23 Nov November Feature Facilitator – Ms. Rina Chua

Our November feature facilitator is none other than Ms. Rina Chua who always has a friendly smile for her students. Ms. Chua has been at Xspace since 2017 and is also currently completing her PhD at the University of British Columbia so she has plenty of experience working with students of various ages! 

 Born in Manila, Philippines, Ms. Chua grew up surrounded by animals and tropical weather. Like many of our students here at Xspace, Ms. Chua moved to Canada several years ago as an international student to study at UBC. She is one year away from finishing her PhD! 

Ms. Rina Chua

As an online facilitator and student, technology has been a big part of Ms. Chua’s learning. She claims to be “a slave to Apple products” so all her devices are synched so that she can easily access notes from one device to another in case I have an eureka moment for her dissertation. She also appreciates the accessibility and flexibility that technology brings such as being able to access thousands of e-books instead of having to carry around heavy hard copy books. 

Ms. Chua enjoys working at Xspace because of the people here – both students and the staff. One of the best things about facilitating online is the flexibility as she does travel constantly for her studies. She has been able to have class in cafes, at a university gym and in her office, just to name a few!  

Reflecting on her experiences with Xspace students, Ms. Chua is constantly amazed at the resilience shown by her students as it is not an easy feat to take online courses. Students need to learn to adapt and pace themselves, and chip away at their assignments bit by bit, as well as to persevere in order to succeed in their studies.  

Words of advice to students taking online courses:

“Do your homework every single day because online courses have a lot of assignments and they easily pile up. If you miss out on one deadline, you will be rushing to get everything in by the holiday break! If you are on top of your homework, then there’s less pressure on you and you can perform better (meaning get better marks as well!).  

Finally, we asked Ms. Chua 3 random questions:

If you could have a super power, what would it be? 

• I would like to be able to fly anywhere and to speak all languages – even dead ones!  

What is one food you cannot live without? 

• I can’t live without tofu (I’m vegetarian). I always have frozen firm tofu in my fridge! (Pro Tip: Freeze tofu before cooking/marinating. It absorbs flavours better).  

One more random fact about you:

• I have a black hamster named Ursula. I rescued her from a pet store three years ago, and she’s the most vocal little hammy ever. 

Written by: Karen Chu