Finding community and belonging at VIU

Safe, supported and valued are three words Rayan Zeineddine uses to describe how he feels as a VIU Employee working in the Records departent.

Rayan grew up in Lebanon. After high school, he pursued a degree in medical laboratory technology. He was good at chemistry and biology, so his first thought was to go into medicine.

After finishing his bachelor’s degree in 2015, Rayan decided to leave his home country for a job as an elementary school science teacher in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he worked from 2016 to 2021.

During this time, he began to look abroad at what different universities offered for graduate studies. In 2018, he applied to the Master of Education program. He started during the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant he started online from Saudi Arabia, where he could continue to work due to the time difference.

“Due to the 10-hour difference in time zones, my studies and teaching duties did not overlap so it became possible to be a student and work,” he recalls.

Rayan used this time to connect further with the VIU community even though he was still physically far away.

“The newsletters I received as a student contained valuable opportunities to participate and get more involved.” he says. “I came to appreciate the importance of curiosity and being open to new experiences.”

He served virtually as a peer mentor for VIU’s Thrive program and was one of two graduate student representatives on the Graduate Student Advisory Committee.

In November 2021, halfway through his program’s second and final year, Rayan arrived in Canada and says he felt a sense of “joy and calm” as soon as his plane touched down in Toronto for his connecting flight to BC.

“I had a few hours to wait for my next flight and I noticed a rainbow mural near the spot where I was waiting,” he recalls.

For Rayan, this symbolized the rights and freedoms found in Canada and it "reminded me that I was in a safe, welcoming place.”

For his master’s thesis, he was involved in team-based research through the Community-Based Applied Interdisciplinary Research (CBAIR) course, which brings students from different disciplines together to research solutions to problems facing a community partner.

“As a group of four students, we conducted research for VIU’s Center for Community Outreach and Care. Our work helped inform the development of programs that support family well-being and strengthen protective factors in the Harewood community in Nanaimo. “

In April of 2022, the group went on to present their findings at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) and VIU’s in-house student conference, CREATE.

He graduated that same month and applied for a job with and applied for a job with VIU Student Housing.

As the years went by, he took on a variety of roles. “I started working at the front-desk where I began learning more about the student housing database StarRez. As my skills developed and were recognized, I was given the opportunity to train new front-desk staff and create manuals and videos that capture best practices and processes."

Rayan transitioned to the role of Housing Admissions Coordinator where he would oversee on-campus housing admissions and room assignment for more than 500 bed spaces. 

In his day-to-day interactions with students, parents and fellow staff, Rayan, now a permanent resident of Canada, finds joy and flow in sharing his experience and passing along the acts of kindness that guided him on his own journey. 

“A gesture as simple as greeting someone with a smile can build trust and make a real difference in the community.”