I came into the course in the middle of chaos that is the first two weeks of school. In between navigating courses, jumping from admin to admin, cleaning the house post winter break, and hyperventilating from speaking in front of a donor appreciation event, I found myself waltzing into GEOG 379 for my first class ever. Having a presentation on community based experiential learning and the kinds of relationship that these experiences foster became a good reminder of the kind of work that I wish to be doing in the future
The lecture on community based experiential learning reminded me of the International Service Learning program that I did last semester, and this class is a chance to do something locally, for communities closer to home. Remembering how I felt during and after my summer placement turned into motivation for giving this class my best effort. I also feel better about being in this placement then when I had gone for ISL. I had felt very under qualified for the kinds of things that were expected of me in the summer, the same daunting feeling is there for our forest community project at Williams Lake. However I have a great team, who had been more than welcoming to the new kid, and who are all very capable in so many areas. Seeing our group dynamic, there is a natural flow of work with everyone literally doing the most really motivates me to do the best I could to. After our Skype meeting with Cathy and getting a feel of the current situation at Williams Lake, I realize the importance of bringing about our diverse experiences in both the technical and the theoretical aspects to complete this project. In particular, I feel that the need to understand the relationship patterns and the power relations in the next couple of weeks will help us identify the stakeholders we need to talk to and the information we’ll need.