#ualberta csl

[facesofcsl]

Daniel D., Student (Psychology)

Read about Daniel’s experience as a student in CSL 100, and being the co-director of community engagement at the Collective of Community Oriented Students (CCOS). 

Trace your involvement with CSL

I heard about CSL from a previous CSL intern, Eunice. The year before I had taken a year off school, during that time I had been volunteering with the Cerebral Palsy Association of Alberta, Habitat Humanity and a couple of other places. When I was going back to school she told me I should take this CSL, and that it would be really awesome to broaden my mind and teach me more about what service work is, and what it means!

I started with CSL 100 with Jay Friesen, I was partnered up with the Learning Centre Literacy Association. It was absolutely wonderful. They are a literacy school for adults, and there are computer literacy, numeracy, and reading programs. In my role as a classroom assistant, I would go up there and teach people about grammar, talk about books and other things. In one of the courses, we read the Breadwinner and we had really cool discussions on politics and what the book meant. Another class was just grammar class and I would help people with what infinitives are, and stuff like that!  I actually did more hours than I needed to, I would go to the Association more than what was required. They are really far away from where I live, but if we were closer I would be super interested in going back again! 

How did CSL change the way you think about things?

CSL was the shift from "helping people out" and moving towards social change. I care a lot about communities and how to help people and how to show up and all that kind of stuff--  but what was really imprinted on me was working toward social change in ways that serve the community. Rather than just serving specific ethics or moral ideas that you have about the world. I think you have to ask: “How am I helping the community in this way, or how am harming the community? How can I make sure that the path we are moving on forward now is beneficial, and is actually something that the community is in charge of?” 

The other thing that was reinforced through CSL, was the idea of taking people as they are. When you are helping people, and you are giving people services and resources you cannot really decide what they will do with those resources. So, you have to decide how to work with them in the ways they want. Before taking these classes, service work for me still asked the question of, "What does helping even mean?” When I would volunteer at other organizations before I took CSL, it was a lot of hanging out and making friends. This was really fun and I enjoyed it, but I did not think about it in terms of community. CSL helped me think of it as more than just hanging out, but as a way to participate in community. 

Did CSL introduce you to new experiences and knowledge, how and what?

Yes, it definitely did. Not just CSL, but all service experiences have been profoundly beautiful in how you meet so many wonderful people that you don't expect. Specifically, at the Learning Centre, there were so many wonderful brilliant people, who had knowledge, but the systems of marginalization were not allowing them to flourish. It made me very uncomfortable - seeing people not being able to flourish because of a disability, or because of their social-economic status. It was like: “Wow, these people are so brilliant, but they just don't have some skills yet.” Also, it wasn't even language literacy, like not knowing how to speak English. It was also about literacy on things like the computer or email.  In this day and age,  if you don't know how to use a computer you can't really do anything. If you cannot access your email or use devices employers use to communicate with employees, it’s likely very hard to find a job!

How has CSL impacted your academic or personal life?

I am currently a co-director for community engagement for Collective of Community Oriented Students (CCOS), which is a CSL affiliated group. So that has been a really cool step, which fits into my academic and personal life. I have learned that school - particularly University, can be very isolating, at times when you are just going to classes and you are seeing familiar faces who you know nothing about. You are learning but there is a lot of pressure, and there is no real opportunity to see who your community is, even though you are constantly seeing the same people over and over again. So, trying to bring the community back into people's lives is very important to me. For me, it is about being present and allowing other students space to be themselves and be a part of our community on campus. 

Has CSL impacted your future? 

CSL has complicated my career path, but in a good way. It has given me direction but also has opened my eyes to other options I had not thought about before. 

For some background, I am an artist, musician and poet. For a while, I was very interested in being a music therapist. Right now, with all of the community work I have been doing, I have been really focused and curious about community psychology. Despite the many flaws psychology may have, for some of its dismissal of societal or community values, there is a strong and unexplored sense of how communities work at a psychological level. 

