Maija Puddle.com

Maija Puddle has lived most of her life in the cosmopolitan city of Toronto enjoying the city’s wide range of different cultures and pockets of activities.

She graduated from York University with a BA specializing in Public Policy and Administration. During her time attending York University Maija helped co-ordinate a program evaluation on McLaughlin College one of York’s various colleges. She gathered surveys and presented the findings and recommendations to the college.

Maija loves involving herself in the community around her and takes pride in all of her volunteer efforts. She has taught with Children’s Ministry at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship for 6 years, and over the years has learned more about life than she ever dreamed possible. And she met the love of her life, Jonathan Puddle, now here husband through the Children’s Ministry at Toronto Airport Fellowship. Teaching has involved lesson planning and teaching to a group of 70+ kids between the grades 1 and 6, putting together 6 week drama programs, planning camp activities and being personable to a small group of 8 children on a weekly basis.
“Its great being able to share your life experiences, thoughts, and advice with those younger than yourself hoping to make a difference in their life. Watching them grow into healthy teenagers leading balanced lives fully enjoying themselves, is really rewarding.”

Maija has taught swimming and lifeguarded with many pools all around the Greater Toronto Area. Her favourite was teaching the younger grades and being there when little 3-4 year olds began swimming for the first time. She’s taking a break from swimming for the time being… but let’s see how long she really can stay away from the water.

Maija worked approximately 10 years for a multi-physician clinic that serviced a large portion of Toronto. She began as a filing clerk but soon moved to more responsibility as a medical secretary. Her day involved regular secretarial duties, bilings, and communication with specialist offices. Working for six busy doctors fined tuned the arts of multi-tasking, being organized, flexible, and problem solving.

Maija joined a national self regulatory investment association for almost a full year before she accepted an offer to attend a Master’s program in International Development being offered in Finland. Her role at the association allowed her to utilize many of the skills that she’d developped and schooled for, including speaking French. The department that she joined at the association was a fairly new one which gave her excellent opportunity to grow with the department. Maija provided support for different educational training activities, gathered survey and statistical information, and joined in on the development of a new website/educational delivery platform.

Maija now lives in Jyväskylä, Finland studying towards her Master’s degree in Development and International Co-operation. She is still majoring in Political Science and is researching the role of ICT on the development process in particular that of Tanzania, with a special focus on rural areas. Besides her creative hobbies, she involves herself the in the University’s Development Subcommittee and just recently joined a FairTrade campaign for the University and for the city as a whole.