Hello everyone! My name is Andrea, and I’m a first-year student in the Global Citizens CAP Stream. If you are reading this, you’re probably trying to decide whether TREK is a good idea or not. I’m here to share my experience with you as a way to show that taking TREK will probably (and hopefully) be one of your favorite experiences in your first year of university. The opportunity in working with a community-engaged program was a once in a lifetime experience, especially given that the other choice was participating in a discussion group, learning through more texts and readings. The TREK program taught me numerous things about the realities in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, as well as it allowed me to constantly apply what we were learning in our SOCI 100 class, and all of it was based on first-hand experience.
I volunteered at the Writers’ Exchange program at Queen Alexandria Elementary School, where we worked with kids from low-income families, typically with trouble with reading and writing. We helped them practice these two skills by doing fun, interactive activities, and we additionally helped them further develop and strengthen their self-esteem. Although these sound like simple tasks, the impact on the kids and their own learning are tremendous. We were able to become a sort of support system for them, as they began to feel comfortable enough to share their personal stories with us, and created a strong relationship with most. I am thankful for this experience, as it helped me grow as a person. Once you dedicate time to help someone else, you learn the importance of opening up and sharing your own knowledge with the ones that might need it the most. This program helped open my eyes in terms of the privilege I have. It made me consider how lucky I am to have the education my parents were able to give me as well as my quality of life, and showed me that people come from different backgrounds and go through different experiences. By connecting that to my Soci class, I was able to understand why that is, and how everything connects back to the development of our society.
It doesn’t matter how much we read about other communities, we are unable to understand the extent to which issues are actually affecting its population until we meet people that teach us about it. After taking TREK, I decided to continue working with these types of communities in the future, which lead to my decision of majoring in Social Work with a minor in Sociology. It’s a truly enriching opportunity, so I 100% recommend you take TREK. Get out of your comfort zone! As a first-year student, especially if you’re an international student, it’s an incredible opportunity to get off campus and learn more about Vancouver. You will not regret it!