Psychology is at an interesting point in its trajectory, where it has a lot of authority, and where it can help people. So, I have been thinking about a more academic path, where I can bring together my passion for art, music, poetry and community psychology. So CSL has impacted me in a very profound and complicated way! 

[facesofcsl]

Emily, Former Student & Current Community Partner (Frontier College)

Emily was a CSL student during her time at the U of A, and has now become a CSL mentor in her role as Community Coordinator at Frontier College. 

I finished my degree in English and Creative Writing at the U of A in 2016, and while I was a student I did two CSL placements. My first CSL placement was part of a literature course, and I worked with International Student Services to plan and facilitate presentations on Canadian culture. For example, international students might come to a presentation about how to dress for winter, or basic Canadian history. My second CSL placement was part of a gender politics course, and that one was more behind the scenes. I was responsible for designing a newsletter for my community partner. I’m a very hands-on learner, so I really enjoyed being able to gain experience that was directly related to my courses.

For two years while I was a student, I also volunteered for Frontier College with the Reading Circle program. The Reading Circle program is designed so that volunteers work with the same learner every week and get to build a relationship with them. I still remember one learner I worked with. His name was Andreas, he was from Mexico, and he was super sweet. I think they paired us together because we were both shy and we brought out conversation in each other. 

After graduating I started working in corporate but my friends always said that I would be great for a nonprofit because I’m just very passionate about sharing my skills and knowledge and creating equal opportunities for those who face barriers to learning. I started looking for jobs related to writing and literacy and found that Frontier College really aligned with my values. When I applied for the job, the manager recognized my name from my time as a volunteer. I did well in my interview, and I was hired to be the Community Coordinator.

Frontier College is a national literacy organization. In 1899, our founder believed that learning can take place anywhere and that someone did not necessarily need a formal education to succeed as long as they could read and write. Today we operate different literacy programs across the country, and I am responsible for running most of the programs in Edmonton’s downtown core. 

This term we have eleven CSL students. Most of them are in Education, and they volunteer in the Reading Circles program. We also currently have one student from a Criminal Justice course, and one student from a Native Studies course who volunteer in our prison literacy programs. You could argue that university is actually quite sheltered, so it’s really amazing to see students getting exposure to the community. A lot of people have a certain image in mind when they think of the inmates in our halfway houses but for our CSL students at Stan Daniels Healing Centre, that image is quickly overturned. The residents of our halfway houses are some of the most gentle and reflective people I’ve worked with. A lot of them have grown up in the prison system, and haven’t had positive mentors. That’s why it’s really important to create fun and respectful relationships between tutors and learners. It is important for them to know that they are being heard, and their individual goals are being valued. We recognize that people have different learning styles, they might have gaps in their previous education or barriers to their learning. At Frontier College, our philosophy is that it is more important to have a lifelong love of learning than a natural ability to learn new things. This is something I try really hard to instill in all of our of CSL students.

Another thing that CSL students learn is the importance of relationship building. I recently met with one student who is doing our Reading Circle program, and he spoke about how the theory he was learning in the classroom was very different than what he experienced at his placement. He learned that building a relationship with his learner was so important and it helped her slow down and enjoy the books they were reading. We’ve also had some great moments in our prison programs, where the learner and the tutor were able to connect really well. Our Native Studies student, in particular, was able to connect with his learner at Stan Daniels Healing Centre and they each wrote a poem complimenting their new friend. These relationships have led to some really amazing breakthroughs for our learners and tutors alike.

I’m so thankful for our partnership with CSL. What students learn in class is directly related to our volunteer program. Our Education students are passionate about teaching and working with children and they are eager to share the strategies they have learned in the classroom and in the community. Our other CSL participants from the Native Studies and Criminal Justice classes are both very informed on working with marginalized groups and both of them bring great insight into our programs. 

