Ms. Parisa Adrangi is a businesswoman and a mother. When she is not busy with work, Ms. Adrangi enjoys spending time with friends at TCC and working with the Rotary Club Vancouver, but her life has not always been so flowery, and her current successes are a result of her ability to meet each challenge with an unflinching determination to succeed.
Ms. Adrangi earned her first Bachelor’s degree in English literature at the University of Tehran. Upon starting her Master’s program in Political science, she was one of a few students that were offered an internship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an interpreter. But when her mentor and professor disappeared, she abandoned her work and studies. “I never heard from him again,” she says. “Sometimes we learn lessons in hard way. In some parts of the world, even becoming a student in political science is like walking in a mine field.” Despite the hardships she has endured, Ms. Adrangi addresses them with grace and humour.
Ms. Adrangi also holds degree in Dental Technology from the University of Tehran. She later pursued her artisanal line of dental ceramics by taking various courses in Germany and Switzerland with world renowned master ceramists. Her expertise as a dental technician and ceramist qualified her for Canadian immigration through the skilled workers category. Within one week of Ms. Adrangi’s arrival in Vancouver in 1997, she was employed, fulltime, in a dental lab.
Ms. Adrangi remembers receiving her first paycheque, and her boss trying, gently, to break the news to her that she wouldn’t be receiving what she might expect because of taxes. “She said, ‘Are you sure you’re okay? Everybody here complains.’ And I said, ‘Are you kidding? I don’t have to wear a scarf – nobody tells me what colour to wear,’” Ms. Adrangi says. “People here may not be grateful for what they have because they take it for granted. Perhaps it is because I saw a revolution. I saw war. I experienced the violation of basic human rights by the rulers of my homeland. I saw the glory of my country, followed by its fall in 1979.”
While working fulltime, Ms. Adrangi decided to go back to school in order to fulfil the science requirements necessary to enter dental school at UBC. Two years later, and nine months after the birth of her daughter, Ms. Adrangi started her own business, AAA Dental Esthetics, for a very practical reason. “I wanted to work, but I didn’t want to leave my daughter with someone else,” she explains. Her office was fashioned with a diaper changing station, and stickers and doodles sprang up around her workstation as her daughter grew up.
After entering the Sauder School of Business in 2013 with the intention of switching her line of work from Dental Esthetics to Business Management, Ms. Adrangi has developed an interest in both real estate and market analysis. This led her to become a licensed Real Estate Sales Associate in 2015. For the past three years, Ms. Adrangi has developed her new career in real estate while simultaneously managing her dental laboratory. “In the lab, there is a material we use called E-Max, and I’m an agent with RE/MAX, so I was getting my dental and real estate terms mixed up!” she said, laughing. “That’s when I knew I needed to pick one.” Due to her interest in the business and social aspects of real estate, Ms. Adrangi made the decision to hand off her lab work to a trusted employee and became a full time residential and commercial realtor this year. Due to her dental background, she assists dentists in acquisition, establishment, and sale of dental practice.
Ms. Adrangi joined Terminal City Club in 2012, “It was my social solution for antisocial life!” she jokes. She started going to the Women’s Networking Lunch, playing squash, participating in the annual 45-Day fitness challenge, and attending other Club events. Over time, friendships blossomed. “There’s a lawyer, politician, builder, doctor, financial advisor – I learn a lot that I can use to help my clients from a business perspective. Don’t think that you’re in a business club, you must immediately start working. I mean, it would be very good if you do, but there are also other benefits,” she explains. “I can’t say how grateful I am for the Club for these friendships.”
Ms. Adrangi has also been able to leverage the Club’s network. “Just the other week, I met someone here; I said, ‘I have this project; do you think you can help me?’ And they said, ‘No, but I know the perfect person for you.’ And so I am now in the process of closing a project that I almost wound up declining. Viva Club! Otherwise, how would I have that connection?” she says.
Ms. Adrangi is also extremely giving of what’s left of her time. A member of the Rotary Club, which meets at TCC every Tuesday, she lends organizational support by assisting with the minutes and the youth and international programs. Having been touched by a few families close to her living with autism, Ms. Adrangi is also devoted to her work as a board member of PALS Autism School and the society’s annual fundraising gala. If there is an opportunity to help, Ms. Adrangi does not look the other way. “You must have principles for yourself. In my religion, there are three things: good deeds, good thoughts, and good speech,” Ms. Adrangi explains. “So I am very careful I don’t hurt anyone; at the same time, if there is someone I cannot be around with these guidelines, I completely detach myself. There are so many people in the world, I can choose. I don’t go into the past and dig up feelings. There’s just today, and tomorrow is another day.”
