Hello future CAP “global citizens” and Trek participants,
Crazy how fast this first year has gone by, I remember last August (which feels like just yesterday) when Dr. Greer first emailed us about the opportunity to participate in TREK and reading through other CAP alumni’s blog posts about TREK.
When I first was introduced to the idea of participating in TREK, I immediately thought yes! I thought it would be a good way to become more integrated into the University on campus as well as have new experiences off campus. When selecting which placement I would like to volunteer with, I immediately knew that I wanted to volunteer at a school as working with kids is something I really enjoy doing.
My first few experiences with TREK, were not quite what I expected, as I unfortunately wasn’t able to start at my placement until the middle of January. As disappointed as I was to not have started my placement, I learned many new resources and ways to communicate throughout the University. Since, I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t started my placement I was able to bond and communicate to the other CAP students who were placed at Mount Pleasant. We were able to share information that we received in our numerous trips to the CIRS building and our frustration about not being able to begin. Though we were both disappointed and frustrated we knew that it was out of our control and were able to learn different skills that will be helpful throughout our time at UBC.
Once January hit, we finally received an email from the Principal at Mount Pleasant. After emailing back and forth, we were able to find a time that worked, and it happened to be the same time that one of my other CAP classmates was also going to the school. Since the elementary school is locating in East Vancouver, we took the bus about 40min to get to the school, being someone who commutes to and from school for about 2 hours each day this was a somewhat “short” bus ride. I remember both me and my classmate being nervous about going for the first time as we really didn’t know what to expect. When arriving at the school we were warmly welcomed and placed in different classes, I was lucky enough to be placed in a Kindergarten class.
Being a teacher assistant in the kindergarten classroom really allowed me to both connect with each child as well as use my sociological lens to connect concepts directly to our Sociology class. I first didn’t really know what my purpose was at Mount Pleasant, as the two classroom teachers and their EA’s seemed to have everything under control. I however, quickly realized that I wasn’t their to keep them behaved and under control but as an example and representative from UBC. Quickly students would as me “where are you from?” or “where do you go to school” and when I answered UBC, while some knew exactly what that was, many students didn’t. As we had discussed in both our monthly TREK discussions and regular SOCI lectures that some children aren’t exposed to the idea of attending University as their parents may have not had the opportunity to attend themselves. We as UBC students served as an example of a University student in a classroom of young, keen learners.
That being just one example of a connection to our regular lectures and TREK discussions, my experience at Mount Pleasant made many concepts that we were learning in class more interesting as I could compare them right to experiences at my placement. It both helped to support and contribute to my learning in sociology, that I feel I wouldn’t have been able to develop in regular discussion sections.
Overall I would definitely recommend doing TREK to all incoming CAP students, it is a nice way to get off campus and experience new areas and opportunities, as well as make connections and friendships with other CAP students. Just remember that if it doesn’t work out immediately or takes a bit of time to be put into your placement to be patient it will eventually all work out!! Though my experience may have been a little bit shorter than I originally hoped it was definitely a positive one, that I will always remember.
Thanks for reading and if you do choose TREK I hope you enjoy,
Catharine