10C’s 2024 Summer Employees

This year 10C had an amazing group of Summer Employee’s through the Canada Summer Jobs Program. Natalia, Graham, Anisa and Kat have been incredible additions to the 10C team this summer. Collectively they have supported with ongoing member engagement, helped launch the new Nourish Café, supported with the Guelph Farmers’ Market building activation, gave the 10C Brand an update and filled many important roles in 10C’s projects and programs.

Canada Summer Jobs is a program under the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy, which aims to provide flexible and holistic services to help all young Canadians develop the skills and gain paid work experience to successfully transition into the labour market. 10C is grateful for the support from the Government of Canada in providing opportunities for youth in our community and at 10C.

Graham

Graham creates designs to draw people into 10C’s fun, inviting, and engaging space. Plus, collaborating with others who are enacting change, and working together to build community. One of Graham’s dreams would be pointing to things that are recognized and known within the community and being able to say “I did that! I worked on that!”.

Graham has shaped their love of designing for change and for people after working on a mapping product, to support wayfinding and accessibility.

Outside of 10C, Graham loves to cook, bake, and sew. They run a small art business upcycling old textiles into new garments. They also love experimenting with film and digital photography, and shooting portraits of friends.

Anisa

Anisa has lived in Guelph her whole life and has cultivated a background in farming and customer service. Her experience spans from tending to crops, harvesting, and selling at markets, demonstrating her knowledge of market dynamics and practices. With roles encompassing customer service, administrative duties, management and working with children, Anisa brings a diverse skill set to her current role at 10C and the Guelph Farmers’ Market.

Outside of work, Anisa can often be found socializing with friends and family, relaxing at downtown patios, or exploring new destinations through travel. She has a passion for immersing herself in diverse cultures, savouring new culinary experiences, and discovering the unique qualities of different countries. Anisa particularly appreciates the rich diversity of backgrounds and values at 10C and Guelph Farmers’ Market.

Kat

With a background in mathematics and creative writing, Kat loves creatively approaching problem solving, and all aspects of storytelling. This role is exciting because it allows her to work closely with 10C members, learn about their inspiring work, and explore engaging ways to document and share their stories. Kat has writing and design experience from creating educational graphics for a tutoring company.

Born in Serbia, Kat immigrated to so-called Canada when she was very young. She strives to be constantly mindful of her place on this land, knowing that community building requires fostering meaningful and diverse relationships, challenging the current systems in place, and understanding the importance of land back. Kat began at 10C in November 2023 as a Host Desk volunteer, and since then has been continuously inspired by 10C’s commitment to cultivating energizing, accessible and inclusive community spaces. Beyond this role, Kat hopes to bring forward these values to future projects and endeavors. Her goals involve exploring further education in sustainability and environmental stewardship, while continuing to strengthen her storytelling abilities.

You can find Kat in the first floor gallery or second floor library, typically working alongside the other CSJ’s and probably drinking too much coffee.

When not at 10C, Kat enjoys experimenting with different visual art forms, taking film photos, watching movies (she’s currently pre-screening for this year’s Guelph Film Festival!), and going on nature walks with friends.

Natalia

Originally from Chile and coming from a small town surrounded by crops, Natalia grew up mostly raised by her grandparents, crafty people who taught her farming, sewing, building, and fixing things along with a deep respect for nature and its process and time.

While studying design and working at two very different places with a design and sustainability focus —a wood workshop and a boutique hotel—she found herself comfortable working with people to find solutions to daily problems caused by the lack of communications between different departments and customer service. This led her to the creation of Planta Libre, a crafts school where artisans and designers meet, blend, share, and learn techniques beyond the traditional academic setting, mixing the old knowledge with the new technologies.

This journey led her to pursue and obtain a scholarship to study User Experience Design, which she completed less than a year ago.

10C is a space that invites her to create great things just by walking through it. Working and seeing this growing community is inspiring in many ways. She often reflects on how she imagines Planta Libre would be if she had enough time and experience to make it grow, which helps her focus on learning and understanding how SDG practices must be the right way to do things today and always.

In her free time, you can find her teaching yoga classes or making mixed media art with her kids.