SuccessBeyond

Jeff McIntosh

Seneca Program

Degree Program and Institution

Jeff works for the City of Toronto in Urban Forestry, a department that consists of a team of arborists, natural resource specialists and urban planners who answer the public’s questions regarding work on city owned plots. Jeff’s job in particular involves assisting in sorting data for streetline trees that require specific maintenance.

What is Jeff’s educational background? After graduating from high school and with some persuasion from his parents, Jeff decided to take Seneca’s General Arts and Science diploma program, now titled Liberal Arts University Transfer.

“The diploma’s foundation in humanities and arts gave me a historical context that helped me investigate societies and cultures across time and space in my Sociology degree,” says Jeff.

Attending university had been part of his plan all along and so, upon graduating from Seneca in 2005, Jeff transferred to York University, where he completed an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology.

Jeff found his diploma and degree combination to be a strong duo. “My Seneca and York programs gave me the confidence to combine ideas, draw conclusions and defend my own ideas using words alone,” he says. “Suddenly, I had opinions about Greece and antiquity. The Dark Ages perhaps were not so dark, and maybe we should view past civilizations without the biased eyes of modern times.”

Talking about his recent achievements, Jeff focuses on one of his hobbies: “I won a stand up contest during a set for Russell Peters and this has sparked my interest in comedy, improv and creative writing, which I’ve been focusing on lately.”

Jeff’s final words offer advice to current Seneca students: “You should fully embrace how the college environment can support your learning with the help of on-site tutors, for example. You should embrace how the engaging faculty and class members can shift your perspective in ways you never thought possible through group discussions and projects.”