{"id":26225,"date":"2022-12-28T00:44:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-28T00:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/?p=26225"},"modified":"2024-06-06T13:41:50","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T17:41:50","slug":"talking-about-equity-diversity-and-inclusion-spotlight-on-sophia-chea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/media-center\/talking-about-equity-diversity-and-inclusion-spotlight-on-sophia-chea\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking About Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Spotlight on Sophia Chea"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Sophia Chea is an Analyst on Toronto Global\u2019s small but mighty equity Business Insights team. Sophia works to generate the value proposition for the Toronto Region for international companies interested in expanding operations here. She works closely with each company and Toronto Global\u2019s Investment Attraction team, creating customized business cases through data research and analysis.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor example, if a business is looking to expand here and they want information on the ecosystem, I would be doing custom research to figure out the talent pipeline, average salaries, or any notable opportunities to leverage in the Toronto Region,\u201d said Sophia.<\/p>\n

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Sophia\u2019s research expands equity over many different industries and many different types of data, but very often companies are looking to get the inside scoop regarding talent. \u201cI also conduct industry research to understand the strengths and weaknesses we have in the Toronto Region<\/a>,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou\u2019re always learning something equity new in this role,\u201d said Sophia. \u201cI love the international aspect. I graduated from a Global Management program, so I learned a lot about the decision-making process for companies to operate in foreign countries and it\u2019s great to be able to see it applied here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Culture<\/h2>\n

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\u201cTo me, EDI means the ability to work in an inclusive environment so that the colour of your skin, your age, your gender, or any other social identifiers else doesn\u2019t stop you from achieving your goals,\u201d said Sophia.<\/p>

Sophia values diversity both personally and professionally, especially due to the international aspect of her field. \u201cIt brings a lot of different perspectives into a workplace, being able to work with people of diverse cultures, you get to learn about different ways of doing things. Not only does it bring innovation, but productivity as well,\u201d said Sophia.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cFor me as a visible minority, it brings me comfort to know that there are people of colour and women \u2013 people who are similar to me \u2013 working in the same space,\u201d said Sophia.<\/p>\n

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Sophia\u2019s experience living and studying in abroad has broadened her perspective and heightened her appreciation for diversity. \u201cIn undergrad, I lived in Korea for an exchange program and that\u2019s when culture, diversity and inclusion stuck out to me,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing in a new place and bringing so many cultures together through the program \u2013 not just Canadian students but German, French, Chinese, and so many more \u2013 is what drove my passion for this field of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat experience showed me that learning and understanding different cultures is actually one of the most important skills a person can have,\u201d said Sophia.<\/p>\n

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Personal Perspectives<\/h2>\n

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Sophia has been in her role for a year and half and has gone through the unique experience of starting work in a remote workplace and transitioning into a hybrid model \u2013 working in the office on select days during the week. Sophia found that a key factor in taking care of her mental wellbeing during this experience was to maintain a schedule that is applicable to work from both home and the office.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI made it a point to distinguish my personal life from my work life,\u201d said Sophia. The simple act of separating her workspace from personal space is very influential toward her mental wellbeing, whether working in the office or not.<\/p>\n

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Another important step in establishing mental wellness is physical activity. \u201cAfter 5 p.m. every day I try to do some sort of workout to destress and unwind from the workday,\u201d said Sophia. \u201cIt\u2019s a good way to focus on just me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy biggest takeaway from the pandemic overall is that it\u2019s okay to take things slow and that hustle culture is glamourized,\u201d said Sophia. \u201cBefore living abroad, I was so into hustle culture, I had to make sure everything I was doing was always productive and I became very anxious. It wasn\u2019t until I lived abroad that I learned to take things slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen I came back to Canada it was kind of reverse culture shock<\/a>, because things were all of a sudden happening so quickly again,\u201d said Sophia. \u201cWhen Covid-19 hit, it put things back into a slower pace for everyone and I\u2019m starting to realize it\u2019s better that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Traditions and Fun Facts<\/h2>\n

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Every year, Sophia looks forward to her family holiday party with relatives from both her mother and father\u2019s sides. \u201cMy dad has like, 10 siblings, so it\u2019s a huge get-together,\u201d Sophia said. \u201cMy mom and dad\u2019s families are very close, so we all get together at my house for karaoke and games, so a lot is happening in that space. It\u2019s something we did every year growing up, so it\u2019s very nostalgic,\u201d said Sophia.<\/p>\n

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Sophia speaks two languages and is learning Korean. \u201cI picked it up while I was in Korea and took a few equity classes at Seneca College when I came back,\u201d said Sophia. Her mother tongue is Teochew, a Chinese dialect she learned from her family, and she learned English in school.  <\/p>\n

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What\u2019s Next?<\/h2>\n

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Sophia looks forward to continuing her work toward equity achieving her goals and learning more about internationality while prioritizing her wellbeing. Her favourite mottos are tied between the following two:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you don’t go after what you want then you’ll never have it,\u201d and \u201cIt’s always a no if you don’t ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sophia Chea is an Analyst on Toronto Global\u2019s small but mighty equity Business Insights team. Sophia works to generate the value proposition for the Toronto Region for international companies interested…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":25972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[295,294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversity-equity-inclusion","category-tg-team-and-culture"],"acf":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26225"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38319,"href":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26225\/revisions\/38319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torontoglobal.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}