“Me and my friends had a lot of free time so we joined FLIP. We started finding more people who felt a bit lost and we could guide them to find tools to discover themselves,” she said.
“At Champlain, the sense of community is amazing. When I think back, it was a time when I felt like I could be who I wanted to be. I think that’s where a lot of confidence in myself was built.”
After Cegep, Johnstone went on to pursue a bachelor’s in History at McGill University, but soon found that her interest did not drive her to do advanced degrees or research in the field.
Unsure what the future would hold, Johnstone followed the advice of her mother and transferred into law.
“It was kind of a situation where I really didn’t know what to do. I really had to rely on others around me,” she said.
Johnstone completed her law degree at Université Laval but quickly realized that would not end up being her career.
“It was a world where everyone promotes the competitiveness. I couldn’t find myself in the different law firms that were coming in to present. I felt ‘this is not for me.’
Despite her doubts, Johnstone was determined to obtain her bachelor’s and tried to stay motivated.
“I just kept pushing through so I could get that paper and finish,” she said.
After graduating with her law degree, Johnstone chose not to take the bar exam and become a practicing lawyer and started working for the federal government instead.
She started working at Global Affairs Canada in 2019 as a Fire and Emergency Measures Officer and soon became permanent, gaining a promotion one year later to serve as the senior facilities and buildings reintegration officer.
During the first months of the pandemic in 2020, she said the buildings were empty with many employees working from home and she ended up helping out in other ways.
“During that time, we were repatriating Canadians back to Canada. I volunteered some of my time to work the phones, work the emails, giving information about flights leaving, trying to help.”
Johnstone says she couldn’t have predicted where her path would lead and she’s happy to be able to contribute her skills and knowledge to the team she works with now.
During the 2024 Student Engagement Gala held last May, Johnstone served as the keynote speaker. She said it was a pleasure to celebrate the student leaders and see how programs like FLIP continue to evolve.
“The sense of community had just turned into this amazing atmosphere,” she said. “To see it develop, it was so empowering, to see what has happened since I was a student.”
Johnstone’s advice for current students and recent grads: “As hard as it is, just trust the process. If you feel stressed, just take some time to take care of yourself. Slow down if you need to. You will find yourself in the place you need to be, whether it was what you expected or not. As long as you focus on yourself and stay true to who you want to be, I think everybody finds their path.”
