Greetings to all of you – I hope that you’ve had a great start to 2019 so far. Below is an update on the research project, along with some upcoming events and resources. As always, feel free to explore blogs.ubc.ca/experiential for more resources – and contact me any time for a coffee or conversation.

*FYI I was digging through the UBC archives for historical examples of experiential learning. In case you’re interested, I’ve included a couple of photos (1994 archaeology field school, and 1940 forestry field trip).

All of the data for my research project on experiential learning has been collected and I am in the analysis phase. On January 24, I shared a presentation with the Community Engaged Scholars group. The purpose of my presentation was to talk about the project itself, share some of the resources I’ve developed (via the blogsite) and share / member check some of the emergent findings from the study. Thank you to those of you who were able to provide feedback as we move forward (and if you weren’t there, I am happy to visit your units / offices to do something similar).

The next steps of this project are in formation, but below are a few important dates below:

1. On Thursday, March 21, 2019: I’ll be doing a Brown Bag Presentation (USB 1178) 12-1pm. Please feel free to come by and learn about the findings and engage in dialogue about next steps.
2. April 2019: Target date for a draft of the project report
3. May 2019: We plan to hold a UBC half-day summit-like event with members of the UBC-Vancouver Experiential Learning community. Our aim is to share back findings with some of the people who generously participated in this project, and to generate dialogue and recommendations for moving forward. We also aim to invite some UBC leadership to this event to engage in generative conversation about future directions of experiential learning at UBC. (Date TBA – will keep you posted!)
4. May 2019: UBC-Okanagan Celebrate Learning Week (with a focus on Experiential Learning): We encourage you to attend if you are interested. I will likely be doing a presentation on this experiential learning project and insights we have generated throughout.
5. June 1-5: Congress 2019 will be hosted at UBC this year. I, in collaboration with various experiential learning leaders at UBC, will be presenting on a variety of related topics, including:
   1. Experiential learning from diverse stakeholder perspectives (panel)
   2. Experiential learning: What lies beyond the “comfort zone” (paper presentation with Dr. Alison Taylor)
   3. Experiential learning across the humanities (panel presentation with Dr. Tara Mayer, Dr. Kerry Greer, and others)
6. More to come! In the spirit of sharing back this research with the community who helped to inform it (You!), I would be happy to come and present within your units or faculties if you think it would be helpful. Please contact me any time.

Other news:

• Funding Still Available: The Centre for Community Engaged Learning still has two pools of funds available in the following areas:
  • BC Rural Community Engaged Learning Fund
  • Community Engagement Course Development
• I recently published an article in the Journal of Experiential Education with seven Ugandan participant-researchers who I worked with for my doctoral research. It underlines the importance of relationships in International Service-Learning partnerships, and also examines the tensions and power relations involved in the co-publication process with community partners.

Thank you again for your engagement and commitment to experiential learning at UBC. Looking forward to continued conversations in Spring 2019!