Chemistry and Community with Connie Korpan
Thursday, October 31st, 2024
NWP psychology instructor, Connie Korpan.
Once upon a time, Connie Korpan was a chemist. In the summers, while she was pursuing an undergraduate degree in genetics and chemistry, Connie had a job studying organic compounds for the provincial government.
Primarily, she was developing extraction techniques to assess things that were contaminated by pesticides and herbicides. That combination of education and experience would set most people on a clear path toward lab work for the rest of their lives, but a single professor in Connie’s final year changed her path forever.
“In my last year, I needed to pick up an extra science course,” Connie says. “Someone recommended psychology, and I remember going, ‘psychology, seriously?’ but I took it anyway and the instructor was absolutely amazing. She spurred an interest for me to pursue it further.”
Connie enjoyed the course so much that she ended up switching her degree to psychology, but she wasn’t done. She loved the research aspect, so she pursued a master's degree, then a doctorate, and finally, she did a post-doctorate degree.
“I happen to have had a great collection of instructors along the way,” Connie says. “They really inspired me.”
As an instructor at NWP, Connie is now the one inspiring students. But even how she got here is a matter of chance. While working on her post-doctorate, she got a phone call and a job offer from what was then Grande Prairie Regional College. “It was an eight-and-a-half month position, and I thought if I don’t like it, I can just go back to my post-doctorate,” Connie says. “Then I got offered a tenure track position, and I took it and thought, well, I’ll be here three or four years - so typical of people who come to Grande Prairie - and now it’s more than 20 years later!”
From the start of her career instructing, there was an equal emphasis on teaching and research. Even though they didn’t have the research infrastructure set up at the time, her department chair wanted Connie to engage with community-based research as quickly as possible. Connie finds this type of research gratifying.
“It's the kind of research that results in actual change in the community,” Connie says. “It’s so fulfilling when you see that change happen.”
Connie’s latest research project had her working with the Resource Centre for Suicide Prevention (RCSP), investigating mental health in the trades, particularly in agriculture, where suicide rates are higher than other professions. Connie and her team did a comprehensive evaluation of the RCSP’s mental health program “Tough Enough To Talk About It”, which is designed to reduce the stigma around mental health in the trades. The evaluation was a success and allowed the program to expand beyond the trades, into areas like first responders. Connie says that one of the most rewarding parts of the project was seeing students participate and thrive in a research environment.
“I love to get students on board so they can get that on-the-ground experience,” Connie says. “ They develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, but they're also connecting with community partners that often become their future employers. They get such piqued interest in the community, and they develop a sense of civic responsibility.”
Even though she left behind her life as a lab-work chemist, Connie’s life today can still be defined by chemistry, just a different kind. The chemistry she focuses on is not the makeup and behaviour of matter, but the makeup and behaviour of people.
Whether she’s in the field working with local partners doing community-based research that helps vulnerable groups, hauling boxes of food with her fellow Rotarians for a Rotary Club of Grande Prairie community food drive, or in the classroom teaching students at NWP as a psychology instructor, Connie’s passion for people and community is evident.
