In her time at King’s, Olsen lived by the motto: “The more things you say yes to, the more opportunities you have to be lucky.” Now, she’s making the most of every opportunity that comes her way
To clinch the role of Valedictorian, nominated students submit a small sample of a speech, with the graduating class voting for their favourite. Olsen’s pitch harkened back to her Foundation Year Program (FYP) days, when she became known among her peers for successfully crafting essay extension request emails. “I developed a bit of a reputation for ghostwriting a lot of them,” she says, “And I got some good results!”
Those early writing successes were just the start for Olsen, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism with Honours. She became editor-in-chief of the Dalhousie Gazette and tackled tough stories at the Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) with King’s alum Robert Cribb, BA(Hons)’89. While at the IJB, she helped uncover a clandestine dog testing program in a public hospital and assisted in building Canada’s most comprehensive femicide database. Her work helped land her a coveted spot in the CBC News Summer Scholarship program, where she is currently working.
Many students in the CBC scholarship program end up getting hired after it ends, which Olsen hopes will happen. “The beautiful thing about the CBC is that there are many different opportunities in many different areas, so while I would love a job at the Toronto office, the remote bureaus are always looking for people.”
For now, though, Olsen is nervously and excitedly gearing up to take the stage at Encaenia and share her speech. “I have been on stage—dance and theatre—since I was three years old, and I was never nervous to do that. But having the great honour of being chosen to represent your entire graduating class of the smartest people I know, and people that I respect so much, and all of our teachers… I’m pretty nervous to do that.”
“It’s been a whirlwind year,” says Olsen. “Sure, I worked hard, but everybody works hard. I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time for the right opportunities. And there’s a saying: ‘The more things you say yes to, the more opportunities you have to be lucky.’ I just got very lucky that I had excellent mentors who were willing to trust me with all these great opportunities.”
