Woman of the Month Feature | December Edition
In collaboration with Connect’N’Grow
A New Vision For Travel Health: From Relief Pharmacy to Tech Entrepreneurship
A Feature on Stephanie El-Chakieh
Intro to Stephanie El-Chakieh
Stephanie El-Chakieh Journey
Figuring out a career path was easy for Stephanie El-Chakieh. A determined and disciplined student all her life and growing up in an environment that was conducive to growth and accepting in nature, she had made up her mind to become a pharmacist as early as she entered high school. Successfully completing her degree in pharmacy and upon graduation, however, she found herself unsure of what her career path should look like in the long run. Logically enough, she thought the answer might be found in pursuing her studies in higher education. So, she applied for a master’s degree in Pharmacotherapy.
After graduating, she began working as a relief pharmacist in hospitals across Canada allowing her to travel and develop the capacity to adapt to new environments, cultures and technological systems.
Her curiosity and intensity toward the tasks she took on, noticeably helped distinguish Stephanie from her peers. Dissatisfied with all that soon became routine and having worked in over 15 hospitals and many pharmacies across the Province, change soon became what normalcy looked like for her. The desire for bigger accomplishments and making an impact in this world fueled her passion and inner drive for more.
A spiritual journey
Travelling and spending time in remote locations in Quebec and later a spiritual journey to India not only contributed to Stephanie’s personal growth and worldview, it also became a pivot to initiate a project that would shift paradigms in healthcare and tourism.
Passionate about travelling herself, she saw value in exploring the unknown, meeting new people and cultures. Establishing catalytic connections and relationships across the globe had her identify the link missing between health and tourism and birthing the idea that later blossomed into Volyse, a virtual travel health clinic.
“Volyse’s mission is to stand against preventable infectious diseases and travel related problems caused by lack of awareness and knowledge.’
“At Volyse, our mission is to be a travel health companion so our clients could focus on planning and enjoying their trip. We aim to ease and innovate the access to travel health support and assure that each traveller has the proper tools for their trips. We want to increase awareness on the necessity of being well prepared before travelling. – Our main focus is prevention.” Stephanie explains.
She believes having had great support from her mentors along the way and the enthusiasm she receives from new members of the Volyse community helps her in tackling obstacles any startup encounters.
“I believe we can learn from anyone, but we need to have this openness and willingness to learn and grow.”
Open to feedback and eager to engage in intellectual exchanges, Stephanie continues to raise awareness on travel health in any possible way. She believes there is great value in constructive criticism, advice, suggestions or guidance on anything, from a personal to a professional standpoint. In her personal and professional network, she values advice on how to balance life and business as well as exchanging lessons on finance and business strategy.
increasing travel health awareness
At the moment, “My main focus is Volyse and increasing travel health awareness. ‘’It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon” as all of my mentors and advisors say. Stephanie continues travelling around the world, engaging in philanthropy projects and brainstorms on how to evolve the way the world travels.
To learn more about Volyse visit: https://www.volyse.com/
Stay informed on the go by following Volyse on FB and IG
Sara Ostad
Author | Entrepreneur | Connector | Educator
With a wide array of solid experience and expertise in domains of education, business development and organizational change management, Sara is interested in the intersectionality of education and commerce.
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