source: Vancouver School Board
Trek was an experience that has truly shaped my first year. Upon arriving at UBC I was looking for ways to get involved with the community, so I was glad to hear about the Trek program. Trek is a program run out of the Center for Community Engaged Learning which connects UBC students with community partners in need of volunteers. The community partner that I chose to work with is Visions 180 which is an after school program, run out of Grandview Elementary School. Grandview Elementary School is located in the Grandview Woodlands community in East Vancouver. The community has a diverse culture made up mostly of immigrants and Aboriginal populations. The Visions program caters to the community by offering a minimum cost afterschool program to the students of Grandview (grades two to five) from 3 until 5 pm. During my time there I interact with the students and assisting the staff with running the programs. Through Trek I was able to make connections with the students and other staff members, in addition making what I was learning in the class room tangible.
Each week I looked forward to going to Trek, as it gave me the opportunity to get away from the bubble that I so often found myself in at school. Especially in the first few weeks of the year when my life revolved around school work and settling into university life I eagerly anticipated going to volunteer each week. By making me get off campus once a week, Trek served as a way to remind me that there is life off of campus. Furthermore, when I got caught up in wondering why I was even at school, Trek was a reminder of the goal I am working toward. Trek kept me motivated throughout the school year. By giving me the opportunity to go out into the community that I normally don’t go I have been able to see firsthand the issues that these communities are facing. It was an eye opening experience for me as I truly began to recognize and appreciate my privilege. By acknowledging the privilege I have, I gained better understand the concepts learnt in class and could begin to see that my privilege is a tool that as I recognize it and use to bring about change once I acknowledge the problems.
In addition to providing me with a grounding experience during my first year of university, Trek allowed me to apply the sociological concepts I learnt in class to real life situations. Concepts such as gentrification (the process of developing an area that is where lower classes live for the middle class to move in) seemed very abstract to me when I first learnt about it in class. However, one a student was telling me about how her family is moving because a d
source: Can a City be too Pretty? How Gentrification Affects a City’s Art and Soul , http://68.media.tumblr.com/0e3af877d856daaab9c848cc633e80a9/tumblr_inline_mjphlsYMOy1qz4rgp.jpg
eveloper is putting in a new condo on the property she used to live in. This student’s experience as being a victim of gentrification made me realize that this concept I learnt about in class was having real life impacts on these communities. Seeing the real life implications of these concepts helped me get a deeper understanding of the course material. Seeing these issues first hand also helped me to link the concepts from class together. For example, I could see links between gentrification and neoliberal polices, and further relate these concepts to why programs like Trek exist in the first place. I began to understand the need for programs such as trek to supply these community partners with volunteers due to the neoliberal principles adopted by governments leave public services to be funded by private investors. This leads to a greater divide between classes which further impacts the lives of people in these communities. One such impact is on health, as we learnt that there are many social determinates of health (markers of social class and gender which can make a difference in health) . This understanding helped me to understand why so many children in the program are overweight or sick for long periods of time. One experience that really impacted me this year was an interaction that I had with a student who I was helping with homework. They were struggling with math and upon becoming very frustrated, asked me what the point of learning this was because they “weren’t going to university anyway”. This statement broke my heart as I realized the internalized oppression (when members of an oppressed group internalize the dominate image of themselves) that the child faced due impact that labeling from dominate groups in society. This was the point when I realized the discriminatory sociological concepts I learnt about in class, but did not think were much of an issue in modern Canada, are an issue that need to be addressed. When I began to feel frustrated with all the inequality you witness comparing Trek placement to my own life, I learnt about social movements and ways to bring about change in sociology class. In sociology it is emphasized that social structures have great influence on our actions, and that we create these social structures through conforming to norms. This may seem daunting and as though we have lost our autonomy, to realize that all your decisions are influenced by outside forces, but it is also promising. It is promising because if we as a society create these social structures, then we have the power to make changes to them as well!
In conclusion, I want to tell you that your first year at UBC will be an experience like you have never had before. It will be a time for you to question who you really are (no matter how sure you seem now) and to formulate your values and passions. It will be a great, hard, unforgettable experience that you will come out of with a deeper understanding of yourself. This being said one of the best ways to capitalize on your first year experience is to do something that is out of your comfort zone or just different than what you originally anticipated. Get involved! Trek is a great opportunity to do just this. It will provide you with an outlet, a way out of a 30-page paper, and sense of purpose and value (at least it did for me!). I would strongly encourage you to do the Trek program, it will impact you beyond the walls of the class room and help you to build your weak ties with the community. Whatever you decide to do this year, good luck and be open to any new experience that comes your way (wow that sounds cliché, but it’s true!).