Bios | OC Arts Stories

Xenon Tyner

Xenon Tyner is a second-year student in the Associate of Arts Program at Okanagan College, pursuing a focus in Communications and taking particular interest in media studies surrounding pop culture. She graduated from Kelowna Secondary School in 2017 and started at Okanagan College in fall of the same year.

For this project, she has chosen to tell her own story of adjusting to college. Rather than struggling to avoid subjectivity, she chose to take a personal approach to the writing and illustration of her story. She also assisted in constructing the container website for the project. Through her story she hopes to inform those considering Okanagan College of the diverse opportunities the college offers its students and insight into balancing college and personal interests.

Courtney Spetz

Courtney Spetz is currently a second-year Arts student at Okanagan College in the Diploma in Communications, Culture, and Journalism Studies Program. She entered this program directly following her high school graduation and has been taking advantage of opportunities that the college provides ever since.

For this project, she wrote on her own experiences with the college as well as the different routes available to start and finish a post-secondary education. She has also taken on the role as the main editor for the class, which allowed her the opportunity to leave her mark on each element that her classmates wrote and designed. This involvement has given her a sense of commitment to the project and to your enjoyment of it.

Zulma Suarez-Lopez

Zulma Suarez-Lopez is an international student in the Advanced Certificate of Communications Program (ACC) who decided to come back to school after several years of learning and working abroad. She chose Okanagan College and the ACC Program to re-aim her career as a communicator and storyteller. This project was the perfect opportunity to get back to her film-making background with a fresh perspective and a firm belief on the magic of hidden stories.

Her experience with this project has allowed her to come back to audiovisual creation with a more free-spirited perspective. She finds digital storytelling an open genre that allows infinite ways of production and distribution with accessible tools, giving power to stories to impact beyond frontiers.

Jodian Spaulding

Jodian Spaulding is currently a student at Okanagan College. She is pursuing a Communications, Culture, and Journalism Studies Diploma. Jodian is in her last year of her program and hopes to be a communication practitioner in the field of media. She plans on using her educational achievement to write a motivational nonfiction book and sell her brand.

Jodian is from Jamaica where she attended Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville, Manchester and was awarded a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communication with an emphasis in
Television Production. Jodian is a certified communication practitioner, event planner, feature writer and presenter. She motivates, uplifts, and advises people in need of guidance on their life’s journey. She is ambitious and inspirational, and in her spare time she works on building her website www.jodianspaulding.com and writing her book and inspirational quotes.

Stanley Webb

Stanley Webb is a fourth-year business student at Okanagan College. He enjoys the active Okanagan lifestyle, usually found either out skiing or mountain biking. Stanley is taking Communications courses to improve his writing for a future career in marketing. For this project, Stanley has written an article on local author and student Stephen Ikesaka. In this interview with Stephen, Stanley looks to showcase the Diploma in Writing and Publishing at Okanagan College.

Jaimee Linder

Jaimee Linder attends Okanagan College's Kelowna Campus. Her program is the
Communications, Culture, and Journalism Studies (CCJS) Diploma, and she has ambition to further her education at UBCO.

CCJS marries her compassion for learning about other cultures and her personal need to always work with people in their future endeavors. For example, Jaimee met a doctor from Ireland while standing in line for the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish, BC. Jaimee connected the doctor to her personal physician. The initial meeting went well and the doctor from Ireland now lives and practices in BC. Always listening with compassion and understanding, a similar situation she knew of was a woman wanting to purchase a business. Through Jaimee’s network, she heard of an opportunity this person would potentially be interested in. Connecting the buyer and seller proved to be successful. The business owner-operator of thirty years sold to the individual and the business continues to thrive today. Jaimee is known as a “connector” to her colleagues.

Andrew Nash

Andrew Nash is a third-year Bachelor of Business Administration student specializing in Marketing at Okanagan College. When he’s not in the hills on a bike or skis, Andrew can be found on campus planning and executing events as a Director of the Okanagan Business Students’ Association. He is applying his non-business electives to a concentration in Communications in pursuit of a career that combines his passion for sport and creative branding. Through his CMNS 280/295: Applied Communications term project, Andrew aims to reinvent the perceived value of Communications courses among Business students pursuing their own passions.

Carolina Nogueira

Carolina Nogueira is a coffee-addicted volleyball player who loves thought-provoking books and thoughtful conversations. A certified life coach and graduate of Computer Science, she worked for multinational companies like IBM and Accenture as an IT manager. Seeking new life experiences, she moved to Canada, where she is currently pursuing an Advanced Certificate in Communications at Okanagan College.

One of her favorite classes is CMNS 280/295: Applied Communications. Developing skills in storytelling and learning about different platforms and techniques is very exciting for her, as she thinks this is the best way to improve her English skills while challenging herself. She defines the course as a mix of strong listening, creative writing and expression of emotions. Carolina loves to be inspired by stories and her colleagues' creativity and wants to create connections by sharing different student experiences.

Taryn Sotvedt

Taryn Sotvedt is currently in the Business Diploma Program at Okanagan College, where she started in January of 2018 after taking three years off of high school to figure out her interests. She ended up taking three business courses: Accounting, Marketing, and Management Principles. After a little while, she slowly started to realize that the academic side of business just wasn’t for her. Taryn wanted to venture more into her creative side, which she then turned into something she
was going to pursue.

Taking CMNS 130 - Intro to Digital Media in Fall 2018 really helped Taryn grow in her personal and school decisions. In the end, this sparked her true passion. Now, Taryn is growing into her creative self even more and taking creative risks. She is on her way to Vancouver Island to pursue Visual Arts and her own business. She continues to develop her creative side through projects, film, and photography and is very happy to be where she is.

Dr. Raluca Fratiloiu

Dr. Raluca Fratiloiu is a College Professor in the Department of Communications. She can be found in and out of Introduction to Mass Communication (CMNS 110), Introduction to Digital Media (CMNS 130) and Introduction to Video Game Studies (CMNS 290) courses, or in out of her office, advising students in her current role as Chair of Communications.

She coached students in CMNS 280 – Applied Communication, through all stages of creating their own digital stories. These stories were articulated under the unified client project goal of (re)/presenting student perspectives on taking Arts courses and programs at the Okanagan College. If you have any questions about our project or process or simply if you are interested in discussing about general communications theory or interactive media, e-mail her at rfratiloiu@okanagan.bc.ca .