University is so much more meaningful and exciting when you get to make connections between your classes and the real world. CSL is really important because it allows you to shape your community through service, and to be present and engaged in your own learning.

[facesofcsl]

Fatme E., Student (Honours Human Geography)

My CSL journey started in my first year of university.  I think I saw a poster or an email about it and was like - “Wow that’s so cool, I definitely want to get my CSL certificate!” - I was such a keener! CSL really stuck out to me as something I wanted to pursue in my degree, especially the certificate. I was already so interested in making connections with other non-profit organizations and CSL provided that median and made it easy for students to make those connections. So yeah, it felt like a really great way to supplement my learning and make the most of my university experience.

The ties between my degree and CSL were less about what I was learning in school and more so towards what I wanted to be doing after my degree and what I was hoping to get out of my degree once I graduated. CSL gave me so much exposure to non-profits, and a really great idea of how rewarding the work is. I think without taking CSL, or CSL components, I wouldn’t really have known the realities of the sector. It often can be really romanticised - you’re going out and doing good work that’s helping people all the time. But CSL taught me about the work - it gave me a realistic idea of what that looks like and insight into areas I’m interested in. CSL gave me exposure to things that aligned and expanded my own personal beliefs, morals and interests.

One placement I did was with Elizabeth Fry Society. That was really incredible. They didn’t expect us to do a project for them or have this specific output. Instead, the goal  was just to learn the realities of the law court and the struggles that women experience when navigating the justice system. And that one has stuck with me throughout my entire degree. Coming into university I had wanted to go into law school after my undergrad but after doing this placement I realized that that wasn’t for me, that I wouldn’t enjoy working in the system. So it’s interesting how the placements have both changed my pathway while simultaneously providing me with new paths. They’re really pivotal.

The experiences with CSL have also helped me to get internships!  Being able to add the CSL placements onto my resume is so important. They’re valid experiences and with known organizations that everyone recognizes.

I’m also doing the Non-Profit Board Internship (NPBI) right now. Every board meeting is different! I'm with the Edmonton Multicultural Coalition. I just presented my project idea to the board and they all loved it so much, it felt really nice to be appreciated and to know that I’m contributing my time in a way that will help the board continue to succeed in years forward. It’s different than I thought it would be. I feel like I’m seeing the realities of what non-profit boards have to deal with. It’s great experiential learning.

My favourite moment with CSL is the CSL 350 class I’m in right now. All of my placements have been so incredible, but this class is probably my favourite course throughout my entire degree. It’s so different from anything else. It’s cool being taught how to do research before we go out and do it. And it’s really helping me in how I approach my honours thesis, I wish I had taken it last year. It’s changing the way I think about research within the institution of the university. It’s helped me to understand my perceptions of what’s good research and what’s bad research - not based off of how many readers you have or how many publications you have - but based off of how engaged and involved the community is. It’s changing how I’m thinking about ethics. I’m not even halfway through the course and everything’s changed in my mind! I’ve always felt uncomfortable with the idea of researching and not involving the communities at a deeper level and this class has shown me that research can be really involved and meaningful and still be really good research!

In the future, I definitely see myself working with non-profits in some capacity. I’m really interested  in the art and creative world. I’d love to be working with galleries in some way and making them more accessible to people and increasing the representation of minority artists in galleries. Also engaging with people to help them create their own work that is meaningful to them and that genuinely shares their story. So I guess my interests are engaging with communities in a way that makes them feel like their voices are being heard. I just know that I want to be working with people and amplifying their voices and I see that being done either through non-profit work, or through the City of Edmonton or some type of creative institution.

CSL has changed how I interact with people in my day to day life as well, how important it is to treat others, and myself, more kindly. We’re so quick to focus on the negative and CSL has taught me that focusing on the positive can just bring out positivity. And we often think that if we think about the negative then we know where we need to improve, when often times it’s just self-deprecation. I feel like I’m learning a lot and it’s just going into every facet of my life.

