Why we opened an immigration firm plus intercultural training consultancy.

After finishing my Master’s Degree, I landed a job as Director of International Education at Northern Lights College. It was literally my dream job as I was stretching myself in the process of learning administration and I was serving the higher goal of peacemaking. (Serendipitously, the main campus was located in the Peace region, really!) This is where I met another mentor who would change my life forever – Josie Jiang. We found that when we worked together, what we could produce was more than the sum of what each of us could produce independently. 

And, we shared a deep passion for intercultural work. We began weaving intercultural theory into all aspects of our work, co-presenting, co-facilitating, and co-creating an enterprise that would come to be called JJ Intercultural Consulting Inc. (JJiC). Together, we support organizations and students through the internationalization process by facilitating the learning process.

I relocated back to my hometown and continued managing international recruitment and services at Sault College. There was a lot of value in seeing the internationalization process roll out in two separate public colleges. The institutions’ struggles were parallel: rapid increase in international enrolment strained the staff and faculty while students presented unique needs that the institutions had not yet learned to fully meet. The students and the institution were both under high degrees of new pressure yet there were few resources dedicated to what I believed was a critical underlying dynamic – cultural difference. I also observed a gap in the services available in the community to support international students and immigrants; Sault Ste. Marie did not have a single immigration firm providing the legal support needed in complex immigration situations.

This article was composed during the launch phase of the website for these two sister companies – shared site, shared message. I write with the satisfaction that all of our past experiences have prepared us for the brilliant work we are doing now and for the feeling of supporting and being supported. I am elevated with the confidence that we three have joined together with a clear and unified vision of the service we are bringing to the world. I have peace in my heart.