Independent Studies | University of Waterloo

Where in the world would I be without IS?

My life did the proverbial 180 when I first arrived at IS in the early 1990s. I was a new single parent of a ten-year old and fourteen-year old having had the privilege of being an at-home parent for fifteen years at that point. I had not established a career before becoming a parent; I had simply had a series of jobs, albeit interesting ones.

At the time of my entry to IS, I was just winding down a very active volunteer environmental and community development experience, something I was thrown into by need rather than expertise. I had been partial to artsy stuff prior to this involvement and being supportive of issues well in the background, not into chemistry and hydrogeology, environmental law and political realities, nor being a frontline representative of a grassroots citizens group.

My studies in IS allowed me to document this environmental and community work, and to examine the critical role news media played as events unfolded from 1989 to 1991 or so for the small town I had come to live in from Toronto. Between pre-thesis and thesis phase, a couple of faculty from uWaterloo’s Environment and Resource Studies asked me to create and teach an environmental activism course, which Susan Wismer, IS Director for the past few years, took over when she arrived at ERS. Interesting, huh, how our paths re-connected at IS some fourteen years later.

I finally graduated in 1994 – jeese, it was hard to overcome my inertia, err, fear of doing that thesis – and I was asked to be the valedictorian candidate for IS that year. My kids thought IS was robbed of winning the honour, all bias aside of course. *_*

Thanks to the skills I acquired doing my thesis and from my media role for that environmental group, I went on to be involved with community television for a year where I learned about TV production from the floor up – from camera operation, lighting, and set design to certain activities in the control room such as audio and screening calls for live phone-in shows. Loved it!! Often I drove home after a live show around midnight singing at the top of my lungs and feeling remarkably energized. Eventually, I was able to research, interview for, produce, and edit a couple of documentaries. Loved that even more!

Having tried and failed at corporate jobs in the first few years after the TV stint (why did I even imagine I could do that?!), I found the beginnings of my balance managing BarterWorks, an alternative economic system in the Waterloo Region. I also formed my own small-scale consulting company, Enhanced Image, from which I have offered my cherished talents for teaching English As a Second Language (I focus on culture, not grammar) as well as research and group facilitation skills for community groups such as the Kitchener-Waterloo Social Planning Council, and more recently, editing major academic and professional dissertations.

Yep, can ya tell? Communication is my thing.

In 2005, Anne Dagg called to say that the admin staff then for IS was leaving and asked if I might be willing to help out for a bit. Here I am, six years later, still helping out a bit. As many of you know, the office position at IS is 20 hours a week, so I complement this preferred work with additional contract work for uWaterloo. I tutor graduate students with their English writing, and thus, I meet many impressive international students. I sometimes help the Math Faculty by marking undergrad work term reports and offering tutorials to those students who need some writing advice.

I have about five novels on the go that I am trying to find time to finish. I am an avid but selective TV and film watcher, andI have released all the stuff Carlin spoke of in his comedy routine that I acquired over the decades so I now live simply with a bunch of plants and my very large TV screen. Favourite activity? To laugh as often as possible.

You can find me most easily at the IS office. I would love to hear from you!

Resume
Publications & Presentations
Guest Lectures & Presentations

Return to Alumni/Alumnae

Susan (Rupert) Gow This page was last reviewed on August 25, 2011