Mom and son find direction and belonging at Georgian 27 years apart
Nov. 13, 2024
Little did Jill Esmonde know, 27 years after she walked into Georgian College looking for a new chapter and a place of belonging, her son would do the same.
The curriculum advisor graduated high school in the late 1990s feeling “quite lost.”
“I didn’t really enjoy school, and I wasn’t a very good student. I moved away from home when I was 17, and I didn’t have plans to attend postsecondary, but after a year of working as a server and bartender I realized I wanted more,” she says. “I actually walked into the Registrar’s Office at Georgian and asked, ‘What program can I enroll in?’”
Not yet knowing what career she wanted, Jill took a General Arts and Science program.
“For the first time in my life as a student, I felt like I could be successful. I had teachers who saw me and saw my potential,” she says.
Finding direction after experiencing high school during COVID-19 pandemic
Years later, Jill saw her son, Liam Moore, also struggling to find direction after high school.
“The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted Liam and my daughter Alexa’s high school experiences. Like so many young people, they really struggled,” she says, adding Liam “just wasn’t ready” for postsecondary after graduation.
Similar to his mom, Liam took a year off to work and ended up trying out a couple Georgian programs before eventually landing on Fitness and Health Promotion.
The last four years have felt like an entire lifetime – from going to high school in 2020 during the pandemic and not being able to see anyone and experiencing that really hard time, to then come out the other side and be with people more than ever. It feels like a real transformation. I had been wondering what I was going to do for a career for a really long time, and so to finally have it all click feels really good.
Discovering a program he’s excited about is the icing on the cake.
“I have a real passion for the gym and fitness and being a positive influence on people. Over the past few years, I’ve been bringing a lot of friends to the gym and training them just for fun, and someone offered to pay me, and it just clicked that I should be a personal trainer,” he says.
Liam says he has also found a “very supportive environment” at Georgian, with organized professors and supportive classmates who have made all the difference to his experience.
When his mom studied at Georgian, she also found a mentor and friend in one of her professors, Dale Lovering, who is now retired.
Eventually, Jill transferred to another school to do an honours bachelor’s degree in psychology, but she says the team at Georgian was always there for support.
“I kept in touch with Dale the whole time, and one time I needed help with some technical skills, and somebody from Georgian’s Media Services helped me figure it out even though I was no longer a student there,” she says.
Jill teaches in same program that ‘mentored’ her
After graduation, Jill found herself at another crossroads and Dale suggested teaching.
So, she returned to Georgian and taught a few general education and psychology classes – along with a course in a General Arts and Science program.
“It gave me the opportunity to be a teacher in the program that had mentored me to where I was at that point. I had experienced so much support and care and people seeing potential in me and nurturing me along,” she says. “And once I started teaching, I realized, ‘This is what I want to do.’”
The year she started teaching at Georgian was also the year she had Liam.
He’s been at Georgian since before he was born. When I was pregnant, I remember showing a recording of my ultrasound to a class about developmental psychology. I also remember apologizing to students for Liam’s scribbles being on their papers. I love knowing he’s walking around now in a place that has been so important and meaningful to me and has always been a part of his life.
Liam calls his connection to Georgian “destiny” and says he was “bound to study here” near his mom.
“I’ll see her in the halls every once in a while, and all my teachers know who my mom is,” he says. “She’s not always on campus, but one day when I forgot my coffee at home, she brought it for me, so that was really nice.”
Next up for Liam is finishing his two-year program with a goal to start his own business and help people.
“I want to make sure that whatever I go into, I can grow and that there’s no ceiling to what I can do,” he says.
‘You just don’t know where you’re going to end up’
For Jill, she went on to get her master’s degree in education and a degree in sociology and equity studies in education. She also helped develop the new Justice, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging program.
At Georgian, I found different ways of expanding my ideas about who I am, what I’m capable of, what I’m here to do, and how to contribute in a meaningful way, not only to Georgian but to the world.
“I’ve grown up at Georgian. I’ve learned that not every career or personal development path is straight. I’ve been a college teacher for 24 years, but I hated school as a kid. I didn’t think I was smart enough to go to college, let alone teach.
“You just don’t know where you’re going to end up sometimes.”