I am forever grateful to be living and learning on the traditional, unceded territories of the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc People. I thank them for the use of their sacred land.
Good morning, afternoon, or evening, and welcome to my E-portfolio! My name is Derek Olsen, I am currently 25 years old and I am from Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada on the traditional and unceded territory of the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc. I was born and raised here, having gone to three wonderful local schools in R.L. Clemitson, Valleyview Secondary School, and now Thompson Rivers University. I graduated from Valleyview in 2015, received my Bachelor’s degree in General Studies in 2021, and now I am hoping to get my Bachelors’s degree in Education as well! I absolutely love learning, I am addicted to it in all shapes and forms. If you ever ask me what is new I will always have something to share and I take great pride in that. I love reading and studying (things I’m interested in that is), listening to music, watching videos, and trying new experiences. For example, this past year I began investing in stocks and I started my own business in the sports card industry, two things I never thought I’d be interested in doing only a short time ago. My passion, however, is physical activity. My dream job would be a PHE instructor at a high school, and this year I accomplished another goal of mine: getting my professional personal training and nutritionist certifications with the ISSA. Working out and playing sports or games means more than anything else in the world, and I want to share my enjoyment with as many people as I possibly can. If I love something more, it is seeing other people enjoy it. I love watching all professional sports as well as amateur if possible, and I used to referee soccer and I have been coaching elementary school basketball for three years . My family and friends are the most important thing to me in life, as I have stuck with relatively the same friend group since preschool. My family are as follows: I have one older brother named Tyler who works as a heavy duty mechanic at Highland Valley Copper, my father Rod is a retired Conservation 0fficer who was active for over 30 years, my stepmother Donna works for the BC Ministry of Transportation, and my mother Teresa (not the religious one) has been an elementary school teacher for over 30 years. She serves as a big reason why I want to become a teacher, because I spent a lot of time with her growing up and realized it was made possible because of her job. The only thing I have ever been one hundred percent sure of in life is that I would like to be a father one day, and I thought ‘what job is there that can I do something I love and get to spend a lot of time with my kids?’ Well when I graduated I went straight into the TRU School of Business. Wrong. My first semester I had no grade higher than a C, and was losing passion and hope rapidly. My counsellor, Lucy, who passed away unfortunately far too young, sat with me on many occasions and we brainstormed until we got to teacher. So, we reset my program, academic goals, and fast forward one degree and four years and here I am. I hope you appreciate what you read on this site, and have wonderful rest of your day.
Certificates/Awards/Scholarships
Occupational First Aid Level 1; This certification is super important to me as I always want to know to what level I can and should help those in need. I originally got it for work in the oil sands as it is a requirement, but it’s something that I can use in all sorts of scenarios outside of a work site. It expires after three years and you have to retake the whole course, you cannot challenge the test. Some view this as a pain in the butt, but I look forward to doing it again as the world of safety is always changing and I learn more valuable facets of knowledge every time. I hope one day to try my hand at the higher levels of certification.
Indigenous Awareness Certification; Another tremendously beneficial experience for me, this course is offered through my work as well as many Indigenous Peoples of Canada work and/or are from the oil sands in Northern Alberta. This course is optional for our employees, and I’ve been a devout advocate to make it mandatory. As soon as I heard of its’ existence I hopped all over it as the more knowledge I can gain in this area It is currently a simple introductory look at a few general aspects of culture that the local groups share as well as a sort of guideline for what is offensive and acceptable for the most part. I think there should be more emphasis put into the creation and material of the course as well as its’ implementation across the oil & gas sector. From experiences that I have heard from friends and colleagues that work in and around it, it is still unfortunately not the most socially accepting industry.
Interior Savings Million Dollar Bursary; this was a scholarship that I applied to every single year of my undergraduate degree and never got it until finally I did my last year. I always struggle in suggesting that I have financial needs greater than others. I even park far away in parking lots because I know that other people may not have the same physical capabilities as I do so they should have closer spots. For this, I felt I never deserved the money but then when I actually got it it was a bit of a rougher financial year for me so it was more well received. I was so grateful and did technically make my bank proud by finishing that degree.
