Past BC Rural Community Based Learning Fund Recipients – 2014/2015
Here are three highlighted recipients that demonstrate how the fund can be used to further remote community based experiential learning (CBEL) opportunities for UBC students.
Course:
Quality Projects and Proposals: Working Effectively with Non Profit Agencies
Applicant:
Jessie Sutherland
Video students talking about the course
Amount Awarded:
$5,000
Project Description:
In this course nonprofit organizations worked with 16 UBC graduate students to develop a proposal for a real project need brought forward by each organization. The goal of each project team (1 representative from the organization and 2 graduate students) was to build a concrete draft grant proposal.
Highlights and Outcomes:
Participating organizations shared that the project has positively impacted the professional development and the ability of their Agencies to develop innovative project ideas and get the funding to turn them into reality. Additionally, this course built student and organizational capacity to work together effectively, develop quality projects and strengthen, and for nonprofits to gain new experiences partnering with the university and all leading to a real impact on real people on the ground since agency leaders were able to develop quality projects and proposals to affect real change on the ground.
Course:
GEOG 379b
Applicant:
Siobhan McPhee
Amount Awarded:
$5,000
GEOG 379b
Project Description:
20 UBC students participated in a research project aimed at engaging with communities and the environment in a sustainable way. Students partnered with 7 community organizations to work with on one of several possible projects themes: economic sustainability and innovation, social sustainability and citizen communication, environmental sustainability in the surrounding forest and city Centre; demographic shifts, employment and reduction of environmental harm; adapting effective delivery methods of education.
Highlights and Outcomes:
Students and partners expressed excitement and enthusiasm for a continued relationship between UBC Geography and the community of Williams Lake. The Remote Fund was a really positive experience because it greatly reduced the cost of travel and accommodation for the students. The community has really enjoyed having the students visit and we will continue this relationship in future years. Students stayed in a local hotel but in future years we are going to explore host families that will impact the community even more directly. The application form was clear and fair. We did have to wait a little longer than told to receive the actual funds into the department.
‘This course will no doubt be remembered as a high point in my undergraduate degree. Courses such as this are essential, and invaluable, to our learning and experiences as geography students. The entire experience was immensely rewarding.’ – 379b student
‘We were really impressed with the students, impressed with the project in general…. Our contact at BC transit was very impressed. [The student project] might have been one of the most valuable pieces of BC Transit’s review that they were conducting at the time.’ – Jessica Knodel, Social Planning Council Coordinator
Course:
ENVR 400
Applicants:
Tara Ivanochko and Sara Harris
Amount Awarded:
$603.30
ENVR 400
Project Description:
Three UBC students in ENVR 400 partnered with the YMCA Camp Elphinstone in Gibsons, BC to strengthen the camp’s existing environmental science education program aimed at school aged children who come to the camp on school trips. UBC students worked with camp counsellors to connect sustainable practices to camp activities.
Highlights and Outcomes:
The project outcome was a wild edibles curriculum for Camp Elphinstone along with training material for camp counsellors and a plant encyclopedia describing local plant species.
“Thank you for such amazing people. Taylor, Alex, and Derek were incredible to collaborate with this past academic year. They were always very positive and engaging… I was honestly stunned with their final product; it’s so polished and balanced. From where we sit as a camp there is a debt owed to them and many years of campers participating in a truly quality activity. Above and beyond what I hoped for in regards to their work ethic, communication styles, honesty and of course program material. I wish there was more we could do for them in return.” –Adim Hébert, Supervisor, Outdoor Education & Summer Programs at YMCA Camp Elphinstone
Course:
LIBR 596 /ARST 596
Applicants:
Lisa Nathan
Amount Awarded:
$5,000
LIBR 596 /ARST 596
Project Description:
Supported in partnership with Dr. Mark Turin and students from FNEL 489H, UBC students partnered with the Heiltsuk First Nation in Bella Bella, specifically the Heiltsuk Cultural Education Centre’s ( HCEC) where they spent 120 hours on a series of Heiltsuk language and information organization related projects. The project was developed to contribute to the ongoing organization of the Centre’s collections with an eye towards the use of material in language programs and for other community driven initiatives. The Centre had created and compiled an extensive collection of analogue and digital resources and materials and was seeking support through this project to mobilize access to and use of these materials through new and emerging technologies.
Highlights and Outcomes:
A story from one of the students participating:
“Kim Lawson, Heiltsuk community member and Reference Librarian at UBC’s Xwi7xwa Library, was our mentor. The staff at HCEC, William Housty (Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department Board Chair), Jess Housty (curator of the Thistalalh Memorial Library), as well as the principal and teachers who work in language and cultural programs at the Bella Bella Community School were also generous with their time. Throughout the week we were particularly fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from Jennifer Carpenter, a Heiltsuk community member, scholar and Director of the HCEC.
The Centre has created and compiled an extensive collection of analogue and digital resources and materials, and we envision future work could focus largely on community grounded information organization systems that can support the needs of teachers, community members and the goals of HCEC.
For us, this experience was not simply an opportunity to connect what we have learned in SLAIS within the complexities of a ‘real-world’ setting. We were provided a supportive and welcoming space to think about what we might be able to contribute as new professionals and how the information field might shift commonly accepted practices to better support projects of a similar nature moving forward. Reflecting on our time spent in Bella Bella we are very thankful for the opportunity to make new friends, to contribute our skills where appropriate, and to learn from the good work undertaken by Heiltsuk community members.”
Course:
FNEL 489H
Applicants:
Mark Turin
Amount Awarded:
$5,000
FNEL 489H
Project Description:
Through an MOU signed in 2016, the Heiltsuk Cultural Education Centre, the Bella Bella Community School and UBC’s First Nations and Endangered Languages Program (FNEL) are partnering in an effort to collaboratively create new opportunities for speaking, writing and reading the Híɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) language by expanding and deepening existing community language revitalization and cultural documentation in a digital environment.
FNEL 489H
In coordination with Lisa Nathan (Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia’s iSchool, SLAIS), Kim Lawson (Reference Librarian, X̱wi7x̱wa Library, UBC & Heiltsuk community member) and graduate students from the School’s First Nations Curriculum Concentration, FNEL instructor Mark Turin led an intensive, community-based course in Bella Bella in early July 2016.
Highlights and Outcomes:
FNEL 489H
In the course of the week in Bella Bella, FNEL students (two of whom are from the Heiltsuk community) worked with Heiltsuk community members to design and test a cross-platform Híɫzaqv Unicode keyboard, trial a beta version of a searchable online Híɫzaqv Digital Dictionary and digitize a number of unique language resources held in the Cultural Education Centre and the Community School to facilitate wider use and access.
At the end of the week, students gave presentations to community language experts on what they had learned through their coursework. Student-led demonstrations of the keyboard input system and the public sharing of student-made Heiltsuk language videos were very well received, with a number of Heiltsuk community members expressing interest in joining future community-based classes for credit should they be offered.
Course:
EDUC 430 Field Experience
Applicants:
John Yamamoto
Amount Awarded:
$5,000
Project Description:
A total of 20 UBC Education students completed community field experience for graduating teachers in rural communities in school district #27, Cariboo Chilcotin. The focus of these placements in rural schools was to foster new relationships and for students to enrich and expand their understanding of the rural setting in which education occurs, including aspects of non-formal education, understanding the role of community in education, and frame an inquiry into places of learning.
Highlights and Outcomes:
100 UBC students participated in the project, supporting 6 school districts, an increase from 4 last year and more districts asking to be a part of the program. As a result of the Fund, approximately 20-25% of all field placements for the enhanced practicum are in rural setting now.