like to introduce your go-to people! Meet Emily Benson and Rhylan Crandell, the BCITMA’s 2019/20 First-Year Liaisons! These two are your go-to helpers for all your MA needs. They can help you become a committee member, or even just be someone to talk to in the hallways. I can’t wait to see where these two end up in the future!

I had the pleasure of interviewing both of them and encourage you to say hi to them if you pass them in the halls! To learn a little more about them I sat down with them and asked them some questions about they’re everyday life to what they are planning to do in the MA.

 Without further ado, welcome your new First-Year Liaisons: Emily Benson and Rhylan Crandell!

Let’s learn a little more about these two: 

1.    Describe yourself in 3-5 words.

E: “I’m passionate, really driven, and I’d like to think I’m funny, and hopefully I’m entertaining.”

R: “Relentlessly optimistic, disciplined, and happy!”

2.    What is your favorite food?

 E: “It depends on how I’m feeling, I love fruit. Every day I have grapes and I have a little tray with cheese and nuts.”

R: “I feel like right now I have to say pumpkin pie.

3.    Why did you choose to come to BCIT? 

E: “ It’s more intensive, its more career-focused, and actually puts me in the direction I want to go in.”

R: “It’s not my first time here, it’s my second time, so I chose to come this time because of my experience here last time, but overall I would say it has a really good reputation for hands-on experience.”

4.    Why did you decide to become the first-year liaison?

 E: “Well, Hunter and I were talking, I went to go pay my membership fees, and I ended up staying for an hour just talking to Hunter about life, and he ended up saying that I should be liaison because I’m super involved with all the committees, and I usually work better when I have a lot of things to do and am involved with a lot of things so that’s why I chose to do it!”

 R: “I had no real intention originally of doing it, it was kind of suggested to me by some of the members of the MA, because I was getting involved with the MA a lot, and they saw that maybe it would be a good position for me.”

5.    How are you hoping the contribute to the MA?

 E: “My goal in everything is to make an impact I think, so I really would like to make the MA a giant community. I don’t want there to be a weird stigma, and I want everyone to feel comfortable talking to executives, and not have this whole unspoken hierarchy. I want to dismantle that and make it a really collaborative space.”

R: “Mostly I’m just hoping to bridge the gap between the people that don’t know anything about the MA to the people that do know about it. I find that it can be pretty vague for students who aren’t sure. I think that it’s important to get involved in it and when you come to BCIT people have the intention of doing well, and I think the MA will be more beneficial than the actual course work. Overall, just increase member engagement.” 

6.    What are your goals as the first-year liaison?

E: “My goal is to kind of be a gatekeeper, I just really want to make sure first years maximize their time in the MA and actually use it to their advantage; especially, with business, it’s not what you know, it’s whom you know and I feel like the MA is a really good start for that. I really want to network, and I want to make sure everyone is getting the most out of this opportunity.”

R: “I would like to look at the areas that are weak in the MA for the first-year students and suggest those to be changed for next year!” 

7.    What is your favorite course right now and why?

E: “I love communications, I love Tessa, shout out to Tessa she’s my favorite. I’m very into writing and I love being creative, and I obviously talk a lot so it’s nice to put my thoughts onto paper and creating content with it.”

 R: “I would have to say that I enjoy the marketing class the most, I feel the most engaged in the marketing class.”

 8.    If you could be any animal what would it be? 

E: “This is so random, but I would love to be a whale. They are just so big, and you can explore the ocean like 70% hasn’t even been discovered yet, and you’re a whale nobody is going to come for you! I would love to be a blue whale too because they’re chill.”

R: “Probably a cat or octopus, I think cats have figured life out, they care when they need to, and they don’t care when they don’t need to. I think octopus because I don’t think they are from earth; they are way too bizarre.”

9. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

E: “In 5 years, I always say I would love to build up my business empire and then take it into politics. I’d love to be doing something to do with politics, maybe campaign management, or something creative.”

R: “5 years from now, I’m hoping maybe in another country working, like Spain. I have this idea of going to work overseas.”

10. After we finish the interview you are going to your car and you find a lottery ticket winning $10 million dollars. What would you do? 

E: “I would invest it. I am not one to be into numbers, that’s not my thing, but my dad taught me to invest when I was 11, it’s the best thing I’ve ever learned. I wouldn’t invest all of it though, that is not smart, maybe like 70% of it.”

 R: “$10 million? I am going on Twitter and I am making a tweet saying, everyone favourite this or retweet this, and I’ll choose a winner to get $1 million dollars, and I’ll leave it up there for like a month, and try to promote a business idea on there, and gain my online presence, to accelerate my future. With the other $9 million I would just travel.”

SPEED QUESTIONS:

 Cats or Dogs?

E: “Dogs, 100%” 

R: “Cats. Not even a question.”

Top three songs right now?

E: “Slide by H.E.R featuring YG, anything by Tyga, and Hot Girl Summer by Megan Thee Stallion!”

R: “Ballin’ by Roddy Rich and Mustard, Nice and Slow by Usher, Sugar or No Halo by BROCKHAMPTON

Milk or cereal first?

E: “Oh my gosh, cereal first! People that put milk first are kinda weird.”

R: “Well, I will always pour the cereal first, but after if there is some milk left then I’ll pour the cereal into the milk.” 

Do you watch TikToks?

E: “All the time, basically when Musically was a thing, all my friends said that if I would born 5 years later, I would be TikTok/Musically famous, so stay tuned!”

 R: “I do not if I see them reposted anywhere maybe I’ll watch it, but don’t have an account and I’ve never downloaded the app.”

Congrats on this new position. We are excited to see where this year takes you and what you are able to offer for the MA.

Special thanks to Erin Hodson for taking the time to interview our first-year liaisons!