I am honored to work with supportive colleagues and community partners that I have collaborated with on various initiatives. It is the people that you work with that inspire you to do your best and I am incredibly grateful for the shared wisdom, partnerships, and friendships at TRU. Here are a few testimonials from colleagues.
I first met Leanne as a colleague in the TRU School of Education -at that time she had just designed the ESTR market to sell artisan products created by students living with developmental delay. The ‘market cart’ began as a small scale social enterprise that yielded big results. It enabled students to apply their emergent learning in retail sales, skills such as marketing plans, sales strategies, tracking inventory, book keeping, and service excellence. Leanne grew the cart into a full-scale market with over 100 vendors, fresh food services, and gift basket delivery.
Leanne’s leadership in providing inclusive employment for adults living with exceptionalities is exemplary. Similarly, she applied her drive and initiative in the community to recruit, train, and support employers new to inclusive practices. Employers experienced for themselves the richness a person living with neurodiversity brings to the workplace.
It was my pleasure to support Leanne as her project supervisor during completion of the TRU Master of Education degree. Leanne assessed the students’ learning in the ESTR retail and market program through a innovative arts-based research method, Photovoice. Her findings evidenced best practice for educators working with vulnerable populations who are seeking employment. Her relationships with students are built on trust and respect. She believes in what she does, and she goes the extra mile (always) to ensure success for each individual in her care.
Leanne’s work is superlative. The ESTR market continues to be a success at TRU (Leanne pivoted the market to online delivery during the Covid Pandemic). It was Leanne’s vision, stellar organization skills, and deep commitment that led the way to creating relevant and practical programming for ESTR students. Leanne brings knowledge, passion, and skills to all that she does. She is an innovative leader who advocates for social change and quality of life for persons with disabilities. I am honoured to know her.
DR. NAN STEVENS, ED.D.
June 21, 2021
It is with great pleasure that I write this letter of attestation for Leanne Mihalicz. As the Field Education Coordinator for the Human Service Diploma program at Thompson Rivers University, I have worked together with Leanne for the past few years as she supports human service students in completing their field education placements at Thompson Rivers University’s ESTR program. Leanne has assumed the role of Field Supervisor on several occasions seeing numerous students through to success in their placements.
Leanne is wonderful to work with. She is warm and welcoming to our students and she provides excellent support and mentorship. She is organized and timely in her provision of formative feedback aiding student development. Leanne ensures she is knowledgeable about student course and program learning needs. She scaffolds students learning ensuring to meet each student at the level they require while supporting them as they advance to their individual learning goals. In short, she is an excellent Field Supervisor.
Leanne is also a joy to work with as a colleague. She is friendly, respectful and a team player. I am very happy to have had the opportunity to work alongside Leanne these past few years and look forward to working with her again in future.
Lorry-Ann Austin
Field Education Coordinator, Human Service Program
Faculty of Education and Social Work
Innovative approaches to problem solving:
Saskia Stinson, Assistant Teaching Professor
Leanne has demonstrated extraordinary contributions in program development for the Retail and Hospitality during COVID-19 restrictions. Leanne and her students, developed an online, curbside, shopping experience for TRU students, staff and faculty as well as the Kamloops community during the fall and winter semesters of 2020/2021. ESTR’s Market, a social enterprise, continues to support and carry products from local vendors, carries products created by the Kitchen & Food Service students as well as products created by students in the new Trades Assistant Certificate. ESTR’s Pop-Up Online Market continues to provide real-life problem-solving opportunities through experiential learning for all students in the skills training certificate in the ESTR program during COVID-19. Like many businesses in our community and programs on our campus, she helped students learn new skills in the areas of social media, technology and sanitation while pivoting to hybrid delivery with COVID-19 restrictions (masks, physical distancing, reduced class size, online delivery). Leanne and her students worked with the TRU IT department and MARCOM, TRU’s marketing department, to set the website up as part of their educational experience. Leanne also supports her students in utilizing social media, Facebook and Instagram, as a tool for teaching skills in marketing and merchandising. All of these program innovations have contributed to the skill set needed for our students to participate in their practicums out in the community for Spring 2021 as well as prepare them for a changing workplace.
As a faculty member in the School of Business and Economics, I am happy to support Leanne Mihalicz. In the past, Leanne (serving in her role as instructor at the ESTR Market) has been a tremendous supporter of experiential education, as a client for applied marketing projects. Leanne’s on-going support of interdisciplinary experiential projects such as this, reveals that she both: – truly understands the long-term educational value of experiential education, – and has experience from the clients’ perspective of the experiential / service-learning activities. Based on her positive attitude, extensive experience in interdisciplinary experiential education assignments, I believe Leanne is the ideal candidate for a role involving career development and experiential learning!
Paul Clark, DBA University Instructor, School of Business and Economic
Leanne is an amazing employer liaison helping provide professional support to her students and to ourselves. She has partnered and supported us through onboarding and coaching processes with students and provided us with excellent use resources. Leanne is always a pleasure to work with and we have developed a long-lasting partnership.
Claire Matchim, Manager Staples