Values + Volunteering: The Experience That Kick-Started My Career

There's a moment in most of our lives when we do something, almost by accident, that ends up shaping everything that comes after. For me, that moment happened in my last year of high school.

It was a co-op class. We each had to choose a volunteer placement for four months. Most of my classmates chose to work with kids in classrooms. I was the only one who signed up to work with seniors at a local retirement home.

I wasn't trying to be different. I just knew, in my bones, that this was where I was supposed to be.

Where It Started: My Sittee and Giddee

My love for older people didn't come out of nowhere. It came from my grandparents.

My Giddee (grandfather) + Sittee (grandmother), my Lebanese grandparents on my father's side, were a huge presence in my life growing up. We lived only an hour apart, close enough to feel genuinely connected across the years. They were warm, storytelling, life-full people, the kind of grandparents who made you feel like the most important person in the room.

Later in my high school years, after my Sittee passed away, my Giddee came to live with us for a couple of years. Having him in our home, in our daily life, was a gift I didn't fully understand at the time. But looking back, I can see how those years shaped something deep in me, a genuine love and reverence for older people, for their stories, their wisdom, and their company.

So when it came time to choose a co-op placement, the retirement home felt less like a choice and more like a calling.

Falling in Love with the Work

I had no idea what to expect walking in on my first day. What I found was a community full of fascinating, complex, funny, warm, and deeply interesting human beings who had entire lifetimes of experience to share, if someone would just pull up a chair and listen.

And I loved every minute of it.

I organized socials and activities. I facilitated tea time. I helped get residents settled for meals. I learned names and stories and preferences. I heard about careers and love stories, adventures and hardships, decades of living that most people never slow down long enough to ask about.

It wasn't just volunteering. It was one of the most meaningful things I had ever done. And it felt effortless in the way that things feel effortless when they align perfectly with who you are.

What Volunteering Gave Me

That co-op placement did something I didn't expect. It didn't just confirm that I loved working with seniors. It launched everything.

Then, before I even started university, the retirement home offered me a full-time summer job. I said yes without hesitation.

I went on to complete two degrees at McMaster University in Sociology and Gerontology, fields that made complete sense given where my heart already was. And when I graduated, it was that early volunteer experience, those four months in co-op, combined with the job that followed, that helped me land my first professional role at The Alzheimer Society.

Three years later, I was recruited to join a newly created Alzheimer Dedicated Field Force at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, which gave me an entirely different lens on the field of gerontology. Working on the pharmaceutical side opened my eyes to the broader landscape of dementia care, research, and the systems that support both patients and caregivers. It was a perspective I never would have gained had I not said yes to that co-op placement years earlier.

Although I haven't worked directly in this field for some time, I find myself drawn back to it in new ways. Which is why I now offer workshops to teams in retirement homes, and have created curated collage kits specifically designed for Recreation and Wellness departments to bring to their residents.

Collaging is more than a creative activity. For seniors, it's a way to engage memory, spark conversation, and stimulate the mind in a gentle, joyful way. Choosing images, making decisions about colour and composition, and telling the story of what you've created, all of this activates cognitive pathways in a way that feels like play rather than therapy. It reconnects people to their own sense of self, their memories, and their creativity, often in ways that surprise even them.

Values Show Up Before We Name Them

Here's what I know now that I didn't fully understand then. I was living my values long before I had language for them.

Creativity. Community. Connection.

These weren't words I would have used at seventeen. But they were exactly what I was practicing every time I organized an activity, sat down for tea with a resident, learned someone's name, or stayed a little longer to hear the end of a story.

Volunteering has a way of doing that. It puts you in a space where your values aren't just things you believe. They become things you do. And in the doing, they get stronger, clearer, and more yours.

Values and Volunteering: This Year's World Values Day Theme

World Values Day 2026 falls on Thursday, October 15th, and this year's theme is Values and Volunteering. It couldn't feel more personal.

It's hard to separate my values from my volunteer experiences because one shaped the other. The retirement home didn't just give me my first significant  job. It gave me a sense of purpose, a connection to community, and a creativity that came alive every time I planned an activity or pulled up a chair to listen to someone's story. Volunteering is where my values stopped being abstract and started becoming real.

This October, I'd love for you to ask yourself: Where are you volunteering your values? And if you're not yet, what's one small step that could get you started?

Ready to get involved with World Values Day? Here's how:

World Values Day is Thursday, October 15th, 2026. Head to worldvaluesday.com to explore all the ways you can participate, including:

The "I Value" Template: A simple, shareable template where you fill in your core value and what it inspires you to do, perfect for posting on social media leading up to WVD or on October 15th. Click here

The Valuesthon: A free, all-day online global festival of values spanning time zones across Asia, Australasia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, where you can join live sessions, connect with a global community, and explore what it means to live your values every day. Click here

Use the hashtag #WorldValuesDay to join the global conversation and share how you're putting your values into action.

Janic 💜