[facesofcsl]

Kelly M., Community Partner (Lady Flower Gardens)

“CSL has helped me learn how to be more organized and purposeful. The guidelines for submitting projects forces me to write down our needs in a simple and directed way. The mentoring that we receive from the CSL staff is also beneficial because they want to support us, and the students, in having a mutually beneficial relationship. I am also very excited to participate in the CSL’s initiative of knowledge generation and sharing with all their member agencies. I am hoping to model something similar with our member agencies.”

“Lady Flower Gardens (LFG) operates like a Land Foundation where member organizations and visiting groups negotiate land use agreements. Instead of granting funds, LFG grants access to agricultural products, land and knowledge for groups that work in community with people who are at risk of being marginalized.”

Kelly Mills is the organizer of LFG. “I am the one who negotiates the land use agreements with our member agencies (Ambrose Place, Inner City Recreation and Wellness, The Mustard Seed, HUoS, Winnifred Steward Society, Excel, Autism Edmonton, E4C, Hope Mission, AHS, ME LaZerte, Emmanuel Home and a number of other social groups).”

“3 years ago, one of our volunteers recommended that we connect with CSL in order to tap into the intellectual power of the youth at the University of Alberta and so I contacted your office  - presto! – since 2013, I have had the great opportunity of welcoming a number of different students from various classes.”

“The CSL students are very keen and helpful, not only with the actual agricultural work, but also with a new set of eyes  - a new perspective that helps us look at our project more critically so that we can improve. For instance, a couple of years back we had a CSL student who recommended that we become more precise and focused about ‘our message’  - otherwise we could get pulled this way and that by well-meaning LFG members, who didn’t understand our mandate. Because of that CSL student we came up with two guiding questions for all activities on our land.”

“I believe the number one lesson the CSL students learn is how we are all human and that we all need to experience nature in order to thrive.”

“Also, we all need to learn about where our food comes from and that people who live on the margins need strategic supports in order to participate in society and become healthy in all aspects of the word – not just physically – but also emotionally and mentally – and even spiritually.”

“The students have added their intellectual power of observation and expression – that is for sure, but another very important benefit they bring, which I wasn’t expecting – was their incredibly great ‘vibe’. They really lift the energy out of our garden. Many of our community members struggle with depression and anxiety and even shame and guilt. If they share the garden with exuberant, non-judgmental youth, it helps our gardeners feel like they are justifiably part of something wonderful.”

“The overriding feeling I have had with our experiences with CSL has been RELIEF! It is an absolute relief to be supported by this wonderful learning organization that is working out of the University of Alberta.  CSL is dedicated to helping their students experience working in community in a way that is soooooo beneficial to social groups like ours. (Believe you me, I understand first hand how that is not an easy task – I see a lot of scaffolding by the CSL staff in making these relationships win-win).”

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Taylor-Rae F., Former Student & Current Community Partner (YRAP)

Taylor-Rae is the program coordinator of YRAP. “YRAP stands for the Youth Restorative Action Project. We’re a youth justice committee in Edmonton that is run totally for youth by youth, so all of our volunteers are between 14 and 24, with the exception of adult advisors.

What makes us unique outside of just having that mandate, is that we also have a mentorship program with all the youth coming through (who are) working on charges who have a supportive person that spends time with them, build trust-based relationships with them, and we’re just re-establishing connections with the community basically for youth who have otherwise been temporarily removed from it, being involved in the criminal justice system.”

“I started volunteering here in January of 2011 with CSL actually. I was in a class at the UofA with a CSL component, and the then director [of YRAP] had come in and talked about what they do, and I thought that was something I’d like to be a part of. So, I came in, and kind of just kept working here as a volunteer until I graduated and then right after I graduated I got hired on as program coordinator. It was pretty cool to get my first batch of CSL students, knowing that I had started here as a CSL student.”

