Our Executive Director, Owen, has been interviewing former volunteers of the Learning Buddies Network (LBN) to hear about their wonderful ideas and contributions to the organization. Sergiu Floarea, who has been with Learning Buddies for about 10 years, is the most recent person to be interviewed. Sergiu has been deeply involved in the organization through his mentoring and recruitment efforts, and is now currently working as a pharmacist.

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

Owen: Hi Serge, thanks for joining us for this interview. 

Sergiu: Thank you for having me. 

Owen: Can I get you to start by just introducing yourself with your name and with your past involvement with the Learning Buddies Network? 

Sergiu: Well, my name is Sergiu Floarea. I’ve been with Learning Buddies in a lot of different capacities for about 10 years. I started originally in Grade 11 as a volunteer tutor. Then, I moved up through the ranks; I was a Coordinator for a few years and an assistant manager for a bit. And then, I was a support member, as well. So I’ve seen the organization from a lot of different levels and was exposed to the inner workings of it, as well as the front lines. I got to appreciate all the great work you did from many different viewpoints. 

Owen: That’s incredible! You’ve gone through the ranks of pretty much every single position in this organization. That’s an amazing experience, wow! Can I ask you how is it like progressing through the ranks in the Learning Buddies Network? 

Sergiu: In terms of difficulty, it is very easy. They’re always—at least when I was working—looking to promote and help foster future leaders. There are lots of opportunities to be more involved, take on more responsibility, [and] to try out new things. There were always people that tried to push and encourage and support in any way possible when somebody wanted to develop. So I found it very easy to move up and try new things, and try a lot of different hats and see what worked. And then within each of my positions, try a lot of different styles of leadership or management to be able to better interact with my team and learn more, get feedback, and improve. It was a great experience, and I think, in terms of what you can get out of it is a lot! 

Owen: I completely agree! There’s so much you can get out of this organization. I’m happy to hear that it was easy to navigate those different steps in Learning Buddies Network. I would definitely echo that and say that at each step of that ladder there are different mentors that you have in the organization who help get you to the next rung of the ladder, and who help you mentor through the role that you're in.  

Sergiu: Yeah. 

Owen: It’s amazing and I think, being in that process myself, right now, I just feel like I have such a big network to turn to for support and it’s just incredible. Amazing, I’m wondering what’s your most memorable experience from Learning Buddies Network if you had to pick one thing. 

Sergiu: That’s a very tough one. If I had to pick just one, I would say that it was my first buddy. It’s a different experience being a tutor than being in charge of people. orking one-on-one with my buddy and seeing them improve and the connection that we built [...] was a great motivator and made me understand the value of this organization. [I] really wanted to keep adding to it and keep letting other people experience the same thing. 

Owen: I completely agree. That is also one of my favorite memories—just meeting my buddy for the first time. I started when I was in Grade 10 and seeing how happy he was to see me was just so, so inspirational! And it was amazing that they trusted Grade 10 mentors to just go into schools and start working with kids, I thought that was unique.

How was your experience as a staff member of the organization? I know when you were assistant manager, it was very different from what the landscape is nowadays. Can you speak on the challenges you faced or what highlights you encountered? 

Sergiu: Well, for highlights, I think I touched upon all the great support and mentorship that I was provided. In terms of challenges, I think the biggest challenge is always adapting. There was a lot of turnover at those points and there were always great ideas coming in and great ideas leaving. And, just being able to figure out where the next step is or what’s the next organic growth for that process or what ideas kind of already reached the end of their lifespan and needed to change over. There was always this idea of constant growth and constant change which made it exciting but also, in terms of predictability, made it a little bit more difficult. But every organization needs to grow and adapt. As I said, it wasn’t that it was a bad time, but [...] there were a lot of changes that you always had to be on top of. 

Owen: That’s really interesting. I’m feeling the same way currently, where there’s a lot of growth in the organization and a lot of different possibilities that we can pursue. I’m wondering when you speak to things like turnover? Was that turnover in the staff team or turnover at the board level? 

Sergiu: Both. A lot of tutor turnover and then Coordinators in other positions, and then a lot of changes in how we approach stuff. The reading manual has gone through a few changes and updates and getting new trainers involved. And then understanding the new curriculum and new procedures we should follow. There are always new innovations [and] new materials. There was an introduction of Raz-Kids—our online component was a big thing and that was very interesting and very fun, but [it] brought its own challenges [which I] needed to learn and adapt to. 

In terms of changes, I think that’s probably the best part of the organization though. It’s always trying to develop new things and new ideas, and because of that, I think it’s able to grow and stay very competitive.

Owen: Thanks Serg. I completely agree. Part of the magic of Learning Buddies Network is listening to feedback from all levels of the organization and having the space to be adaptable and flexible with our approach to meet the needs of our volunteers and our kiddos at the end of the day. I think one example is the online program and how quickly we adapted to that change once COVID hit. That was something I think no other organization could have done in the amount of time that we did it, which I think was quite an amazing accomplishment. And that wouldn’t have been possible without the staff and volunteers here. 

Sergiu: That’s a testament to the great leaders and idea-thinkers that Learning Buddies attracts and is able to help promote and foster. That’s one of the reasons it’s been around for so long and I think it’ll stick around for a lot longer and keep growing and changing and surprising everyone!   

Owen: I love that, thanks Serg! That’s so validating to me, thank you. Wow. Could you also maybe share a little bit about your experience as a board member? What was it like stepping into that role and then seeing things from a different light? 

