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Resource and environmental management student Sara Ladhani had just enrolled in her program鈥檚 planning stream and was looking for a co-op position when she spotted an intriguing opportunity鈥攁 community planning job at the City of Victoria.

Ladhani recalls finding the posting last May and thinking that it was an ideal first planning position. 鈥淎n urban context that鈥檚 not too large, but also not too small,鈥� she says.

Even more ideal was how closely it aligned with her academic interests and career goals. Not only would she get to apply the GIS skills she acquired from her minor, the City was also in the process of updating its Official Community Plan, which meant that Ladhani would get to observe long-range planning, policy development and implementation in real-time鈥攁nd directly contribute to it too.

鈥淩ather than completing isolated or purely academic-style tasks, I was expected to interpret planning documents, make informed decisions about how policies should be represented spatially and produce outputs that could support real planning initiatives,鈥� she shares.

Throughout the placement, Ladhani learned new GIS workflows and geoprocessing tools.

For her first task, she mapped land use policies to support future modeling work and long-term planning goals, like residential development and urban heat resilience.

Later, she created an urban structure concept map in ArcGIS Pro鈥攖he first she has ever created from scratch鈥攖o provide a high-level, simplified representation of the city鈥檚 land use organization.

In the beginning, some of the work was challenging, Ladhani remembers. Particularly when it came to interpreting planning and zoning policy documents, 鈥渁nd translating them into spatial data,鈥� she adds. 鈥淗owever, I didn鈥檛 have to worry too much, as my supervisor was there to assist with any questions I had.鈥�

Before long, she says the tasks she used to seek out guidance for became ones she could easily approach on her own.

After a while, Ladhani even started to enjoy the new pace and 40-hour work week.

鈥淚 came to appreciate the structure and sense of purpose that comes with full time work! In some ways, I miss it,鈥� she reflects.

At the end of the fall, Ladhani completed the work term with new and strengthened skills, especially in her ability to analyze and interpret planning and policy documents like zoning bylaws, development policies and land use frameworks.

Beyond these technical competencies, she says the experience helped her develop other foundational skills she can put to use in her future career, like communicating across teams, time management and independent problem solving.

Plus, Ladhani says that she can now add municipal planning to the long list of careers she might like to pursue after her graduation.

鈥淧rior to this placement, and Summer 2025 in general, I was primarily interested in climate and energy policy, and planning was more of a secondary consideration. Through my work and exposure to municipal planning processes, I gained a clearer understanding of how planning serves as a framework through which climate, land use, housing and community development objectives are integrated.鈥