Profile, what an interesting word, in its own right. The word profile has many meanings. A picture of someone’s face from the side, a social media page with basic information about someone, the act of keeping a low profile. The type of profile we’ll explore today is one that tells a story. One that lets you know more about a person and that person is, Sandra Clive.
How do I know her you ask? Sandra Clive was my high school fashion teacher, yes, I studied fashion in high school, but let’s not get distracted from our main subject. I knew her as Ms.Clive, my kind fashion teacher who wore a cardigan practically 24/7. She encouraged us to explore and be creative when it came to fashion and I’m so glad I had her in high school. Today, I was able to dive deeper and discover more about her and how she got into fashion and teaching in the school board, plus some tidbits of her education journey as well as some advice she has for students.
Let’s visualize something here for a minute to start us off. We have young Sandra Clive running in a field of grass giggling like the little child she is. Now this Sandra Clive dreams not of teaching fabric construction, drafting, using a sewing machine, in fact, she doesn’t dream of teaching at all, at least not now. Little miss Sandra has a horse that she tends to and loves ever so much. This love was powerful enough to spark a flame, a desire to care for animals! She dreamt of being a veterinarian and looking after animals just as she looked after her own horse. While this was her dream her parents dreamt of her becoming a teacher just like most of the family had. Sandra had no intention of ever becoming a teacher, go figure, but that feeling would change over time.
Throughout her journey, Sandra dreamt of being many things. First, she dreamt of becoming a chef because she loved to cook. Later, her ambition was to design theatre costumes because she loved to sew and design. Fashion became a serious career option when Sandra was 24. She had actually been involved in fashion since she learned to sew at the sprite age of 5. When she was young she made clothes for her dolls and even made wedding dresses for people as a way of making money to care for her horse.
Sandra studied at Ryerson in the Food, Nutrition, Consumer and Family Studies program but also took courses like tailoring and clothing construction that were taught by the fashion department. She had considered studying at the Vancouver International fashion academy and the University of Victoria before choosing Ryerson but none were the right fit.
Throughout her time at Ryerson, she still dreamt of designing theatre costumes but by the end of her program she was more interested in teaching. What added interest to teaching was that some of her friends were also considering it as a career and her future husband whom she met in college was studying to become a teacher. After her program, she worked at the Ryerson International Development Centre doing behind-the-scenes work. The centre worked to develop education systems in countries like Saudi Arabia, China, Indonesia and Columbia.
Now how did Sandra get into teaching in the school board? Well, it was a combination of her own qualifications and being in the right place at the right time! During her time at Ryerson, the Catholic Board came to the college and was scouting for 400 teachers, doing on-the-spot interviews! All the students who qualified signed a provisionary contract that stated, as long as you graduate you will be hired. So of course, Sandra was hired and her first, and last school, was St. Patrick Catholic Secondary which she taught at for 30 years. She loved teaching at St. Patrick and her favourite part was meeting all the students because each had different experiences and backgrounds. Though she enjoyed her education journey she would have loved to study more at being a chef and in the area of anthropology.
Hey fashion students, have you ever considered teaching fashion in a school board? Sandra believes that around 10 to 15 percent of fashion students might consider it as a career option if they took a program geared towards fashion. If students were to take a non-fashion-related program and were to study some fashion courses on the side, she feels there might even be a higher percentage of students who would consider teaching fashion in a school board because the career options would not be overly design-focused.
If you are one of the small percentage of people with this interest, then here are some suggestions from Sandra. First, you need a 4-year college or university degree and a 2-year teachers college degree. Second, you need to know if you can work with kids and which age group you enjoy working with the most. Third, patience is key! Last but not least, you really need to enjoy working with kids if you’re going to put in the time and education. She also believes that keeping an open mind is important since there are so many opportunities in the world. For example, some of her friends have started online businesses and have been really successful. Years ago she never would have imagined such an entrepreneurial opportunity. She highly suggests students be open to the idea of an online business.
Sandra recently retired in 2019, just before the pandemic hit. She has enjoyed retirement even with everything that has happened. She has been knitting, quilting, doing needlework and sewing things such as nightgowns, underwear and jeans! A bonus to retirement and pandemic life has been spending time with her dog and sons as they are in university but at home so they add sweetness to her days!
Profile, what an interesting word, in its own right.
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