After living in Europe, South America and different parts of Canada, Mélanie Dufresne can confidently call Timmins her home.
Dufresne, 39, is the director of Collège Boréal.
She was born in a Franco-Ontarian family in Sudbury. Growing up, she moved around a lot with her parents, having lived in Yukon, Quebec and Chile.
“It’s never an easy transition to move anywhere,” she says. “It’s what you make of it. Anywhere I went, I tried to embrace the great things the place had to offer.”
After graduating from university in Ottawa, Dufresne moved to Timmins in 2003.
“I look back at all the experiences that have brought me to today, being where I am, I feel like I’ve become really adaptable and flexible,” she says. “I really appreciated building my life here in Timmins. The community has given me a lot of opportunities to be able to flourish professionally. I’ve built a great surrounding of friends, colleagues here.”
Her experience living in Chile and spending a year in Berlin allowed her to learn Spanish and German in addition to her knowledge of English and French.
Dufresne says she’s been “fortunate” to be able to use French in all of her jobs while living in Timmins.
Throughout her career, she has worked as a fundraising co-ordinator at the Timmins Public Library, a manager of post-secondary programs at Boreal, a regional communications planner for the Ministry of Natural Resources, and a contract position at the international Naturallia forum held in 2004.
Becoming the college’s director was the “best opportunity” to be able to work in such a dynamic environment, she says adding how there’s never a boring day at Boréal.
“(I) love working with the staff, I have a great group that works at the college in terms of really making sure that the students are successful. And they care about the wellbeing of our students and clients that come through the doors,” she says. “When you look at Boreal, it offers so many different services in terms of employment, upgrading skills, immigration, contract training ... I’m really grateful to be working with the Boréal family.”
Together with Michelle Boileau, Dufresne spearheaded Collège Boréal’s humanitarian project. For two years, a team of students and staff went to Guatemala where they worked with The God's Child Project, a not-for-profit, on building three concrete block homes. This year would’ve marked the fourth year of the project but it was cancelled because of the pandemic, Dufresne says.
“For me, the most important part is that sometimes students are not exposed to what everybody has to live through. And I think it gives the students perspective about what’s important in life,” she said. “And they do a volunteer work before leaving, locally, and get to know different organizations, so in terms of values and perspectives, it’s all really good things.”
Dufresne is also on the boards of the Far Northeast Training Board and The Venture Centre. She enjoys being outdoors, cross-country skiing, bringing her sons skating and taking advantage of what nature has to offer.
From the professional side, she’s proud of working with the college for more than a decade, and in her personal life, Dufresne says she is proud of her two boys.
She hopes in her position as Boréal’s director, she can bring new achievements to the college.
“Build what we’ve already built in terms of our programming and services for our students and all our clients, that’s on my professional list, to be able to contribute even greatly to what the successes have been for the college,” Dufresne says about her future goals and dreams.
“Personally, I feel like this year has been a busy year and I think everybody looks forward to this being over and reassessing where we at. (I'm) looking forward to seeing my boys grow up in the community, being able to partake in all the activities that community has to offer and working with all our great partners in Timmins.”
