Category Archives: Trek2017

As I bussed to the Downtown Eastside for my first day at Trek, my thoughts revolved around how my parents would murder me if they found out where I was going. I was comforted by knowing if they wanted to, they’d have to book a four hour plane flight from Toronto to Vancouver. Because I was a newcomer to the city, I didn’t know East Hastings was typically known as the ‘sketchy area’ until i mentioned it to a couple of my peers.

For my Sociology course in Global Citizens CAP, we had to choose between between Trek or discussion. I saw Trek as a way to step out of my comfort zone and most importantly, not do the discussion term paper. My placement was Crabtree Corner’s Saturday Program, where single mothers and their children could relax and chat with one another. I was excited to volunteer, but at the moment, that was dominated by fear.

I’m not the best at talking; in kindergarten, I was so shy my classmates and teachers mistook me as an ESL for almost the entire school year. Over time, I’ve gradually gotten better, but I couldn’t help the endless concerns. What if no one liked me? What if I messed up? How did socializing with a kid work? I socialized with my kid sister, but that was different because she was my sister and in her case, I did more tormenting.

My preconceived notions were also why I worried. I grew up in relatively well-off neighborhoods and my parents dictated I avoid places like East Hastings because they were unsafe and the people ‘bad’. Though I knew the latter was especially untrue and until proven wrong, I should assume everyone had the best intentions, I was nervous about how I should interact within my placement. As Crabtree Corner’s families faced socio-economic challenges I didn’t, I feared I’d unintentionally say something that’d offend or upset them.

In Sociology, we’ve learned about poverty and the countless visible and invisible factors which could contribute and cause them; yet, my mind constructed the idea poverty should look a certain way. When I met the families, I was surprised to see they looked like any normal family — well-dressed, polite, and smiling. It was a shock at how close-knit everyone, including the program coordinators and other volunteers were, and how warmly they welcomed me into their circle. No matter their culture, language, home country, or socio-economic status, they’ve all come together in one place to form a tight-knit family, one of choice. In this turbulent present where those variables could just as easily divide us, it is important to remember they are not everything and I’ve learned perhaps connecting regardless, is part of what it means to be Global Citizens– my stream’s namesake.

To future CAP students, I do recommend taking Trek. The time commitment might be off putting but it’s the time we commit to anything which gives it so much value. Trek is about helping others, but that help isn’t a one-way flow. Through Trek, I’ve learned about social issues first-hand and made connections along the way. It’s true we learn about these problems in a classroom setting, but there is a critical dissonance between knowing and actually experiencing. As a first year, I didn’t realize how lonely university could be at times. I like to think I cope well being alone, but it doesn’t mean I want to be alone all of the time. I think interaction and friendship is something we all crave and Trek was able to give me that, as well as invaluable life lessons.

When I first saw the opportunity to volunteer through my first-year sociology class, I excitedly ran to my parents and shared the news of the opportunity. I volunteered at home in Red Deer with Dopamine Gym, boxing with people affected by Parkinson’s disease, and as the youth volunteer coordinator at the Central Alberta Women’s Emergency Shelter. I love volunteering because it’s very rewarding and immerses you and makes you part of the community. You secure a sense of appreciation and fulfillment. Moving to Vancouver, I had to give up these positions and knew that I would miss these settings. I didn’t think that I would have time to volunteer during my first year, and so, being given an opportunity to volunteer that is also a part of my education was very exciting. I believe that no matter where you live, you should make a contribution to your community.

The Trek discussions and Trek dinners were a large part of integrating us into university. Since Trek students were a small group with the same interests and ideas, we were automatically given a group of peers with whom we could relate. It gave us an additional opportunity to meet new people and establish some important relationships. We built a new community within the broader community and that gave us a good foundation, rooted us in the new community. It also aided us in navigating the institution as we were responsible to apply to, and navigate Trek and our placements not solely on our own, but also with support from faculty. It helped us get to know Dr. Greer a lot better as we were often in contact with her regarding our placements and during Trek discussions. I learnt that there was a lot of help available, and much of it was just an email or visit away. If you had a question or concern there was always someone there you could reach out to and it taught me to use those resources to better navigate the university.

