Judy Crain has been taking an adventure in terms of her career path that’s led her to being the acting regional principal of the College of New Caledonia (CNC) in Quesnel.
She moved to B.C. from Ontario after high school and worked as an accountant, business owner, nurse and logging truck driver among other careers.
“As the acting regional principal I oversee the campus here, so the programs supporting the staff, the programming, faculty, students. A large array of different things.” She said
Crain feels like CNC is truly connected to the community in Quesnel. She says prioritizing building and keeping relationships with everyone in community from businesses, to Indigenous communities, to simply individuals in the community is a huge priority for her at CNC.
She’s been a resident of Quesnel since the 80s and completed her healthcare assistant certificate and nursing degree at CNC, she also holds a Master’s degree in adult education.
“From a young girl I had always wanted to be a nurse and the opportunity had just never, ever come forward,” Crain said. “The HCA (healthcare assistant) program and the nursing program you could take them here in your hometown, if that had not been here I would never have been able to return to get my further education.”
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She enjoys teaching and passing on the amazing mentorship she said she received as a student. While in her role as acting principal she doesn’t get to teach as much, she misses it and enjoys hearing from her former students.
“Seeing the growth, both personal and professional really is an important piece for me and I think that’s the reward I receive around instructing students. Seeing their growth and their potential,” she said. “We’ll get letters from students who have gone further up north and they’ll talk about all the wonderful things they’ve experienced and how they would never have been able to do that without all the support and learning they had in our program.”
While Crain was taking classes at CNC she was also working and raising a family.
“I look back on that and I don’t know how I did that,” Crain said. Pushing through all of that herself, however, has given Crain an understanding of how to help her students get through their hard times.
“If I say it was easy, that’s not being truthful,” she said. “The doors opened so wide for opportunity and I will never, never regret doing my education.”
Crain was headed to Princeton in 1975 to work as a truck operator in the mines there, but she instead wound up in the Cariboo to drive logging trucks. She said that the “traditional” jobs women were in at the time didn’t pay enough to make a real living and she was always interested in equipment.
“In the days when I did drive I had to find someone who had logging trucks that would take a chance on having female drivers. At that time there was just one, maybe two, in town,” Crain said. “Long hours working in that industry but I will say I saw the most beautiful sunrises.”
Some of Crain’s hobbies include collecting antiques and placer mining, which is hunting for gold in deposits of sand and gravel in rivers.
“We have own placer mine and we go out and run the equipment,” she said. “It’s a very fine art trying to come up with the yellow gold,” said said about placer mining.
Crain is currently collecting uranium glass which is glass with a small amount of the radioactive element added to it for colouring.
“A lot of it has come from the Depression era so finding a unique piece is pretty exciting.”
Crain feels supported by Quesnel, and says it has always been a place where she could grow, learn and raise her family. She says that the community has always helped her achieve her goals.
“I just feel like it has given me a sense of belonging.” She said.