Putting people at the core of everything we do is paramount at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. We are committed to ensuring our people — those who make BCIT distinct, are developing while feeling valued, supported, and connected.
BCIT is a people-first organization. We aim to celebrate our employees by sharing their stories through the Our People series. The series features BCIT’s extraordinary employees who share a strong sense of pride and ambition for the Institute and make up our diverse community.
Get to know Dr. Jennifer Kong, Faculty in the Basic Health Sciences department, School of Computing and Academic Studies, who has been working at BCIT for over 16 years.
How would you summarize the work that you do at the Institute?
I work as both Flexible Learning and full-time Faculty in the Department of Basic Health Sciences in School of Computing and Academic Studies.
Imagine somebody who finishes high school. And sometimes they go to UBC or SFU and they do first year science courses in which they have a bundled package of essentially basic foundational courses. Well in BCIT, we have the same thing, but they’re already integrated into our existing career .
In Basic Health Sciences, we don’t get students enrolled directly into our department. Rather, we teach into other programs in School of Health Science or School of Computing and Academic Studies. These students learn their required courses in anatomy, physiology, pathology, immunology, microbiology, human behaviour, and other subjects from us in the Basic Health Sciences department.
What do you enjoy the most about working in post-secondary education?
I call myself a weird unicorn because I’ve taught almost the entire healthcare field since I straddle between UBC & BCIT and have access to many health career programs.
This includes the people who literally learn how to draw your blood. The people who test the blood. The people who run the X-rays. The people who are the nurses taking care of you. The ones who are delivering the chemotherapy and the doctors who read your MRI. I’ve done almost the entire gamut. So, I’ve taught undergraduate medical students, graduate medical students, nurses, medical laboratory technologist—you name it. I’ve hit almost every single School of Health Sciences program. Not all, but almost.
You’ve worked on so many areas at BCIT, what has been your most memorable moment working at BCIT?
I have to say the most memorable moment is watching students who don’t believe in themselves realize they can do this and then reach the career they want to be in. That is the coolest thing and I have a couple of students that I have in memory.
One of them, she was in foster care. At that time, we gave tuition free to students who are in foster care to complete prerequisite courses. This was like a life changing moment for her. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and now she’s working in the field. And I was with her the whole time, supporting her in her time in BCIT.
I have another favourite student in which he was actually not engaged in his education and he left school. He technically didn’t finish high school, but his mother believed in him and he started part-time studies as a mature student—night courses at BCIT where I taught him. He eventually got into medical radiography and is now a practising medical radiation technologist.
Several of my students like to keep in touch. Almost every time I go into a Lower Mainland hospital/medical facility, I inevitably run into one of my BCIT or UBC students. Most light up when they see me. It’s nice to see that I got to help these health career professionals through their journey.
Learn more about financial support available to youth-in-care in BC.
What are projects or initiatives that you have completed at the Institute that you are proud of?
During the height of COVID I started a book, an open education resource. And this was essentially the first ever book on pathology that’s available for free. It shares some of my resources and the people I know at UBC Vancouver, UBC Okanagan and BCIT—I connected them all for this special collaboration.
We demonstrated interprofessional collaboration between institutions and industry as we put together each chapter about a disease. And we look at the disease from the level of the cell to essentially how it manifests in signs and symptoms and the people you work with. Coupled with each disease [topic] I develop a video with our BCIT and UBC volunteers practising clinicians, nurses, or technologists. They talk about what it’s like to be on the job and who they interact with in the health care field.
We also recently partnered with LifeLabs and they allowed me to take a camera crew in where we filmed the path of a blood test from when someone the blood sample, it goes through the machines until finally when we get the result. We also featured a medical lab technologist, who was a former student of mine and a talking through the entire procedure. and about the open education resource book. We still get about 2,500 views on the book a month globally.
What does it mean for you to be a 2024 Employee Excellence Award – Brian Thom for Advanced Teaching Excellence recipient?
I feel validated. I do all of these things because I want to. I don’t do it because there’s an award. My reward is when I see students reach their goals or, you know, some who can’t afford to go to get education, can learn about pathology at home kind of thing.
I also follow the footsteps of two of my colleagues—Dr. Phil Wong (2022) and Cheryl Beatty (2019) had won in previous years. It makes me think that, okay, I don’t have imposter syndrome, that I deserve this—to be in this department and now am also an award winner just like my colleagues.
I also did actually know Brian Thom when he was still around. It is an honour to be able to receive an award in his name.
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