Strathcona Community Centre

Trek supported my learning by exposing me to new places and people, expanding my mind and understanding, giving me insight. It is not easy to get out to the east side but when you arrive at your placement, you find out that there are people who need you. The emotional labour was sometimes tiring and overwhelming, but meeting these people makes the trek worth it. I got to meet new people, and because of that I felt better connected to my new community, and I learnt a bit more about my new community. Alone and sacred, walking through Vancouver’s eastside, I learnt about poverty first-hand… And then I saw hope and opportunity. What I was learning in class was right before me, I saw social structures, constraints, power, wealth and social stratification at play, among many other concepts. Campus is not representative of the greater Vancouver area and without Trek I would not have ventured as far as I did. Volunteering made me get out into the community, I got a better feel for the broader city. This work provided me with a unique hands-on learn while doing atmosphere. I took on a new challenge, and it allowed me to experience a diverse situation. This mix of unique learning opportunities was beneficial. Instead of writing more papers, I got to go out and learn first-hand, and then apply my learning through our sociology class. I’m very happy I had this choice.

Hello everyone! I am Lisa Gushiken and I am a part of the Global Citizen in CAP steam. Soci 100, which is a part of the standard timetable if you’re part of this program. It provides a great opportunity, the TREK program, to get out of the campus for a good reason and to get into the community that we are a part of. As a 1st year, presuming from reading this, it is difficult to be a part of the community we are in. (Plus, we don’t have to write a 16 page essay at the end of the year.)

I was placed in the Discovery Club at Morley Elementary School which is a program offered by Frontier College. It is an after-school program for elementary school children and we provide them with snacks and a small activity they do. The program run on every Thursday from 2:45 to 4:30. The majority of the children were from Syria and many couldn’t speak that much English. My role as a volunteer was to help the coordinator with taking care of the children and to help the children with the activities.

My volunteer experience had two major points for me. The first one is that I got to get a first hand experience with children learning English. As an international student myself, I know how hard it is to learn a new language at such a young age. As I have grown, I have realized it that it is actually the easiest way to learn a language but when you are young it is a big hardship you need to overcome to have friends and communicate with your teachers. In our program we had a 7-year-old child and she just moved from Syria with her siblings. Her siblings caught up on English quite quickly but she couldn’t probably because she was so shy. She got a lot of help from her siblings and the other children who spoke the same language in the program. However, over the year she become able to speak for herself and she became active and cheerful than before. The transformation was one of the things we wanted to achieve during the program but felt like we couldn’t do it in this short period.   The second one is that I realized that I do really good with children at that age. I have loved children and taking care of them too from when I was little. I didn’t think that I could handle multiple children because I have never worked like this until this program. However, after winter break, the children felt so comfortable with me being at the program and was happy to share their happy and sad moments with me. They would run to me when they had anything that they wanted to tell me and we would have a short catch-up moment at the start sometimes. Also, when a problem happened in the program, I was always the one calming and taking care of the sad or angry children. My coordinator trusted me that I would do everything well and resume what I need to do with that child when everything is OK, so he let me do anything that I felt necessary.

Looking back at the whole year of volunteering in Vancouver as a first year was actually really fun and interesting. There are so many good things that I didn’t mention in this post. However, all of the programs are quite far and require some time for transit. For me it took me about 1.75 hours to get there, but I was happy that I got to get out of campus every week. I used the transit time reading my notes or anything that needed to be done. I recommend that you take in that consideration because I know for some people it might be a hardship for some people. I got to see a side of Vancouver that other people don’t really get to see and had an experience their community. It is a really good way to realize that the UBC community and the communities surrounding UBC are just a side of Vancouver and it is quite distinctive from the others. If you are still deciding between the TREK program and discussion section, I will recommend the TREK program if you like interacting with people and don’t like to be in your dorm all the time. I hope you have a really good time in the Trek program.

Good luck with every subject in Global Citizens. (From someone that ended the whole steam and is in final season studying so much.) It might seem hard but everyone will be OK in the end!!

