Owen, our Executive Director, has been conducting interviews with former Learning Buddies Network (LBN) volunteers to gather feedback and insights that can help the organization grow. Matan Berson is our latest interviewee, who has been involved with LBN for over ten years. His contributions as a mentor and in recruitment have been extremely valuable to the organization. Currently, Matan is working as a digital product designer and user experience designer at a tech company in Toronto.

Thank you for sharing your advice and experiences with us, Matan!

Owen: Ok, so tell me a little bit about yourself. What was your involvement in [the] Learning Buddies Network?

Matan: Yeah, so I was involved with Learning Buddies, I believe around 2010, 2011, [and] 2012. I started [as] an older buddy helping with reading down [at Sunset Community Center]. And after a couple semesters, I [switched to recruitment and coordination]. For recruitment, [my job was] finding other tutors from around the schools advertising with them, and coordinating between the Coordinators. [...]

Owen: That's amazing, so how did you learn about the Learning Buddies Network in the first place?

Matan: That's a great question. It [has been] quite a while. [...] I was, at the time, going to UBC, and I think that I learned about it through somebody coming to one of our classes or at a [networking] event.

Owen: Okay. Amazing! That's so great. If you were volunteering at [that] time, [it would have been] a summer program [when] you started.

Matan: Yes. When I was coordinating, it was a summer program. My first time [joining LBN] was [tutoring] after school during the winter at an ice rink by the Community Center.

Owen: Oh! That was way before I joined the organization. I'm not too sure where that is, but that's really interesting. [...] How was your experience with that, overall? 

Matan: I really like working with kids and helping them. They grow and evolve so fast [that] I need to be there and contribute to that and see that. And when I was there to help [...] my buddy, it was neat to be able to see how they progressed with reading and see their confidence grow. That inspired me to stay. I saw the merit behind the program and the Coordinator that I had at the time. [...] She was really a great person—Alisa as well—and the people that I met in the program were so great that I wanted to continue to contribute and work with them.

Owen: That's amazing! [...] Such a great journey, thank you! Along the same lines, what was your most memorable experience from Learning Buddies Network?

Matan: I have to say one of them is [...] seeing my first buddy progress in how they’re reading and their confidence in reading. You [see the] change [in] a pretty rapid way, [which] was really rewarding. Another part [is that I] enjoyed working as a coordinator: [...] when we were recruiting for different older buddies to partake in [the programs], meeting different people who are also interested, joining and helping out, and coordinating with Serge—who is the other coordinator that I worked with. That was very fun.

Owen: Yeah. Serge! I remember meeting him at training sessions [when I organized the] committee meetings. He would [be] so wonderful and so lovely. Wow, it’s amazing that you got to work with him. I would also be really inspired by seeing the direct impact you have on a child. I think not a lot of volunteering opportunities give you that experience, right? Where you [can] actually see how much you get [to] impact another person's life through your volunteer work. 

Matan: Yeah, absolutely!

Owen: That’s incredible. Amazing! So what are you doing nowadays? Where [are] you in your education or your career?

Matan: I'm working as a digital product designer and user experience designer at a tech company in Toronto. We’re helping scientists design better experiments and get life-saving medicine to patients faster by designing software that will help them with their research. The path to get there was convoluted. I think when I was in LBN, I was a little bit more interested in going into medicine, but then diverted more into medical illustration—doing illustrations and design and animation all within the realm of teaching biology, medicine, and science. I moved to Toronto to do my master's [degree]. While I was doing that, I ended up focusing a bit more on interaction design, like app design. And that's where I ended up in the kind of company that I'm at now.

Owen: That's amazing, but you're still very much involved in the healthcare delivery process, right?

Matan: Yeah, absolutely. They currently focus a little bit more on the early drug discovery part, when people are doing initial preclinical research. But still very much biology and physiology, and all that stuff.

Owen: That is so cool. If you don't mind me asking this, going a little bit away from the questions you had prepared, but could you tell me a little bit about what the day-to-day life of your job looks like?

Matan: Every day is quite different. There's a lot of project management because we have a few different products and projects. Each product involves our end users, [who are] scientists within academia and [from] pharma companies. [We need some] understanding of them: some of the struggles that they're going through as they're trying to design experiments, whether it's the types of regions they use, the ingredients that they might use, or the process that they take. And [they] try to understand where our technology and our product fit into that. [It’s a] lot of speaking to scientists. 

I'm working with our technical teams. We have data teams, development teams, and science teams in our company that we work with. [...] [We design] solutions for those problems—so thinking about what we could be doing to solve those problems with our technology. [There are many] brainstorming sessions or creating prototypes [for] things you can click on [to see] what the final product is, which is a website or web app. And then testing those prototypes with scientists as well. Every day can be very different and it can [go] a lot of different ways. 

