{"id":185,"date":"2025-09-12T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/?p=185"},"modified":"2026-03-02T12:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:05:22","slug":"elevate-your-career-fabielle-rocha-cruz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/2025\/09\/12\/elevate-your-career-fabielle-rocha-cruz\/","title":{"rendered":"ELevate Your Career: Fabielle Rocha Cruz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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GPESA President, 2024-2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m originally from Brasil, a K-12 English teacher with experience in bilingual and international education. Even during my undergraduate years, I was a part of the Student Association in my alma mater, which provided a great opportunity to get my name out there. The reason I say this is that, throughout my experiences, I got to know so many people who later became friends, supervisors, colleagues – people who helped and supported me in my professional development.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Here, at the University of Calgary, I joined the Graduate Programs in Education Students’ Association (GPESA) in my very first year as Vice-President, Student Life. I was in charge of engagement, community, and events that are non-academic. Then, I got elected as president in 2024 and again in 2025. This is officially my third year with GPESA, and I appreciate this opportunity so much. There is, of course, the chance to develop skills such as leadership and teamwork, but what I love the most is the chance to be involved with people, community, and experiences. Once again, I get to meet so many interesting people every day, I work alongside faculty, and I get to help peers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I considered that there are two main skillsets I develop(ed) while with GPESA: 1. Language\/intercultural skills, as English is not my first language, and I meet people from everywhere every single day; and 2. Critical skills, such as empathy, active listening, and leadership. I did not see myself as someone suitable to be a president or a leader, and now, look at me! It is my second year doing something I really love as president once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for balance, in GPESA, we plan events keeping in mind that students have lives outside the university. I try to bring that to my personal practice too, and I try to think that the work I do as president is as important as my personal life, so my husband and my dog also deserve my full attention! I do not work for GPESA on weekends, and I try to keep my nights free so I can enjoy my personal life.  For those who are in doubt about what they should do, I always say: go for it. GPESA, for me, is a place of community and learning together. We are supporting all graduate students, so I feel like giving back to the community that welcomed me here when I moved to Canada! \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GPESA President, 2024-2026 I’m originally from Brasil, a K-12 English teacher with experience in bilingual and international education. Even during my undergraduate years, I was a part of the Student…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9537,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,16,13],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graduate-student-experiences","category-impact-success-stories","category-student-experiences","tag-elevate-your-career"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9537"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions\/187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ucalgaryblogs.ca\/werklundexperientiallearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}