“I really wanted to take what I was learning in my criminology-based courses into the community, but it’s not like you can just walk into an institution and just start getting some time there. So, when CSL gave me the opportunity to get involved with YRAP, I felt I could get beyond these panels and really see the criminal justice system from the inside and it just really gave me an awesome foot into what restorative justice looks like in practice compared to in class and I don’t know I guess I found a place I felt really at home afterwards. So, that’s why I stuck around, and take in so many CSL students here, so they can have the same experiences, basically.”

“That’s the nice thing about CSL, and placements; you can be from any faculty. So we get to meet Agriculture students, and Education students, and Linguistic students, and students who would normally never get to interact with us if they were coming through the criminology programs specifically, so it’s a pretty diverse group of students that we get for CSL, which is pretty magical.”

When asked if other CSL students come back, even after their placement is complete, Taylor Rae replied, “Yeah, absolutely. Pam Ferguson, who used to work here, had been doing a CSL placement too before, so that was really funny. We were in a few classes together but we hadn’t really spoken. We had Kelsie Peter, who had been a CSL student, I believe last Fall just through CSL 100, and she ended up staying on over the Summer to design a program that was funded through CSL. She got a grant from them, so that we could run a Cook-It-Yourself program. So, the youth came in over the two and a half-ish months of summer and worked with a cook who worked with them on the basics of cooking and at the end we had a little Iron Chef, and they got to do bannock with the Aboriginal Seniors Centre and it was a really meaningful program, and it all came because she started here in CSL and wanted to do more. She’s also on our board as a Vice-President now, so there’s a lot of CSL students that stay on it while they’re out doing stuff afterwards, which is really cool. I think two CSL students now are doing SCiP internships with us to help with our Judicial Jamboree Fundraiser because they were more interested in that side. It’s definitely a variation, but they stick around.”

As someone who has such a unique relationship with CSL, it needed to be asked; what was her overall experience working with CSL? “It definitely helped me get my job. But before that, it opened my eyes to the complexity of what marginalization and oppression even look like. I mean, being able to attend University puts you as part of a privileged class right and I think it made me appreciate what I did have by being able to go out and work with the youth I was working with at the time and really begin to understand the complexities of systemic racism and marginalization. I think if you want that empathy, then the only way to get it is to really spend time with people who are experiencing it and try to learn from them because I can’t go back and change my past or where I was born but I can now try to understand it better and help. So, if nothing else, it just kind of lit this activism within me that really made me excited about finding a way to make a difference because otherwise things just start to feel like you’re constantly ingesting knowledge, but you don’t know what to do with it afterwards.”

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Marco L., Community Partner (Migrante Alberta)

Marco is the director of Migrante Alberta, an organization that works as an advocacy organization for migrants. One of the projects of [Migrante Canada] is to really start up something in Alberta, because we know that Alberta has been a hub of migrant workers since 2012.

Interestingly enough, Marco can state the exact date as to when CSL and Migrante began a working partnership. “It all started during the 2013 May 1st, International Workers day. There was a march from the legislature to Grant Notley Park, and I was invited to speak right in the park, and one of the staff from CSL approached me saying that if I was interested in partnering with CSL. I didn’t know what CSL was, at that time, so I said, ‘sure, we could meet and you could tell me more about CSL,’ and from then on I had conversations with [them], just to get our feet wet, to see what projects we could do together because we were very new at that time.”

As to why Migrante continues to work with CSL, Marco says, “Why? I can think of two things. One, because we are a new organization and we need all the help that we can get. But, also on the other hand, I think it’s an opportunity for us to really reach out to members of the community, particularly the students in the community. The longer I stay here in Alberta, the longer with Migrante, it’s really the lack of understanding [people have on] what migrant workers are.”

Working with CSL students, Marco sees how their placement affects their perception: “From what I’ve heard, it’s the knowledge of what a migrant worker is, [how] they’re not just what they read in the papers; that they are temporary, they’re here to steal Canadian jobs, they are brown people, they are people of colour. But there’s more than that. [Students] tell me, ‘I didn’t know they get separated from their families,’ or that they didn’t know that they were taking care of other people’s children while they left their families behind. So, I think learning a little from Migrante, learning a little more, is what I hear a lot.”

