Kwantlen Human Resources Association is revived at KPU
The non-profit club is currently looking for students to join
Joey Victorino (left) and Sukhman Phangura (right) helped revive the Kwantlen Human Resources Association to connect students with human resource professionals. (Submitted/Keet Kailey)
The Kwantlen Human Resources Association (KHRA) is a non-profit, faculty-guided club with an aim to connect students with human resource professionals. The club is currently being revived after a decline in membership due to the pandemic and looking for students.
The club acts as a central body by functioning as a place for human resource management students to connect through events and programs while aiming to help them manage school life.
“We’re trying to give support to these HRMT students, including myself, to give them a community where they can connect, where they can get top of the progress that can help them with their career,” says Joey Victorino, KHRA president.
To make the faculty more involved in understanding the needs of every student, the club is faculty-guided. The faculty involved do not have a final say in the club’s decisions but act as an advisory body, most of them being industry professionals in human resources.
“We look to our faculty as a way of getting feedback, a way of getting ideas on what would probably be the best course of action for those things,” Victorino says.
The club plans to create a virtual library providing different frameworks and human resource tools that can help students in their academics. The club also aims to create a network and community for the students where they can connect with other students, alumni, industry professionals, chartered professionals in human resources, and faculty.
“We hope to help out with, for example, programs from actual industry professionals who are recruiters, who are in talent acquisition, … and we hope to give more insight to our students about getting that career going,” Victorino says.
The club plans to organize two to three events before the summer semester, such as a general assembly with the purpose of bringing volunteers and members together as well as alumni conferences throughout the semester.
Sukhman Phangura, the club’s vice president, reached out to Victorino who was in the process of reviving the club along with two faculty members, with the goal of reaching out to business students to consider human resources as a possible area of interest.
“I think the club definitely brings an aspect of excitement and joy about the topic of HR … towards the community,” Phangura says.
The club is planning to hold their first meeting before Feb. 20. They are also looking for members to form a student body.
“I think a lot of people don’t know what HR is and they don’t know how many great career opportunities can come out of it,” Phangura says.
Students can participate and volunteer for positions in the club by filling out their registration form.
