Inuvik (July 10/06) - It’s a question asked of most philosophy students as they prepare to leave university and enter the workforce.

“What will you do for a job?”

It seems like an obvious question.

After all: While Plato might have had some interesting theories on existence, it’s hard to see how knowing them would add to a resume.

Chelsea Ferris, from Quispamsis New Brunswick, is spending a summer in Inuvik. She is a philosophy student on a work exchange. - Philippe Morin/NNSL photo

Chelsea Ferris, from Quispamsis, New Brunswick, has heard the job question before. However, the 19-year-old philosophy student has joined three others for a work exchange in Inuvik.

While her friends Linden Hardie, 18, and Josie McConnell, 20, work in Inuvik’s child day camps, Ferris works at the Inuvik Family Centre pool helping to organize events.

A philosophy-department work study? At a pool? This might have sent Plato for a spin.

Ferris explains that her program is a “Bachelors of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Leadership,” taught at Renaissance College in Fredericton, New-Brunswick.

She says it includes a bit of Plato, Aristotle and Nietzsche but the program is more practical than theoretic. It examines world cultures, religions and leadership styles, to see how they interact.

Thus, the university school of “management” - which often teaches one corporate style of leadership for all situations - can be adapted to local cultures.

“The point is to head to various places and try to understand cultures,” Ferris says. “I’m learning a lot because I’m doing so many different jobs. I had organized some things in high-school but I’ve never helped plan town-wide events before.”

Having already helped plan Inuvik’s Canada Day and petroleum show, Ferris is now working at the pool as “special events coordinator.”

When she leaves in August, she hopes to have learned more about how philosophical theory interacts with the real world. Next summer, she says she might travel to Africa, perhaps working in a non-profit foundation such as Engineers Without Borders or the “Right to Play” foundation which helps children through sport.

As for finding a job, Ferris isn’t too philosophical about it. “I’m just trying to broaden my horizons and views on the world,” she says, adding she might become a teacher or journalist.

Indeed, you heard it here first: Philosophy students with jobs. That’s something to think about.