By Kathy Arellano
Cristina Balamban came to Canada with her family from the Philippines on June 7, 2010. She completed a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management and was working as Sales and Marketing Manager in a prestigious food manufacturing before she immigrated. Cristina left her high paying and stable job to be reunited with her spouse and came to Canada full of courage to start all over. She began volunteering for the Filipino Community Development Program at the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association (CIWA) and was thrilled when she was accepted into a 6-month Office Administration Program (OAP). While completing this program, Cristina was fortunate to receive a professional development grant from Devon Energy that she used to register for two courses in Human Resources Management at Mount Royal University. She also worked as a part-time Barista at Starbucks at the time. Having done her work placement at Alberta Theatre Projects as Administrative and Volunteer Coordinator, Cristina’s career began to blossom.
On July 2011, Cristina landed a six-month contract at Theatre Calgary working in fund development as Development Assistant which later on became a full-time job. She continues to engage with CIWA by providing work experience to their clients in OAP.
On February 2014, Cristina accepted an administrative job at the Distress Centre Calgary. While working as the Senior Office Administrator, Cristina expressed her 5-year career-goal to become an HR professional to Joan Roy, former Executive Director of Distress Centre. Joan supported and encouraged her to complete the Certificate in Human Resources Management at Mount Royal University which she finished in November 2015. On January 1, 2016, Cristina was promoted to the Human Resources Manager at Distress Centre. Cristina, as a perpetual learner decided to write the National Knowledge Exam for Human Resources professionals in November 2016. Through her dedication and hard work, she passed the exam, and she is now one step closer to receiving her designation as a Chartered Professional in Human Resources.
On December 2016, Cristina together with her spouse established LUB Clean Limited, a commercial cleaning company. She is hopeful that in the next five years she will be able to share positive stories about LUB.
Through dedication and hard work Cristina continuously achieving her goals. Above all, she attributed everything to her strong faith in God and wanted to share her bible life verse in Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
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