Hi to any, future Trek volunteers,

My name is Oliver Ng and at the time of writing this I have recently finished my first year at UBC as a member of the CAP stream global citizens. At the beginning of the year Dr. Greer offered our class the opportunity to participate in the TREK program. At first I was apprehensive about choosing it, but now I believe it was one of the better decisions I made at UBC. I hope this blog will help you decide if you’re on the fence trying to make a decision

As somebody who has lived and volunteered in Vancouver my entire life I saw the TREK program as a great opportunity to learn firsthand how sociological concepts we learn in class effect my community. I was originally placed at Mt. Pleasant, but due to some organizational problems I was moved to Walter Moberly elementary as a classroom volunteer. This difficulty may be something that you face, however, through this difficulty I learned many different skills as I communicated with the leadership about my placement. It also helped me memorize the best route to the CIRS building which is a useful skill for any first year. If you face these issues don’t give up but treat them as a unique learning opportunity. (then you can write about that experience in your blog)

After waiting for a few months, I was eventually placed at Walter Moberly. When I got my placement, Ibecame very nervous. I was a first-year commuter student with a part time job and although I wanted to participate in the program I was nervous I would not have enough time for my studies. This I learned would not be a problem and, at Walter Moberly I learned a lot about the community and I found that my experiences at Walter Moberly helped me better understand the concepts I learned in Sociology. In class hearing about some of the social factors that affect our communities was interesting, but through theTREK program I was able to experience these factors in a real setting. The TREK program really solidified some of the sociological topics covered the most like poverty and multiculturalism. Seeing these factors in a real setting was a stark reminder of the privilege that we have to be able to go into these communities, and reminded me that these concepts that we are learning about effect real people that live just a few kilometers from us. This is an experience that would not have been possible if I had chosen to do discussion and I believe that participating in this really assisted in my learning of the core themes of sociology.

Being at the school also offered me the opportunity to interact with people outside of my community of Vancouver, and see how there are different needs and interests in different districts. At Walter Moberly, I helped the kids in talking to them about high school and university and how just like them university students like sports and watching TV. The kids at Walter Moberly were always very interested to hear how someone that was raised in an area very similar to theirs was able to make it to UBC. The students had ideas that you had to be a genius to attend UBC, but after meeting me many began to see that anyone can continue on to university no matter your race or where you are raised.

The TREK program also created a real sense of community within my CAP stream through the TREK discussion sections in which we were encouraged to share our experiences at our placements. Hearing other students talking about their positive stories and hearing how we could overcome challenges really helped create a true community within the classroom. The other events that helped create a real sense of community were the TREK dinners and meetings. At these meetings participants in the TREK program would discuss our placements in a broader discussion about the current societal state of Vancouver and British Columbia as a whole. These discussions allowed for a wide array of discussions about solutions and incorporated many concepts that we have learned in sociology and our other courses into the debate. These meetings also really established the TREK community in the CAP stream as we were able to talk to each other outside of the classroom about our experiences at our placements. This community really created some great friends for me, and it really helped me integrate into the UBC community.

The programs through the TREK program also provided us with many opportunities in the UBC community on how we could further work to combat and understand some of the pressing issue in our communities. These programs showed me how diverse UBC is, and provided me with opportunities I would not have been aware of because of this. These programs really helped me get involved with the UBC community and better understand all of the programs there are truly available at UBC.

My TREK placement offered me some amazing opportunities in the Vancouver area and provided a lot of insight into how the topics we learned in sociology map on to everyday people. The TREK program may not be for everyone, but for me as a commuter I was not able to participate as much in school activities compared to students that lived on campus, and TREK offered me the opportunity to do this. TREK is a great opportunity for many first years, and can really help you get involved in the local community, and while you may not help everyone at your placement your involvement is very likely to help somebody. I hope that in reading this you have a better idea of whether or not you will decide to do TREK, and that if you do decide to participate I hope it is as positive as the experience I have had.

Thanks for reading,

Oliver Ng

Citations

Oliver, Ng. (photographer) (2018, April 12) Front of Walter Moberly Elementary [Photograph]. Vancouver.

