Desi News Corp - Index

Desi News Corp - Desi News - July 2009 - Index

CAREERS CAREERS START START
@ Centennial Centennial College College
Driven student chooses college for his degree
Ontario’s 24 public
colleges have always
had a bit of an inferiority
complex, co-existing in
the shadow of the province’s
traditional universities.
Even after 40 years in operation,
the prevailing public opinion
suggests university is the
smarter destination. Khaled
Kaadan would like to change
that perception. For one thing,
it no longer rings true.
“I have a guy in my class who
used to be a University of Toronto
student,” says Kaadan.
“One day he turned to me and
said, ‘This major is much harder
than anything I was taking at U
of T.’”
Kaadan is talking about his
Computer and Communication
Networks four-year program,
one of two offered by Centennial
College that confers graduates
with a Bachelor of Applied
Information Sciences degree
(the other program is
Software Systems Design).
After years of debate, the
Ontario government agreed to
allow its public colleges to offer
four-year degree programs in
2002, but only in academic
subjects not already addressed
by the universities. Centennial
had one of the first “applied
degree” programs ready for
approval: Computer and Communication
Networks was designed
to produce graduates who are
competent in both networks
technology and the business
applications that rely on networks.
It proved to be a timely
decision, and the program found
a ready audience. Rather than
take computer studies at university,
students could hone their
skills in a computer networks
specialty over four years, grooming
them for a career in a booming
employment field. The
decision to go to Centennial was
an easy one for Kaadan.
“I was looking at a computer
science degree program at a
university, but it sounded too
general in terms of its focus,”
he recalls. “I didn’t want to waste
time – and money – jumping
from one major to another like
so many other students.”
The son of an automobile
dealer, Kaadan had grown up
in the beautiful Mediterranean
metropolis of Beirut, Lebanon.
In spite of the divisive civil war
that tore the city in half in the
1980s, Beirut attracted a lot of
investment after the war concluded
in 1990, restoring its
lustre and reputation as “Paris
of the East.”
In high school, Kaadan was
thinking about a career in
dentistry or pharmacy, but he
grew impatient when he learned
the training was eight or nine
years to completion – too long
in his estimation. Fortunately, he
had a family that allowed him
make up his own mind.
“My parents let me decide
how I was going to live my life,”
he smiles.
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NARI MAVALWALLA/DESI NEWS
KHALED KAADAN
IS ENROLLED IN THE
COMPUTER AND
COMMUNICATIONS
NETWORK PROGRAM
Political strife returned to
Beirut in 2005, then the 2006
war unfolded with Israeli
bombardments damaging the
urban infrastructure of Beirut
– an all-too-familiar tragedy.
Kaadan’s father wisely sent
his son to join his mother and
brothers and sisters in Canada
and away from yet another
Middle East conflict.
Landing in Toronto, Kaadan
was keen to spend a year orienting
himself to his new country
by working and exploring his
education options. By immersing
himself in work, he got to meet
different people and a sense of
what interested him as a possible
career.
“I worked in an autobody
shop, a bakery, a furniture store
and in the parts department of
a Mazda dealership,” he rhymes
off. “I made sure I got a lot of
work experience before I made
my career decision.”
Kaadan says the year was
important for him to formulate
a personal career plan, as well
as make some money and help
his family. He wanted to come
to a firm decision about his
schooling so that there would
be no costly mistakes later.
“I hate the idea of starting
something then quitting in the
middle,” he says. He came to
the conclusion he wanted to
study computers and weighed
the options available to him at
various colleges and univer-
WORLD OF
FENG SHUI
VAUGHAN • TORONTO