Library of Parliament and Language with Zackery Shaver

When Zackery Shaver, BIB/09, decided to study French to satisfy his Sprott degree requirements, he did not know it would be a decision that informed the rest of his career. He went on to spend a year living and studying in France, complete his law degree in French and became a bilingual analyst at Canada’s Library of Parliament.

After going on an exchange to France in high school, Zackery saw the benefits to immersing himself in another country and language. The mandatory year abroad of Sprott’s Bachelor of was part of what drew him to Carleton University. Zackery decided to study French to satisfy the program’s language requirements.

“French is the second language in Canada. There’s a large number of people who speak it. And I had a fairly passible knowledge of French already,” Zackery explained more about why he chose to study French in university. “It was a great match. I was able to really drill down and get much better at French than I would have been able to do had I taken German or Spanish or Mandarin.”

During his year abroad in the BIB program, he attended the École Supérieure de Commerce de Chambéry. He said he met people from all over the world and enjoyed living in the welcoming university town.

“The biggest takeaway was that although everyone has different ways of doing things, everyone needs to come out of their comfort zone in order to really get to know other people and expand their network. Everyone is really the same, everyone wants everyone else to succeed,” Zackery remarked.

While at Carleton, Zackery also spent a year working as a page at the House of Commons. Each year, 40 students are selected from across Canada to take part in the House of Commons Page Program.

“We performed small tasks for MPs while they were in the senate or the chamber, as well as on the sides. While it was a bit of a challenge balancing being a page as well as my school schedule, it was a great experience to be a fly on the wall as politics were in making,” said Zackery.

Following his time as a page, Zackery worked for the Library of Parliament throughout his studies. With dreams of being a lawyer from a young age, he pursued his Canadian Law Degree at the University of Ottawa in French. Zackery said his BIB degree from Sprott helped prepare him for success in his law degree and beyond.

“The French training that I got through taking International Business, as well as the preparation I’d say from Sprott. Being able to write good reports, being able to think critically, think analytically—those types of skills are incredibly important going through law school, and even more useful now when I’m doing a lot of writing in both French and English,” said Zackery.

Zackery said that although he is currently in a non-law position, it does involve a lot of legal analysis. As an analyst, his expertise is on transportation and the law component of that subject. He is staffed on House of Commons and senate committees, where he writes reports, does background research and answers parliamentarians’ questions on subject matter or context. What he enjoys about his role is that he gets do something new every day and constantly meet new people. He also travels with the committees when they travel across Canada or abroad.

His advice for Sprott alumni is to not just build a network, but to stay in touch with those contacts.

“I’d say follow your interests as much as possible and never stop trying to talk to your colleagues and peers and those that have come before you,” said Zackery. “Try to interact with them, whether it’s by LinkedIn, or email, or phone. Because most of the jobs that I’ve gotten have all been through connections and that’s the same for other people I know. You never know where that next opportunity is going to be from.”