Alumni Feature: Zoe Dhillon
The Argus’ Orillia team has always been on the small side. During the 2018/2019 school year, the Argus Orillia team had two staff members— Zoe Dhillon and Emily Macdonald. Zoe was the Editor responsible for notable articles such as “Fakehead”, which she notes was her favourite piece to be involved in. It was her first big story made by the Orillia team that year, and took up space on the front page of the printed issues, as well as our old website. Zoe was one of the few members of the Argus who only stayed for a single year.
L to R: Zoe Dhillion and current Orillia Bureau Chief Emily MacDonald back in 2018/2019
While her time at the Argus was short, she made the most of it by editing and writing pieces she loved. A fun piece that she looked back on is “Featured Faces”, which took a look at the thoughts and lives of people around campus—specifically, of staff or club presidents. One article idea that didn’t make it to publication was “Overheard at Lakehead” which was an article about the gossip stirring around campus. We published a few small quotations in some print issues, but the idea for a whole piece never fully took off. Some Argus members felt concerned about the ethics of sharing gossip on our platform, Zoe notes.
Zoe graduated with Honours in English and was valedictorian of her 2019 class. Her time at the Argus may have been brief, but her time at Lakehead was not. Zoe worked many different jobs during her degree, including not only her position at the Argus, but also roles at E-campus as a project designer, a position as research assistant and working as a writing coach for both Georgian College and Lakehead University. She was always seen on campus, participating in many extracurricular activities on top of a full course load and also working.
Zoe's time at Lakehead brought her many memories, but one aspect of her career here that still stands out to her today is having taken classes with Linda Rodgenberg, which she felt drove her to where she is now. She kept this connection as she moved forward into more post-secondary studies. After LU, life was very different but she felt properly prepared for her next steps, which she took at York University. In pursuing her Master's in English there, she felt better prepared than her new classmates, crediting Lakehead for the supportive depth of knowledge she obtained in her undergraduate studies. After graduating from York, Zoe changed paths and went to Georgian College for a Human Resources Post-Grad. She is now a recruitment advisor for Deloitte, and leads the process for formulating different portfolios. She started the position as a co-op student, has since been promoted and is now working in her dream job.
Zoe feels taking more courses outside of English would have benefited her in many ways, but remembers that she remained focused on her goal of pursing a Master’s in English, which didn’t leave much room for other subjects. She describes her time at Lakehead as “a joy”. Zoe always felt as though her degree in English from LU has benefited her in her current role even though she did not stay within her field or her original plan.
When asked if she wanted to say anything to current and future students she replied: “Lakehead was a great place to be and when you're there you might not see it but you will afterwards, it hits you that Lakehead brought so many good things just from being there.” Going on, she noted “The experience was worth everything.”
Zoe has been to four post-secondary instructions and still considers Lakehead to be her favourite, because of small class sizes and because the opportunities were like none other.