Hello everyone! My name is Taylor Bootsma and I am just wrapping up my first year of university and my volunteering with my Trek placement. Trek Is a program offered in Professor Greer’s SOCI 100 class as opposed to taking a discussion. For me, choosing to partake in Trek instead of the discussion was an easy choice because I had previously decided that I wanted to take part in the community through volunteer work, and the Trek option allows you to do just that as well as receive credit for you class. Additionally, in the discussion you are required to write a 15-20 page paper, and I am not a fan of writing essays. As for in Trek, there are four short reflection assignment spread out over the course of two terms. It should be known however, that Trek requires a time commitment of about two to four hours a week and placements are spread out around Vancouver and usually not to close by.
Coming to UBC was a difficult transition without having any family or friends nearby for support. Getting involved in the Trek program gave me a great resource to build relationships and connections with other UBC students. It also was a great opportunity to just get off campus and participate in something that was meaningful to me. Being engaged with Trek during my first year of university made me feel like I was a valuable member of the community and like I had something to offer UBC. I believe Trek is a great opportunity for students who want to volunteer in the community but also just for students who want a mechanism to introduce them to Vancouver, other students, and UBC.
For my Trek placement I chose to be placed at the Beauty Night Society, which is an organization that travels to shelters and low income community housing for women and gives manicures, pedicures, foot scrubs, massages and sometimes a variety of other things. I am by no means a beauty expert so while joining the Society I felt quite intimidated, but I soon realized that it didn’t really matter how well you could paint nails, what really mattered was how you could interact with the women in our service and other volunteers. Volunteering at the Beauty Night Society was a great experience that allowed me to build connections and an understanding for one of the most excluded populations in our society. The main reason I wanted to join the Beauty Night Society was because I wanted to address one of the most prominent social issues Vancouver faces, which is its large homeless population. I wanted to understand what the causes of homelessness were and how they could be addressed. The Beauty Night Society gave me the opportunity to work in a comfortable setting with women who were or had been a victim of homelessness, which helped me better understand the social issue.
Volunteering in general is a great way to expand your skills and knowledge. It allows you to develop real life skills working with people and with institutions and it better prepares you for employment in the future. It also allows you to create relationships with supervisors and other volunteers who in the future may be willing to write you reference letters. Additionally, volunteering made part of SOCI 100 gives you a context through which what you are learning in class can be observed. This doesn’t just make the class more enjoyable, it also makes it more applicable and easier to understand. You can directly witness how the themes and ideas you are discussing in class are prominent factors that determine our social structures and institutions. Personally I have also found that some of the topics addressed in SOCI 100 can make you feel inadequate; like you as an individual have no agency and like we are trapped in the iron bars of our society and the power elite. But volunteering made a part of this class gives power to you as an individual and shows that we do have agency, and we do have the power to change our society if we only put in the time and effort.