Victoria University is renowned for academic excellence for a reason. Over the years, it has produced quite a few outstanding graduates out of the more than 88 000 students that have graduated from the University since its foundation. This proves not only that the university offers those who attend it excellent teaching and great opportunities; it also shows you that you yourself could have the honor of being mentioned as a notable Victoria alumnus, one day, too! Read through those short biographies of brilliant people who have walked Victoria campus and might even have lived in your dorm room… some certainly chose the same subjects as you’re taking now, so what could stop you from following in their footsteps?

Politics

Victoria University has produced quite a number of remarkable graduates who have come to work as politicians, with the government or within the public sector. George Abbot, for example, the current Minister of Health in British Columbia, received his master of arts in political science from none other than the UVic. Rona Ambrose, the current Minister of Labour of Edmonton- Spruce Grove, gained her bachelor of arts in political science from the University of Victoria, as well. If you chose to follow a less conventional educational path, don’t worry, great people have done so before you, as well: Barbara Hall, former mayor of Toronto, left UVic two credits short of a degree! This is not to say it’s advisable to do that, though, unless you feel absolutely sure of your brilliance.

Business

One great businessman to have graduated from Victoria is Stewart Butterfield, who co-founded the photosharing website Flickr and its parent company Ludicorp. Butterfield got a B.A. in philosophy from UVic, then went on to do his master degree at the University of Cambridge. In 2006, he was on Time Magazine’s list of the top 100 most influential people in the world. So this is what you can do with a UVic degree! Another graduate who went on to work in business is Jeff Mallet, former president and chief operating officer at Yahoo, who studied business at the University of Victoria for a year, and was also well-known for his passion for soccer.

Arts and Entertainment

A notable alumna in this sector is Aislinn Hunter, a Canadian poetry and fiction author who’s written four books and studied art history and writing up to her Bachelor of Fine Arts at UVic. Another alumnus in this area is Nilesh Patel, a filmmaker who originally got a degree in molecular biology from the University of Victoria – I’m sure that must have come in very handy when he decided to switch careers and be a filmmaker instead! But well, he graduated from UVic, I suppose that’s all that matters and you can go anywhere from there. Also, did you know that famous Taiwanese singer and actor Calvin Chen had a masters in Economics from the University of Victoria?

Notable Athletes

Notable athletes that have been affiliated with Victoria University include famous basketball coach Ken Shields, Gareth Rees, former international rugby player for Canada, Alison Sydor, a Canadian cross country mountain cyclist awarded three gold, five silver and three bronze medals at international biking competitions. So if you’re not that bothered with your actual course and prefer to spend the time training for soccer or rugby, just keep in mind what the future could have in store for you! No guarantees that your parents will share my opinion, though, so you might not want to tell them the reason why your grades have been going down is because you will be a champion in the Olympic Games one day and you don’t have time for mundane things like studying; and if you do, that’s at your own risk.

Aim High!

These notable graduates from UVic are just few of the very many examples of just how much is possible with a degree from the University of Victoria. Having a university degree in general is a boost to your career, but obtaining a degree from such a renowned university as the UVic  is your success almost guaranteed, if you remember to seize the day, take the chances you get and aim as high as you possibly can!