Sergiu: It’s a different mindset approaching it as a board member than as a volunteer or a coordinator. [As a volunteer], your primary goal is the quality of the education you're providing—the quality of the program. Then, as a board member, you also have to worry about making sure the program is running and what the challenges are to keeping the lights on, as they say. [You] constantly have different ideas within the board and bring in fresh, new ideas. It’s a different mentality because [it’s more] trying to keep everything going, rather than always being focused on the process.

As board members, I think the benefit was that we created an environment that let the volunteers develop, grow, and expand the program. The idea was not so much that we had to always come up with a new idea or a new goal. We were presented these and we were like “Okay, these we think we can best implement. We’ll try these and then we’ll see how more can help with these other ideas, but maybe not prioritize them right this moment.” So, it was more trying to decide where the organization was going, rather than being the initial idea makers. 

Owen: Yeah. That’s such amazing feedback, exactly. You were thinking more so of, I guess strategic planning of the organization rather than the day-to-day operations on the ground. 

Sergiu: Exactly, yeah. 

Owen: Yeah, that’s so interesting.

Sergiu: That’s a much better way of putting it! 

Owen: No, no. Just exactly what you said, that’s amazing. That’s so interesting, I’ve seen that at the board level and I’ve seen how different the mindsets can be. And it’s just remarkable. Thank you for putting in the work to get us where we are today. If it wasn’t for your thought process of planning the organization and making sure the lights were on, like you said, we would not have been able to grow as an organization and that’s quite honestly because of dedicated volunteers on our board of directors who don’t receive any money for the work that they do, but contribute tons of hours as you did yourself, I’m sure of. 

Sergiu: Yeah. 

Owen: Thank you for that. That’s amazing! So segueing into the next part of this interview, could you tell us a bit about where you are now and your career? 

Sergiu: I’m currently a pharmacist for London Drugs and am just a floater, so I go to different pharmacies and I’m learning a lot from all of the locations. 

Owen: That’s amazing. And how do you think Learning Buddies Network and your experiences here have helped prepare you for what you’re doing now? 

Sergiu: Learning Buddies helped me develop a lot of different ideas. First of all, it helped with my communication abilities. Being able to communicate effectively is very important. Especially if you’re communicating with a lot of different levels of healthcare education. Another thing is that it helped with my organizational abilities and leadership abilities. Then also, as we mentioned earlier, [...] I’m able to be more flexible and understanding [when going to different stores]. I think it helped me learn how to step into the roles that needed to be filled instead of trying to make my roles at these other locations which might have created more friction and probably messed up the workflow. 

Owen: That’s incredible! That’s such an interesting perspective, yeah. Being able to be adaptable in a professional setting must be so incredibly important. Amazing that you were able to get that out of the Learning Buddies Network! Could you tell us what the day-to-day of your job looks like? 

Sergiu: It varies quite a bit depending on the location and what is needed that day, but it involves a lot of interacting with patients, other staff members, or with doctors, and then being able to receive the prescriptions, explain what the medications are, or what the instructions are to best help them. And then, communicating with my team to make sure everything is done on time [and done] correctly and [that] nothing is overlooked is very important. And it’s always important to touch-base with doctors to help clarify instructions or medications to make sure everything is safe and effective for the patient. In the end, it’s a lot of communicating with different people and running around, and sometimes [it depends] on what hat you need to wear to get everything done correctly. 

Owen: That’s amazing! Here at Learning Buddies Network we get to work with so many diverse populations with the kids at the buddy level, and then you have the adults at the staff and board level. It must have been such a valuable experience to help you with where you are now and that fine-line work where you have to communicate with so many people on a day-to-day basis. 

Sergiu: Yeah, exactly. 

Owen: Yeah, that’s remarkable. Thank you. And, the last question here is what advice would you have for one of our current Learning Buddies Network volunteers? 

Sergiu: I guess the best advice I could give is never to settle. If there’s something that you want to do or try, bring it up to your supervisors, and be vocal. A lot of the ideas we have, a lot of the best ideas we’ve got from Learning Buddies are people who showed a little bit of initiative and said “Hey, I want to try this.” I think the organization is very adaptable and very supportive. So, try it out and never be afraid of stepping into a position with more responsibilities. There’s plenty of support and plenty of ways that Learning Buddies can help you and the more you put into it, you can get a lot more out of it. 

Owen: That was such amazing advice, thank you. I think as the staff person currently in the organization I would completely echo what you’re saying here. And, also just share how supportive the board of directors is—how supportive they have been throughout my journey here in the organization. Just with every idea I’ve run up, they’ve always been like, “Sure, let’s just try it and see how it goes! If it doesn’t go well, we’ll learn from our mistakes, and if it goes well then we’ll keep it for the rest of the LBN’s history.” So, I think like you were mentioning, that is something unique to our organization. If you’re a volunteer watching this, I think you should take Sergiu’s advice: pursue these new opportunities, don’t be afraid to take on a new leadership position, and be vocal with what you think could be the future of this organization, because at the end of the day it very much well could be the future of the organization. 

Sergiu: Exactly, yeah. 

Owen: Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Serg. I really appreciated this interview and your taking the time out of your day to do this. 

Sergiu: Yeah, thank you for having me and I hope to hear a lot of great things about the future of LBN! 

Owen: Amazing, thank you.