As a recent Pathy Foundation Fellowship alumnx, Aubrey Apps knew she wanted to continue in a role dedicated to social impact work and adult education.
“The Fellowship year and being at Coady opened my eyes to adult education and community-driven development and making meaningful change with the voices of your community at the forefront,” says Aubrey.
Now, as the newly hired Pathy Foundation Fellowship Program Assistant, Aubrey supports the program’s marketing and promotion, recruitment, candidate advising, and work with the Fellows on their Pathy journeys. Aubrey is now the third member of an all-Alumnx program team – an important step for the Fellowship and Coady Institute’s continued prioritization of youth-led programming.
“I’m really attracted to the idea of youth leadership and working with Fellows like myself and being able to support their development in their career,” says Aubrey.
The Fellowship year and being at Coady opened my eyes to adult education and community-driven development and making meaningful change with the voices of your community at the forefront. It is singlehandedly the most unique opportunity you can have to explore your own leadership and work with a community really closely.
Aubrey graduated from Queen’s University in 2023 with a degree in global development. She wanted to pursue a career that contributed to change within societal structures. Following her acceptance to the 2023-24 Pathy Fellowship, Aubrey decided to focus on a structure that felt authentic to her: the world of sports.
During her time as a Fellow, Aubrey created Youth for Consent Culture, an initiative focused on discussing healthy relationships, consent, and team culture with young athletes within high performance and community-based teams. Through discussion-based programming, Youth for Consent Culture aimed to transform sports environments and, hopefully, sports culture more broadly.
“The Fellowship was something that I was really excited about and interested in because it was like a clear link between the theory that I had been learning and creating a real-world response to violence prevention recommendations,” said Aubrey. “It’s singlehandedly the most unique opportunity you can have to explore your own leadership and work with a community really closely.”
With her Fellowship ending in May 2024, Aubrey wanted to continue pursuing the values she learned within the program, which revolved around adult education and community-driven development. She also knew that it would be difficult to find opportunities which matched the agency and choice that she experienced within her Fellowship work.
When the opportunity to work with the Pathy Fellowship presented itself, she said that the decision felt “natural” and would allow her to continue having freedom within her career while developing skills she learned in the Fellowship within a more formal environment.
Aubrey is incredibly excited to support the incoming cohort of Pathy Fellows in their projects and community work, as well as the incoming Pathy candidates in application advising.
“We’re not necessarily as connected to our communities as we once were as a society. Having a full year to dedicate to being able to do that as a Pathy Fellow is so meaningful, and I think it sets our career path on a trajectory where you’re always keeping that in mind,” says Aubrey.
Along with her work with the Fellows, Aubrey is excited to collaborate with facilitators and leaders within the Coady Institute and Pathy Family Foundation to continue the Fellowship’s success for years to come.