Kristine Monteiro plants the seeds for lifelong learning

With aunts who were educators and a grandfather who taught himself to speak German and play the organ, Kristine Monteiro was born to love learning.

Her learning path included earning a business degree in her native Philippines, where she worked in banking, planning signature events for clients; studing hospitality management in Alberta; and a Master of Arts in Tourism Management from Royal Roads University in 2014.

Now a hospitality management instructor in the JR Shaw School of Business at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton, she shares her passion for lifelong learning — and for Royal Roads — with her students.

“Many people I have met want to pursue further studies but need encouragement and a gentle push to do so,” Monteiro says. “If someone like myself can pursue a graduate degree — a mature international student of a visible minority who came to Canada 17 years ago and who worked in the hospitality and events industry for 14 years — so can they.

“I want to let everyone know that RRU can support them in their lifelong learning journey,” she adds.

The Canadian portion of her journey began with an aunt, Isabelle Kelly — currently a semi-retired nursing instructor at the University of Alberta — signing her up for the NAIT course she now teaches.

But it was while working in a hotel in Edmonton that she decided she wanted to learn more about her industry and to be able to share that knowledge with others.

That led her to the RRU MATM program, where the blended learning model allowed her to juggle work and school, the cohort gave her a core group of friends and industry contacts that endures nine years after graduation, and where the instructors further inspired her with their passion for the tourism industry.

Sharing that enthusiasm, she watches for others who are looking for some of the same things she was as a student, and points out that in an industry where entry-level jobs are not hard to get, an advanced education and additional skills can be a ticket to greater career advancement.

“I see some promising students who I know will do well in the industry, but I also know will do well in imparting knowledge to future students,” she explains. “So, when I see there is an interest in lifelong learning, I start planting the seeds — I start talking to them about my own journey and about Royal Roads.”

Of that journey, Monteiro says, “Taking my master's taught me discipline, resilience and determination. In a world where you have a lot of distractions, to pursue your post-grad is a test of your stamina. Higher education is a place to enrich your knowledge base, enrich your network.”

Monteiro also credits her time at RRU with developing her career.

“Royal Roads didn’t just provide me an education, it provided me life-changing skills,” she says, acknowledging the university’s slogan: Life.Changing. “It is true for me. My career has been really great because of the opportunities Royal Roads has provided me and I want to share that with other people.”

Similarly, she shared the accomplishment of her RRU degree with her late grandfather, Ricardo Fullon, who loved to read and write and was an early adopter of the internet, buying his family dial-up subscriptions. 

“My masters, when I graduated, I dedicated it to him. Because if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have tried to go further and get a post-grad degree.

Interested in learning more about our Master of Arts in Tourism Management program? Visit the program page or request more information.