I obtained my undergraduate degree, a B.Sc. in Environmental Science, at the University of Guelph.

I love Guelph. I say “Guelph” meaning the University, mostly, but the city itself and it’s people are wonderful too. There are a lot of people with really big hearts in that city. Back when I lived in Guelph, I volunteered/worked for an organization called Guelph Environmental Leadership (GEL). A good portion of my job was spent with a portable GEL booth set up at public events or outside local stores. I met so many environmentally-conscious citizens – really thoughtful people who thought locally. A lot of my peers and the professors I met during my studies were equally as awesome.

Anyway, I was just researching some things on the internet and stumbled across this article, linked from the UoG webpage. I had to shake my head in a kind of motherly satisfaction: of course Guelph is the only city in its region with a student volunteer centre. Of course UoG is having a free one-day conference aimed to connect students with volunteer opportunities and inspire the general public to take positive social action. Of course this is something Guelph does, because positivity and outreach suit Guelph naturally.

I am so happy to have stumbled across this article. I have now discovered that one of my great true loves, Guelph, is intersected in a beautiful Venn-diagram-like way with one of my other great true loves, Volunteerism.

Ugh. Perfection!

Here is a link to the Student Volunteer Connections website, in case anyone out there is interested. I just signed up for their weekly newsletter. Inspiration does not have to be found locally.

Hi all (everyone and no one?),

I have created this blog with the intention of writing reflections on what it’s like to be a M.Sc., or more specifically, a M.Sc. student who is pursuing a decent load of extracurriculars, and has already realized her ideal career aligns better with a different subject than that of her thesis.

Let me fill this out with a little more detail.

I’m working towards my M.Sc. in Biological Oceanography in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences. I love Oceanography and I love the fieldwork; I’ve been lucky enough to go on 2 research expeditions to the Arctic Ocean (more specifically, the Beaufort Sea)  and the North Pacific. I’m less enthusiastic about the lab work and intimidated by the reading, but it’s going okay. I hope to finish in a little while – but I won’t jinx myself by saying when.

I volunteer at the Vancouver Aquarium, which is a wonderful experience. This came about by my desire to get a little teaching experience. In my first semester as a M.Sc., I took a course called Teaching and Learning in the Earth and Ocean Sciences (EOSC516) which I fell in love with. I knew quite quickly my ideal career path involved pedagogy, but I didn’t know if I was into teaching kids, teens, adults….or simply discussing the theory, more “behind the scenes”. What I do at the Aquarium is volunteer with a School Program that brings in 2 classes from grades 5 to 12 weekly. I’ve been volunteering with this program since October 2009, and have gained experience teaching this wide range of ages. I have since concluded that although I love interacting with these students and seeing their excitement over the animals, I am more interested in teaching/”behind the scenes” work in higher education.

For the past 2 fall semesters, I have T.A.ed the course I mentioned above. Not only this, but I also did a T.A.ship for EOSC516 this past summer, in which I got to organize the course for the upcoming semester, including design a Vista site and design assignments. The course is finishing up this Friday, and I’m nervous for some of the feedback on that…but I’ll write a reflection on that later! I routinely write reflections about my facilitating successes/challenges after course sessions, so I’ll post some up on this blog soon.

Finally, I keep myself busy with EOS Grad Council, I fairly-regularly take teaching & learning professional development sessions/workshops at the Centre for Teaching and Learning Technology on campus, and I try to keep active, but fail miserably.