My name is Anastasia Karakoy.
I am a naval logistics officer on board HMCS Max Bernays,
Canada's newest Arctic and off-shore patrol ship.
In my position, my team and I hold the experience
and the knowledge to know how to navigate
a variety of important resources pertaining to compensation,
benefits, and work-life balance.
We understand that this knowledge isn't common
across the Canadian Armed Forces.
This is something that I believe
that the CAF Offer can assist members with.
The CAF Offer provides members and their family
with an open source platform from which they can learn
more about the compensation and benefits they're entitled
to throughout their military career.
Nearly eight years later, with countless stories
and experiences, I still feel as though
the CAF has offered me more than I could have ever imagined
to be offered at the beginning of this journey.
Having emigrated from Ukraine in 2001,
my parents worked very hard to establish us here in Canada.
For a long time, after we all gained our citizenship,
my parents would struggle to hold back proud tears
at the sound of our national anthem.
I really believe that knowledge is perhaps
one of the most effective tools of empowerment we could have.
My own journey of empowerment began
when I was just ten years old and my father was working
at the Canadian Forces recruiting centre
in London, Ontario, that is where he had first learned
about the Regular Officer Training Program
and the chance for his daughter
to have a post secondary education paid for.
Aside from the solid foundation
that the paid scholarship made in my own establishment,
considering the life and opportunity I've been granted
as a Canadian citizen,
there really didn't seem to be any career path
more fitting for me than to serve Canada.
I'll forever be grateful for the information
that my father was able to pass along
to spark my journey with the CAF.
Increasing the accessibility of information
on what the CAF has to offer holds great potential
to empower our members and their families.
See for yourself what the CAF has to offer.
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