Marco laughs when he says that what he learnt from being involved with CSL was to be extra patient. “Really, it is how to work with different sectors in Albertan society, particularly with students. I was really able to step back and think about the message that I wanted to send out, particularly around the work that I do, with migrant workers, because not everyone understands when I say ‘the temporary foreign worker program.’”

According to Marco, CSL has, “added assistance to the day-to-day work that we do, but also connecting. We have a lot of migrant worker members and I think that, that connection between students from Alberta being seen, for example in one of our activities and introducing themselves as ‘I’m a student of the University,’ gives the migrant worker a sense of importance. [They think to themselves], ‘Oh! They’re listening to me! I’m being heard.’ So I think that, that bridge, that connection, that CSL provides us to be able to work with students, is valuable in our work.”

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Natalie K., Instructor

“I actually never thought about [incorporating CSL components into my course]. It seemed like a good thing.”

Natalie is a folklorist and part of her job is getting out in the community. “Essentially, I’m a documentary worker, so I go out and talk to people. Because I work with the community, it was kind of natural [to get involved with CSL].” Natalie sends her students out into the community to work on ‘mini-documentary’ projects, and they get CSL credit. Some of these documentaries goes into instructional websites, for elementary aged students. An example of this is their Alive series which has university students making websites for elementary education. The university students get a real sense of pride from these projects, as the sites are really being used by educators.

As a member of faculty, Natalie spends much of her job time teaching formal writing and formal speaking. But through the CSL placements the students learn a very different style of writing and speaking, when working with communities. “It teaches them another level, if you wish, or another type of writing. It gives them another skill.”

Natalie described her own experience with CSL in two words, “It’s fun.” She was able to meet with new and interesting community contacts. She doesn’t think that she’d would have been spending so much time with the online content were it not for the CSL partnerships. “In that sense, I’ve learned to write another way in addition to the kind of writing I would do for a book or an article.”

Since working with CSL, Natalie states, in regards to future projects, “I would like to do more with refugees. I think working on refugee issues and interviewing earlier refugees, to help newer refugees is something important.”

Commenting on her own overall experience with CSL, in the classroom, in the communities, and with her students, Natalie says, “It helps me extend my own work in the community, to students.”

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Chris P., Community Partner (CJSR)

“I would probably trace my involvement with CSL actually to a different University in a similar program.” As part of Chris’ International Development degree he had the chance to take part in a research placement which had him get quite interested in making the academic world useful to the larger community.

“The first time I encountered the UofA equivalent, to the Community-Service Learning program, was through my old job at ACGC, the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation.” Chris supervised CSL students at this placement, and when he began working with CJSR, that supervising role followed closely.

While working at CJSR, the number one reason for incorporating CSL students with the organization has been to help develop more spoken word programming. “We’re always looking for new content; that’s my job as programming coordinator, making sure there is always stuff to go on air. But also, [our] program mandate is to produce programming that challenges the status quo. So, it’s nice to have students come with ideas of stories that haven’t been told enough or have never been told and they finally get a chance to reveal that story, and share it with the world. It’s neat that CSL students come in with their own ideas and passions, and stuff they have learned in the classroom, that they then want to dig deeper into.”

From his experience with CSL, it has been reemphasized for Chris, that “you really get out what you put into an experience like [CSL]. It’s not about whether you have an immense amount of skill at the beginning, it’s really about your dedication and commitment to learning about the process, and discovering things along the way.”

“I hope some students who aren't already in CSL read this, because it adds so much to education, to have some opportunities outside of the classroom, to think about what you’re learning. I don’t know what it is that pushes people over the edge from doing the bare minimum of coursework, to going out and learning more, but it’s so worth it and also way more fun!”