Alberta's Top Employers (2026) Magazine - Magazine - Page 50
50
ALBERTA’S TOP EMPLOYERS
MacEwan empowers employees to drive academic success
W
ith degrees
from McGill,
Carleton and
Middle East
Technical
University (the top university
in her native Turkey), Ozlem
Cankaya first thought of her move
to MacEwan University in 2018 as
a chance to advance her academic
career. Her previous work at a
not-for-profit — and her first love
professionally — was research.
But now she had intense teaching
too.
“With my background in
education, I thought I was ready
to teach,” says the associate
professor in the early learning and
curriculum studies department.
Instead, she remembers, “I was
floored. MacEwan was different in
terms of expectations.”
MacEwan University takes a student-centred approach to teaching, providing graduates with real-world
learning opportunities.
Once you have an idea,
they value it and they
support you in the
best ways for you to
achieve it.
— Ozlem Cankaya
Associate Professor,
Department of Early Learning
and Curriculum Studies
Fortunately, the university had
abundant opportunities for her
to upgrade her skills. She took
a week-long instructional skills
workshop and a course on having
challenging conversations. On top
of job-related training, MacEwan
gives staff access to $1,500 worth
of internal learning opportunities
per year in any subject (and
additional funding for external
courses).
“Within my first four years of
my employment here, I received
300 hours of professional
development,” Cankaya says.
And it showed in her student
evaluations, which improved
markedly. “It was good that I was
challenged to be a better teacher
right off the bat.”
MacEwan strives to offer
employees a great work
environment, connection and
purpose, rewards and recognition,
and the opportunity to grow, says
Helen Ngan-Paré — AVP, human
resources.
“We recognize that in order
to deliver a positive student
experience, we need to have a
strong employee experience,”
Ngan-Paré says. “Student success
is bred into everything we do.”
As an academic, Cankaya
benefited from assistance from
the Office of Research Services
in finding funding within the
university and making external
grant applications — in contrast
to some of her former colleagues,
now at larger universities, who
find themselves fighting over
limited funding. Last summer
she assembled four years of
data collection and submitted a
manuscript to “Nature Portfolio”,
part of the prestigious scientific
journal “Nature”. In November,
she was delighted to learn it was
accepted for publication.
“Not in my wildest dreams
would I imagine that I would
publish in ‘Nature’, and that
work came to life because of the
research grants that MacEwan
allocated to me,” Cankaya says.
She likewise found support
from the University Relations
for a community project to
create a children’s program
called “StoryWalk at MacEwan”.
Children walk around a path,
reading a page from a book at each
stop. The initiative has now hosted
about 800 children and families at
MacEwan in a year and is funded
for the next three years.
“Once you have an idea, they
value it and they support you in
the best ways for you to achieve
it,” Cankaya says.
Amid all her other activities, last
spring Cankaya spotted a notice
asking for volunteers to help
run a cluster of eight beehives
