Apr 7, 2017
ARLENE LAMBERT – INSTRUCTOR
Time is at a premium for Arlene Lambert. In addition to working full-time as the Director of Employment and Training with Metis Nation BC, the Hope, BC-born multitasker also has a 20 year-old son who serves in the Canadian Armed Forces. Moreover, as a child growing up on a farm in South Surrey “with more animals around her than most people have socks”, Arlene also organizes an outdoor gathering for owners of dogs with various behavioural issues every second Sunday. She has always made time for anything that was important to her. It’s why Arlene also became an instructor with Langara Continuing Studies.
Arlene teaches various classes in the Professional Bookkeeping Program as well as a finance course for the Real Estate/Property Management Program. It was a conversation with a friend that encouraged her to start teaching at Langara. She had always wanted to pass on her education and industry knowledge. Even while earning her CGA designation, she would tell people she was becoming an accountant so that she could teach. Becoming an instructor fulfilled a life purpose.
”It’s incredibly rewarding to watch people come into the program unsure and nervous then see them complete it with confidence and a sense of accomplishment. There’s no feeling like it,” she says. “I remember one student who told me at the beginning of class that she didn’t think she would ever get her certificate because she was ‘the stupid one of the family.’ It broke my heart, so I told her to prove everyone wrong. She’s now in the CPA program!”
Throughout her teaching career, students have expressed an appreciation for Arlene’s extensive industry experience as well as her personable instructional style. She credits strong business mentors and instructors for inspiring her to become a mentor herself and influencing her style of teaching.
“The courses I enjoyed, flourished in, and remember most are those that had instructors who told stories I could relate to as a student to teach theory,” she recalls. “I will never forget my macroeconomics instructor in the CGA program who said “I have given you notes so you can now listen to me talk” - I remember more from that course than any other course I ever took.”
When asked what she wants her students to learn from her classes, she replies “Why. I want the students to know the ‘why’ of what they do. Often we become mechanical and don’t know the purpose behind the process. I also want the students to learn that there is no perfect way of learning – it’s a journey with multiple paths that are never ending. This program and industry may not be your destination but rather a starting point.”
About Langara
Located in beautiful Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Langara College provides University, Career, and Continuing Studies education to more than 21,000 students annually. With more than 1,700 courses and 130 programs, Langara’s expansive academic breadth and depth allows students of all ages, backgrounds, and life stages to choose their own educational path. Langara is also known as house of teachings, a name given to it by the Musqueam people on whose unceded traditional territory the College is located.
Learn more.
Rolf Savella
Communications Officer
Langara College
604.323.5961
rsavella@langara.ca