Pam Stoneham, associate dean of the School of Skilled Trades, Apprenticeship & Renewable Energy at Durham College (DC), delivered a TED talk at Sinclair Secondary School on Saturday, April 18.

The event featured four speakers including Stoneham, who spoke to the students about the importance of getting the full college experience and how improving study habits before college will help to achieve a fulfilling education and help with landing a successful career after graduation.

“I told the story of my educational journey which started when I was 18,” Stoneham said. “I became an Electrical Engineer, then about 25 years later I went back to school for a Bachelor of Education, and now I’m an associate dean at Durham College.”

TED is a non-profit organization that features experts, artists and performers, and gives them a platform to share their ideas, and TEDx is a way to extend that practice to smaller, more local events. The talk at Sinclair, TEDxSinclairDDSB, is part of the larger initiative that aims to share information, and they named the conference Off the Beaten Path as the speakers discussed unconventional paths to education.

“My message to the high school students was to view their post-secondary education as the beginning of their professional development and to start developing the behaviours they would want an employer to see in them,” Stoneham explained.

Before arriving at DC, Stoneham worked at General Motors (GM) for more than 16 years where she held multiple positions in the engineering sector, including a team member on the development of the Chevrolet Equinox and the GMC Terrain. Stoneham then achieved her Bachelors of Education at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and soon after graduating from the program she began teaching at DC, and is now an associate dean.