A Short Autobiography

Good day fellow students and colleagues! 

My name is Nathan Stevens, and I grew up in the freezing winter winds of Northern Alberta, but always knew I would find my home elsewhere in life. Growing up my parents were both teachers (one was my elementary school principal, the other a college professor), so my brother and I grew up in a knowledge nurturing environment. I absolutely love the outdoors, nature walks, beach days, snowboarding and camping are some of my favorite activities when there’s spare time to be spent. Growing up, we always had the summer months off, and most of that time was spent on road trips together as a family. I lived in a VW van for almost two months every summer, and I loved it! 

After growing up and graduating high school, I completed two years of graphic design and fine arts at the college in my hometown of Grande Prairie Alberta way back in 1999. I then moved to the beautiful, picturesque city of Nelson BC, nestled in the mountains of the West Kootenay. After two years of living in Nelson and learning to blow glass, I decided fine arts wasn’t the field of my dreams, so I returned to Grande Prairie Regional College to study business and marketing. 

After graduation, I decided I wanted to be where the action was and moved to downtown Canada, also known as Toronto. While I did not find a career in marketing, I worked many late nights as a bartender and server.  I enjoyed interacting with people at work, making their experience special and memorable was both rewarding and important to me. It was many years of evenings filled with merriment and laughter, however as the time passed, it began to lose the excitement it once held. I needed a different role with more responsibility to provide me with a much-needed new purpose in my life. 

In 2013 I began to study to become a sommelier so I could elevate myself into restaurant management. After 2 years of study, I graduated with my certificate and found work as a sommelier at a very popular Italian Restaurant in downtown TO. It wasn't long before I was offered a role as a floor manager and thus began my career in restaurant management. I was later hired as the General Manager at a large public house in Toronto's Bloor West Village. 

My new GM position began to provide me with that “life purpose” I was looking for. The learning curve was steep and fast as I was never formally trained as a restaurant manager, learning much through trial and error, books, videos, and many long conversations with other management professionals in my field.  In 2017 I was able to continue working in a management role with a position at a newly opened restaurant in Brooklyn, NY. This position had fewer responsibilities than my earlier role as GM, but then hey... it’s New York, and I was making it!     

After working in NY, I decided to move back to BC to open a place with my brother in Kelowna. The adjustment from NY to Kelowna, in addition to working with a family member for the first time, proved to be far more challenging than I imagined. I decided to make a change to my environment, and in January 2020 I moved back to Nelson BC, where I now call home. Within less than two months of moving, however, the world changed as the global COVID pandemic appeared, having dire effects on the hospitality industry. 

I began once again to look for a change in my profession, as it was proving very difficult to find a role here that best suited my professional growth. 

It was around that time I saw an ad looking for post-secondary hospitality instructors. That’s when the light bulb in my head went off... I could become a teacher! With both my parents being teachers and all my instructors telling me growing up, "You should be a teacher, you’d be good at it!", it seemed like a “no brainer” decision. 

I've been training hospitality team members for many years now and it has always been one of my favorite parts of the job. The learning environment in a formal institution is different from that of a restaurant dining room, but I’ve always enjoyed standing at the front of the classroom (or head of the table) to share knowledge with my staff, colleagues, or fellow students... so I had to ask myself, is this my new life calling? 

I’m very excited to begin to learn yet another profession in my life. The idea that I could learn how to bring my past experiences and professional knowledge into a classroom setting has given me a brand new direction and purpose! This is what I'm supposed to do. This is my reason for being here! 

 

 

Nathan