Current Students

Living in Student Residences at VIU is an exciting and enriching experience, offering opportunities for personal growth, academic success and lifelong friendships. To help navigate the ins and outs of life in residence, we asked Kayla Passmore, a former Residence Community Leader, to share some advice.

Bruce Barnard has been renting rooms in his home to students since 2014. Before that, he owned the Painted Turtle Guesthouse in downtown Nanaimo, providing accommodation for 110,000 guests from around the world. He says renting to students is a great way for him and his family to learn different perspectives and meet new people. He’s currently looking for another long-term student. Bruce shares some of the benefits of hosting students and breaks down stereotypes about student renters.

Trinity LaRose credits the Women in Trades Training (WITT) program at Vancouver Island University with kick-starting her interest in a career as an automotive service technician. The 12-week sampler program offers students the chance to experience to try all the different trades programs VIU offers and find out what they like the most.

Are you new to Vancouver Island University? Here are a few things you can do before classes start to get a head start on prep for university life! 

Read the financial aid checklist

VIU’s Financial Aid Office has created a checklist to help you explore options for paying for university. Need more help? Reach out to the Financial Aid team.

While she’s always been drawn to the field of psychology, Mauricea Panchenko wasn’t sure if her interest would develop into anything further, particularly when it came to post-secondary education.

“I waited so long to go back to school because I did not believe it was an option for me,” she says.

Kelsey Moore was working as a forensic drug analyst when she decided she wanted a career that gave her a greater connection to community and nature. She enrolled in VIU’s Resource Management Officer Technology (RMOT) diploma. The program prepares students for careers related to the protection and management of Canada’s fisheries, wildlife and park resources.

Paul Wu received one of Canada’s most coveted scholarships for undergraduate students pursuing STEM studies ­– the Schulich Leader Scholarship.

He received $100,000 to study at Queen’s University, one of the 20 partner universities involved in the program. Every high school in Canada can nominate a graduating student to apply for the scholarship and each year 1,500 students compete for the scholarship and only 100 are awarded.

As an international student, experiencing cultural shocks when changing countries is the norm. My name is Becky, and I moved to Nanaimo from Mumbai at the beginning of 2023, as a student fresh out of high school. Here are a few things about VIU that stood out to me during my first few weeks.

Ted Nathanson is currently the manager of Wildplay in Nanaimo, a position he has held since February 2019. His journey to this position began when Ted decided to enroll in VIU’s Tourism Management program.

Here’s what he says about his working at Wildplay and how VIU helped prepare him for it.

VIU History student Ethan Hummel put his classroom learning into practice at the Nanaimo Museum. He worked as a heritage interpreter at the museum through the Young Canada Works program this spring and last fall. 

Ethan says his first-year history classes gave him a strong base for working in the Nanaimo Museum. He also gained a new perspective on Canadian history because the museum works closely with Snuneymuxw cultural knowledge experts and Elders.