By Anna Giesting

During sociology this year, you will be introduced to a concept known as the sociological imagination. The sociological imagination is a way of looking at the world where the viewer is aware of the structures of society that affect a person’s life chances. It makes one aware of how one’s race, gender, sexual orientation, class, age, ethnicity, geographic location, etc. will all influence the opportunities he or she will have and how he or she will be treated. While lectures are an excellent way to be introduced to concepts like this, Trek offers you the opportunity to better understand the real world implications. My time in Trek has made me better aware of my own privilege and the disparity of wealth and privilege within Vancouver and the greater Vancouver area. 

My Trek placement was at Saint James Music Academy (SJMA), an after school music program located in the Downtown Eastside, set up to provide music education and a supportive community to underprivileged youth in Vancouver. I volunteered in a marimba class. Although my primary job was to help the teacher teach the kids marimba, I spent a considerable amount of time keeping track of kids and trying to convince them to play. The time I spent working with the kids made me aware of the many talents they had. I discovered that they were not so different from myself. In fact, in many regards, I could see no differences between them and the much more privileged kids I had worked with in the past. However, I know that they will probably not have access to the same opportunities with which I have grown up. 

When you are surrounded by individuals with similar levels of privilege, it is easy to forget that receiving a university education is not a reality to which everyone will have access. My time at SJMA made me aware that despite similarities between my life and the lives of the kids I was working with, they faced barriers that would make it more difficult for them to reach the same level of education that I have achieved. One girl’s story of her house being broken into and a boy’s stories of being bullied and youth violence in his neighbourhood, made me aware that these kids had already faced harsher realities than I ever have. Through conversations with the staff at SJMA, I became aware of the fact that although the music was important, their actual priority was to make sure the kids were doing okay, which included getting enough to eat, having a safe place to go after school, and making sure the kids knew that people cared for them.  

My time volunteering brought me into the poorest area of Vancouver. It is easy to avoid seeing the inequality in the world, even within our own community. By choosing to volunteer in the Downtown Eastside, I was able to see firsthand the effects of poverty, riding the bus with people from all walks of life, walking the streets where homeless people resided, and working with kids with shaky or unstable home-lives. I say all this not to scare people away from Trek, but to illustrate how I had a much better idea about what inequality looks like thanks to my time volunteering. Thanks to Trek, I have a much better understanding of the ideas discussed in sociology and in many of my other classes, including social justice, political science, anthropology, and geography. 

In order to address the problems in the world, we must first be aware of what these problems are, something Trek helped me do. I found that Trek greatly improved my university experience, not only by enhancing my learning and making me more aware of my privilege and the world around me, but also by making me more aware of the experiential learning opportunities at UBC. By participating in Trek, I discovered that UBC offers a range of opportunities outside of the classroom, including a network of career and experience opportunities. Additionally, I felt closer to the students who also did Trek, being able to share relatable experiences with one another. My time volunteering through Trek encouraged me think to for myself, evaluating how what I learned in the classroom compared with my personal experiences outside of the classroom, a skill that I anticipate being very valuable in the future. 

Picture citation:

Dawes, Andrew. “IMG_2200: Sesitshaya Marimba Ensemble.” Flickr, 29 Mar. 2012, www.flickr.com/photos/bogofoo/7595191010/in/photolist-czakF9-dc7mDD-4auqbS-czakad-i8RZjj-6WYZWf-SfriW3-ewJsw-5X5gJi-6WV1KZ-7YX8VT-rm1Bc4-6WZ1Qs-buk7je-6WZ33Q-ykVk2G-buk7kc-S7WpCZ-9hciN-6WYZ6E-R2qjBY-49Vv5T-buk7mV-aSAbbv-r4zxC5-aSAbxM-23aQx2V-Sfrjhd-Sfrjb1-Sj714T-R2qjP1-R55BKX-22CgNa1-22CgN4j-UxFUs9-RKEgHH-4ZTYAr-8XMiJt-RbE3XD-5ae33d-SfrjkE-Sj716M-SfrjmG-Sfrjjh-nCwZrW-K2ZtCU-SfriXf-SfriUQ-6qP8TU-4g2mh.