Volunteer Work/Extra-Curricular Activities
Bert Edwards School of Technology 2017-2019; I absolutely loved my time at BEST. I was truly blessed to be given an opportunity to volunteer there and I learned more than I had ever before about education. I was fortunate enough to be able to help with their track & field days, coach girls basketball as well as help out in a multitude of different classrooms and age ranges. The staff and administration there are so positive and passionate about learning that it made fitting in as an outsider very easy and they helped me experience and were okay with my mistakes along the way. The students were eager to learn every day and it really solidified my choice to pursue this profession. It is safe to say I would not be in the teaching program today if it wasn’t for the staff and students at BEST.
Hockey/Basketball/Lacrosse/Soccer/Taekwondo/Weightlifting; over my 25 years of living, save for the first 4 years, I have never not been involved in some sort of organized athletic activity. I have pretty much played every sport from classic Canadian hockey and lacrosse to badminton and curling, heck I even golf a couple times a year. I love physical activity more than anything else in life, and I hope to share that passion with future groups of students. Though I’ve done primarily sports, I have a lot of fun trying other things like dance and aerobics, and I always think that everyone should try everything once to find their favourite type of activity and stick with it. Or just keep doing it all and continue inventing new things!
Small Business + Investing; I guess these count as extra-curricular. I have operated a small business buying & selling sports cards for two years now, and it has been a wonderful educational journey. I sell most through eBay, but also through Instagram and Facebook and have met so many wonderful people along the way. While it does help the pocketbook, it is still more of a hobby and I definitely could not do it as my full time job. I also recently started focusing on financial investment, as a lot of the money I make from my sales I put into investments in my TFSA. I already have a decent amount in an RRSP from work deposits, but this is more interesting because I use a robo-adviser which lets me pick specific stocks, bonds or ETFs that I want to buy or sell. It has been immensely interesting learning about this industry and watching the investments I make personally go up (or down).
Employment and Travel
Canadian Tire Kamloops 2015-present; This might be the avenue from which I have learned the most in my life. I started here seven years ago thinking this would be a temporary step and I’d get a better job in a little bit. Little did I know I would fall in love with the staff, the simple routine job, and working firsthand with customers of all different walks of life. I began in the sports section and was pretty comfy as it was my element, and then was shifted into auto parts and was terrified not knowing a thing about cars. Fast forward 6 years later and now I save thousands as I do all of my own car work, am comfortable giving mechanical advice to friends and family. Even though it would be considered an “entry level” job, I take pride in working there and now being a sort of veteran now. I look forward to working there every week and helping customers with issues with vehicles and getting them what they need as well as working with wonderful colleagues.
Bear Scare 2017-present; I got this job because of my father, not because of my abilities let’s just get that out of the way. I work as a wildlife specialist in the summers, primarily in the Alberta oil sands but I have had a couple shifts in BC as well. Our company is contracted to handle wildlife on work sites so there are minimal conflicts with humans. Being a 19 year old in the oil and gas scene was very intimidating, if working up close and personal with bears wasn’t already. This job is depressing because these sites are terrible on the environment, a lot of workers are quite negative and tired, and the poor wildlife are just trying to get by on what is left for them to work with. The camp life is sad as you see shift workers that yes, make a lot of money, but hardly see their families and overwork themselves. Basically, I’m just there for the bears.
Travel; I haven’t been to nearly as many places as I would like, but I still have had many interesting travelling experiences. Growing up, my dad, cousin, brother and I would go on a motorcycle trip in the summer. We have been all around western Canada as well as the western United States and have seen such things as Mt. Rushmore, the Devil’s Tower, the Beartooth pass, and many more. In addition, I have been on two family vacations to Hawaii and Mexico in which I learned a lot about the local cultures, did a lot of snorkelling, and definitely indulged on some amazing food. I have also been to parts of Ontario for a family reunion and got to go to Canada’s wonderland, which was kind of neat as a kid. I think this is one area where I would like to improve greatly. I want to have a lot more places to talk about, things to try, and people to meet.