Issue 19: Marie-Zoe - Empowerment by Education Founder

It has been a hard year for students. Being perseverant toward our studies can be hard for many reasons. Rather it is a lack of self-confidence, economic struggles, or social inequalities. Our students are not aware of the solutions or do not have access to it. Education is the most powerful instrument that we have, giving us the chance to reach long term happiness by doing something we love. We always ask our students what they want to do, without necessarily giving them the tools to find out the answer. Almost everyone can relate to that moment in their studies when we did not know why we were studying, because we did not really know what we wanted to do or who we wanted to be.

For Miss Canada 2021 Finalist, Marie-Zoe, she has always been passionate about pursuing a career as a veterinarian; while having the chance to always know what she wanted to do. This gave her the strength she needed to complete high school into an international program. Since then, Marie-Zoe has been trying to gain admission into vet school for the past 5 years. There were moments throughout this process where she almost gave up due to her not understanding why she wanted to become a veterinarian in the first place.

After working on herself, she discovered who she was destined to be and which kind of life she wanted. After attending a 3-month 1-1 workshop about self-confidence, she discovered her desire to gain admission into vet school. This year she is entering into her 3rd year at the University of Montreal studying Microbiology and Immunology to provide her with the opportunity to increase her grades; to give her the opportunity to volunteer for the SEUR Project.

The SEUR project raises awareness for education, university, and research for students in high school, it was created by the University of Montreal with the intention to support students within secondary and post-secondary education confused with their next steps. Marie-Zoe is a mentor with this project where she assists students at risk of drop out. The first student she had was struggling to choose between Makeup Artistry and Computer Science. This student knew in her heart which career choice she wanted, however, was afraid of being unsuccessful. Marie-Zoe helped this student through support and encouragement, leading to this student picking her desired path. It seemed this student needed someone to open her flame (desire), hidden by her insecurities. The pandemic unfortunately forced the mentoring program to close, therefore, Marie-Zoe created ‘Empowerment by Education’; becoming the person everyone needs in high school.

‘Empowerment by Education’ started with the following timeline:

Summer 2020- Zoom Calls

Autumn 2020/Winter 2021 – Online Conferences

Marie-Zoe now is working on creating a YouTube Channel and Website to make her platform available to those who desire to invest into themselves. She does this work to promote perseverance toward education by guiding students to understand themselves and where they are destined to be. Marie-Zoe aims that this program will be promoted by High Schools, Teachers, and Magazines; to inspire future youth to invest in their confidence and future aspirations.

Advice from Marie-Zoe:

“I was lost myself, but I decided that I want and deserve better. It wasn’t easy, because I had to work on my low self-esteem, then on my doubts and finally being able to define who I am and who I want to be. The work that I did can be done by anyone even though it will not help everyone in the same way, because we are all made differently. It is never a waste of time to take care of yourself and to learn about who you are. Once you know who you want to be, it gives you a long-term determination that no one can take away from you! To me, you must experience a hundred failure to reach one success, it is part of the learning process. If your mind is open for learning, you will grow from any experience that you will go through.”

“You might feel that you are at the wrong place right now, like I felt while studying into a program that does not fit with my future dream job. As I like to say: perseverance is stubbornness with a purpose! You must keep trying as long as it feels right to your heart. I’m not wasting my time in the microbiology and immunology program; I invest my time to reach my passion. One of many ways to know if you found your dream job, is that money doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how much you’ll have to invest, and it doesn’t matter if you already have all the money that you need for the rest of your life. Because nothing is more valuable than what you can accomplish with that job. You will have a feeling of fulfilment that no one can take away from you. You will feel happy to wake up in the morning and you will feel grateful to be where you are.”