The term “NGO” (non-governmental organization) is used very often nowadays, but I don’t think that people think as much about the many different sizes and types of NGOs that exist, especially different countries. Volunteering with Beauty Night Society, a very unique NGO in terms of its organization and mission, helped me realise how diverse organizations out there could be (whether they are NGOs or not). It really made me start paying attention to different organization’s structures, motto, behaviour and so on. I enjoyed learning about how Beauty Night worked and about what the people who run it are like.

The attention I paid to Beauty Night Society’s structure as an organization mirrored the thinking we were encourage to do in our SOCI course, which included the study of social institutions such as banks, governments and private commercial companies. In this way, I suppose I could more easily understand what we were taught in class about such institutions (which can seem sometimes quite divorced from our reality as a young university student) because of what I experienced at Beauty Night.

A large component of several humanities courses (like CAP’s SOCI course, anthropology and so on) involves looking at and attempting to understand other groups of people in the world that can be very unlike the one we grew up in and are most familiar to. As a relatively well-off international student, I sometimes found it hard to picture the groups of people that we talked about in class, for a lot of what we studied was in the Canadian context and used Canadian case studies. Working at Beauty Night with other working class volunteers and being with the less privileged of Vancouverite society allowed me to better understand how they think and behave. This, especially in my first year at UBC, helped me to more quickly connect with course material in all my CAP courses. Writing the Trek reflections (3 to 6 short essays per year) were also very helpful in making me reflect on the social structures that create the circumstances and behaviours I saw at Beauty Night.

To future students of CAP Global Citizens: if it helps, think about what you want to get out of the sociology course when deciding whether you want to take Trek or not. I can’t say for sure what the students in discussion did, so I can’t give a good comparison. But personally, I can say that doing Trek at Beauty Night was definitely not so much of an academic experience, instead an eye-opening journey. It probably just helped me redefine what I understood “learning” to be. Be sure to look at the workload of discussions stated in the main page of this blog too to see which option suits best with what you want to get out of the course.

Doing manicures

Doing Henna art

Written by: Esther Ong

Dear Reader, 

Joining the Trek program was initially a major eye-opener. Before I moved to Vancouver, I was completely clueless about the reality of inner-city poverty. The trek program not only introduced me to an entirely new and lovable community of Hastings Elementary, but it also caused me to confront the pressing issues that Vancouver’s downtown Eastside faces. On my first trip down to Hastings Elementary, I began to see what everyone told me to “watch out” for. I saw the masses of homeless, sitting on the sidewalks in the pouring rain, waiting for generous people to drop coins in their cups, waiting to be dry and full, waiting for someone to help. I saw drugs, I saw disabled, I saw teenage girls sitting alone in alleyways. I saw a line of people the length of two blocks, waiting to get inside, waiting to fill their bellies with the scarce amount of food the community had to offer. I have truly, never been so appalled in my life. It evoked a sense of incredible guilt within me, which I was then accompanied by when I walked into Hastings Elementary.

Despite these alarming issues happening within their community, the school was light and cheerful. I realized two things; the first was that these “alarming” issues have been present for generations upon generations and there has not been enough done to solve them. And second, not many things can take the innate happiness away from children, even though many of them face poverty that no child should experience. After visiting many times to play, cook, help with homework, and most of all build relationships with the wonderful students, I was reassured in my decision to join the Trek program. Coming to Vancouver as a new student, I felt that it would take me all four years to truly know the nature of the city I became a part of, and even though there is still way more to discover, Trek has given me insight that I would have no other way of receiving; it taught me the importance of student activism and working toward your cities problems. Being in the CAP Global Citizens program, Trek prepared me for a wide variety of issues that would be explored in my courses. Most importantly, it guided me in becoming a genuine “global citizen”. I always looked outward at the world’s issues, only wishing I could change something I had virtually no influence on. Joining Trek forced me to look inward on something I could easily be involved in and actively work toward. The problems were right in front of my face, and I had no choice but to acknowledge them. I fully plan on continuing my involvement with the program to hopefully make a worthy difference in the Downtown Eastside. Trek provided me with experience and insight that I apply to my daily learning, and helped me understand my role as a student and as an activist.

Sincerely,

Codi Gambino