Meet Yaqiong. She credits her volunteer experience as one of the reasons she was accepted into UVic to do her Masters in Physical Geography.  Two summers ago, Yaqiong was looking to volunteer and was told by a friend to visit the Volunteer Victoria website. She found an opportunity working with the Fairfield Gonzales Community Association where she could utilize her bachelor’s degree in Atmospheric Science.  The association had just received an environmental sustainability grant and needed someone to spearhead the project.  Yaqiong began making the important first connections with BC sustainable organizations to help further the project, and every Saturday for 3 months that summer, she was at the Fairfield Market engaging with the public.  Those 3 months offered Yaqiong a number of things; an opportunity to combine her interests of science with social science, work experience in a Canadian setting, and a chance to do a project relevant to her Master’s degree.  Yaqiong used her volunteer experience as part of her application for her master’s program at UVic, SFU and U of T.  She knows that it was her volunteer experience as one of the things that helped set her apart from the competition.