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It's all new -- the country, the business, her life Ever since she was young, it was Susan Su's dream to move to a foreign country and start a new life. She was born in the town of Anshan, China, where she lived with her parents, three brothers and one sister. A few years ago, a friend was visiting her from Canada and had talked up the country and its quality of education. Wanting that for her son, Bill Zhang, Su and her husband Ming Zhang made the difficult decision to leave their extended families and start a new life in a new land. Moving to Mississauga in 2009, and later Brampton, Su and her family came to Oakville last May, after she had opened The Nail Spa Oakville at 321 Kerr St. a few months before. While owning and operating a new and prosperous business merely three years after arriving in Canada can be deemed a newcomer success story, Su's current career is a far cry from her days as a lung specialist in China. "At first, (after moving) I wanted to take the course needed to become a nurse and eventually a doctor here, but I learned it would be six to seven years before that would happen. That's a very long time and my husband and I needed to support our family now," said Su, noting she and Ming had spent most of their life savings on learning English at Sheridan's Brampton campus after they arrived in Canada. Ming was a chemical engineer in China and ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER / @halton_photog 15 · Friday, January 11, 2013 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com By John Bkila OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Susan Su now works as a technician for Bell. While Su was at Sheridan, a classmate suggested she could take a one-year program to become an esthetician and find work quickly. Su admits the language barrier and not having family and friends had made the move to Canada difficult and she and her family would feel homesick, especially around the holidays. However, Su was directed to the Newcomer Centre of Peel, which helped the family adjust and meet people. Melissa Pedersen, settlement co-ordinator for The Centre of Skills Development and Training, which helps newcomers to Halton Region, says getting established in Oakville and Halton depends on a number of factors. "Newcomers face many challenges when it comes to settling, from meeting basic survival needs to finding employment, and everyone will have a different experience or degree of success," she said. "However, if newcomers take advantage of the free services and community support available to them, their chances of success improve considerably." The Centre has several sites across Halton, including those at 465 Morden Rd., Suite 109, and 1395 Abbeywood Dr. Each site provides newcomers with an orientation to the community, referral to government, community and settlement services, free Commissioner of Oaths service, day and evening English language classes and specialized training courses to help with finding a job. For Su, after completing the esthetician program at Sheridan, she began working at a spa and realized she wanted to operate her own spa. The Newcomer Centre in Peel helped her find the location at Kerr Street six months after she graduated from the Sheridan program. "My husband and I were extremely happy and excited to move to Oakville. The town and people here are very nice," said Su. "The schools are the best... and it's very multicultural. It helps us feel more at home." Statistics in a report from Community Development Halton released in February 2012 show that between 2000-09, the annual number of landed immigrants arriving in Halton had increased by more than 140 per cent from 1,200 individuals to 3,000 -- Oakville attracted half of those newcomers in 2000 and 2009, with the trend continuing in that direction. Su admits she wasn't expecting such a difference in culture between Oakville and her hometown in China, something she experienced first hand when Mayor Rob Burton attended the ribboncutting during the grand opening of her spa earlier in this month (Oct. 13). "I was so excited. At first, I didn't expect the mayor to come," said Su, explaining it would be almost impossible to have the mayor in her hometown come out to an event like her grand-opening. "It's different (here)... the mayor spent almost a half-hour, spending the time to talk with us and getting to know us," she said. "People here are more open, nicer and friendlier. We're very happy to have moved here." As a landed immigrant, Su says she hopes to the Canadian citizenship test in 2013. Custom Inground Swimming Pools One Company. One Responsibility. 416-410-2066 · 905-319-7502 Serving the Halton-Peel Region