I am excited to be a pioneer by being involved in the development of a new Masters Degree Program offered by UBC. The fact that UBC has partnered with City Studio is very appealing to me in addition to the project based learning approach. I transferred from SFU to UNBC to complete my undergraduate degree due to my interest in being part of a new program and at that time a new university. The opportunities were very exciting as the community welcomed students to participate in real work experience, collecting raw data that hadn’t been collected before, analyzing challenges that hadn’t been done before and so on. I graduated with not only a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the Natural Resource Management Department but I also left with many skills to include on my resume and valuable community connections. I believe that this new program through UBC and City Studio has the same potential. I am an Experiential Educator through and through and I learn best through that model of education as a student as well.
During my studies with UNBC, I became very passionate about Natural Resource Management and all issues related to sustainability. Upon graduating I worked for BC Parks, where I was an Extension Officer, which meant that I was in charge of public outreach, communication and environmental education. This was a fantastic experience for me. I was also the lead facilitator of the BC’s Legacy Project, which included a major public participation process about the future planning and management of parks and protected areas. This was so interesting. I then moved further north, working again for BC Parks and also doing research for the Northern Land Use Institute about Sustainable Tourism Development in the Robson Valley, once again a very interesting experience. Once that project wrapped up I headed north again, to Whitehorse and worked with Water Resources in what I thought was my dream job, as an Environmental Assessment Officer, coming up with mitigations to protect the environment during any development. I also taught Outdoor Education on the side. I realized that it was education that was my passion, working with people who still have an open mind to build healthy relationships with the environment and who do not see environmental mitigations as barriers to their development interests. So I went back to school to become an Experiential Educator, one who would do my best to facilitate a positive experience in nature for each person I worked with to increase the likelihood that each person would take the environment into account in any decisions they made.
My teaching career has been very unique and rewarding. I have taught in the classroom, distance education and experiential education. I also taught as a contract Zero Waste Educator for the government. I taught outdoor education year round for many years as well as leadership and global education courses. I ran the Environmental Club and Humanitarian club at one of the schools I worked with and I developed and led service programs and trips, often traveling to developing countries to work on sustainability projects with students. I helped to plan and host a Sustainability Conference for an international organization of schools, called Round Square, and thoroughly enjoyed this experience. I am now teaching part time at a small public Middle School in Squamish and I have dreams to also work as an educational consultant to help inspire more sustainability projects in our schools and beyond. I dream of creating a youth Sustainability Institute, where professionals would share their passions with youth, an exchange of energy and learning.
I now teach as an Environmental Learning Teacher with the North Vancouver School District, at the Cheakamus Centre. This outdoor school, environmental education, field study approach is incredibly rewarding and effective. It is amazing to see students connect with nature and be in awe of their surroundings.
I have also joined the Board of Directors with EEPSA, to help support educators in their efforts to include Environmental and Sustainability Education in their practice. And I am helping to research and promote the opportunity for UBC Bachelor of Education to develop a Sustainability Education Program to ensure we have more teachers in the future incorporating sustainability education into their teaching.