Halley Toth
BA (Hons) '09
Halley Toth, student services coordinator and academic advisor at La Cité, works in an environment that is very familiar to her: she completed her studies here just a few years ago.
A graduate of Campbell Collegiate in Regina, Halley studied in the immersion program and international baccalaureate program before beginning pre-veterinary sciences at the University of Regina in 2004. A year later, she contemplated a future in which she’d work with young people rather than animals, and enrolled in the Bac program.
While in the Bac program, she spent eight months at Laval University and two weeks in France in the very first FRN 390 class offered by the Francophone and Intercultural Studies program. When she returned, she developed a particular interest in translation and decided to change her major one last time in order to enrol in the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) program with a major in French.
I like to study languages and being bilingual offers me more career opportunities.
Upon completing her studies, Halley didn’t have to travel very far to get her first job: she became administrative assistant at the Institut français (today La Cité), a position designated bilingual which therefore included a salary premium. She would have the same luck with her next job in the Official Languages department of the RCMP.
Being able to speak both official languages allows us to get more jobs, and ones that sometimes pay more than unilingual positions.
When she moved to Estevan, SK, Halley began her master’s in French at the University of Regina in order to continue practicing her French.
Returning to Regina five years later, she came back to her former position as administrative assistant at La Cité before being hired at the Student Services Centre, thus coming full circle in her work life.
Halley attributes a major part of her professional success to knowing French and being bilingual. She points out that she is proof that French studies are an advantage in the labour market and that a variety of bilingual positions are available even in Saskatchewan.