Owen: Wow! That sounds so exciting! I feel like you just get to interact with so many different types of people. 

Matan: Yeah, absolutely! 

Owen: Disciplinary line of work. That's remarkable, really! 

Matan: Yeah, the coolest thing is [that] by being in design, you end up being able to touch pretty much all aspects of the company.

Owen: Wow, that's amazing! Thank you so much for sharing that. I'm sure volunteers would be happy to hear about the experience and knowledge about something that people can go into. They really appreciate that. Next question is, how do you think Learning Buddies Network has helped prepare you for your career?

Matan: Interesting question. Because, on the surface, it might seem like there isn't something that directly translates between you tutoring a kid to working in [...] product design and tech with scientists. But I think that Learning Buddies gave me a really good opportunity to speak [about] more things that I wasn't really exposed to in my degree. One of them being having a different framework of teaching or even learning a framework for teaching a kid—the steps of going through [that] process, and being able to communicate. Needing to communicate with kids and parents is very different than what you're doing in your school. Therefore, it's building your communication skills in [being able to] work with a more diverse set of people.

Talking about diversity, people come from [different places]. The kids [at LBN] that we spoke and worked with came from a different cultural backgrounds. [These experiences] also exposed us to more people who might be coming from a different background from us. It helps you better prepare for the “real world” where, [for example,] I'm currently working with people from tons of different cultures [with] tons of different disciplines. So being exposed [to that] was really helpful.

And I think that as a Coordinator, [...] it [was different] from when you're in school [where] you just focus on your own timetable for the most part and you [don’t need to coordinate] other people's workouts and schedules. When I was doing the recruitment [for LBN], there was a lot of this coordination between all the =Coordinators, buddies, and the teachers. [I was] also working with my partner, Serge, at the time. That also required a lot of communication, collaboration, and project management, which I didn't have too much exposure to back then. And honestly, I do a lot of that nowadays in my current job. 

Owen: Wow! That is so, so, amazing to hear! It makes me really happy to see that it is actually applicable in the real world in a career. I found that even as a Coordinator, myself, I was in a leadership position while I was learning so much just from being thrown into that position. Having no experience going into that and just being thrown into that position forces you to learn on the spot.

Matan: Yeah, absolutely! Exposes you to much more.

Owen: It really does. Yeah, I'm really glad that you got that. It is a big [impact] that you're able to use that in your current kind of work. Amazing! Thank you for sharing! [...] My last question here is, what advice would you have for current Learning Buddies Network volunteers?

Matan: I would say to expose yourself to as much as you can. If you see things that you particularly enjoy, try and pursue that further. [For example,] when you're volunteering, if you do find that you're enjoying spending more time with the kids, [...] I would encourage someone to spend more time doing that as opposed to jumping straight into the Coordinator role. Because then, you are removed from that [enjoyable] aspect. But then another aspect is, [...] becoming a coordinator can expose you to a lot of things. So I think that's also something that could be helpful. So I'd also encourage people to do that as well. [Laugh]

Owen: Totally fair enough. It depends on where your passions lie, right? If you really find working with kids to be something you're passionate about, I would offer the same advice. Maybe hold off on becoming a Program Coordinator because it's not that direct. Retain the one-on-one impact you have with the child. But then if you do want leadership experience, go towards a Coordinator position. Because then you'll be thrown into it and do something that you'll have to learn on the spot. 

Matan: Yeah, definitely! And I think another one is that I'm sure LBN’s community is growing. And there's always [many] new needs coming up as [the organization is] growing. And if people are keen and interested, they could find out what those [positions] are, right? 

Owen: Exactly! 

Matan: And choose to help if the need aligns with their desires and what they want and where they want to grow. [...] There are [many] defined roles like buddies, the tutors, and the coordinators. [...] I'd also advise people to see that or think about where there is an opportunity for growth for LBN and for themselves, and where they could be potentially adding more value as well.

Owen: I completely agree! That is a such good advice! Thank you, Matan! If you’re a volunteer watching this recording, definitely feel free to reach out to me and we can try to make those things happen. But that's exactly it. [...] We do have tons of opportunities [at the] Learning Buddies Network that people can sign up for, or if it's something that aligns with their interests. 

Amazing! Thank you so much for this interview. It is lovely talking to you and getting to meet you and a lot of advice you offered for our volunteers.

Matan: Yeah, I'm happy to share and if there's anything more I can help with, please let me know.