CEL 2/5: Identity
“Don’t put the baby in the corner”
My first day at the placement consisted of two all-staff meetings starting with an update on where they are in the process of “going national”, and what the next phase will be. On my second day, there was a team brainstorming session where we imagined what our commercial for EcoSchools Canada could be if we had unlimited budget. It’s hard to believe it’s only been my second day, but we are building ideas and visions together already.
Throughout the week, I had meetings with not just the people I am interacting with for the tasks they hoped I might be interested in but everyone in the office. Each person I met with shared a little perspective on what they are working on. In one of such meetings on communication strategies, I learned about how they differentiate the messages they’re sending out based on the platform and audience pool. Every strategy I used in the past with my email or social media communications stemmed from a good amount of trial and error as well as intuition, so seeing a communication system in place was amazing. I feel very integrated into the whole organization and culture.
What’s in it for me?
I came into the internship with an open mind. Too open, now that I think about it. EcoSchools Canada is a charity that recognizes schools for their environmental learning and actions. Being involved in this type of thing is totally up my alley, and I was ready to commit my 100% for the four weeks that I’d be around. I thought I was ready for whatever they asked me to do, but I was so not ready when several people asked me what my goals were. When we were writing down our learning goals for blog #1 and the annotated bibliography, I gave some vague responses like “oh, I probably would learn more about the curriculum from other provinces….but it totally depends on what I end up doing.” This guide for non-profit listed tailoring projects to the person’s skills and interests as one of the important things to do to make internship experience meaningful and successful. I know I’m very competent, but exactly what am I competent in?
So I came up with a goal. I want to go through my resume of experiences and identify my skills and interests. That seems pretty basic but I couldn’t really list, off the top of my head, what transferrable skills studying genetics in my undergrad gave me. This will help both myself and the team in identifying tasks and projects that leverages my strengths. Thinking back to a previous volunteer experience where this sort of conversation did not happen, I did what the organization needed me to do but ultimately the experience didn’t add much or sharpen any tools in my toolbox. I have value and skills to offer EcoSchools, but here I should also consider what they can do for my professional growth. And a professional(ish) goal, is I want to make a solid impact on one project to be able to explain to people that ask “so what are you doing for them?” Right now, that project looks like it’s working on connecting the environmental actions from school EcoTeams to the curriculum in the various provinces, subjects, and age groups.
An [internship], by any other name, would [be] as [fruitful]?
Last year I did a four-week unpaid, non-credited, non-evaluated placement as a part of the Master of Teaching Internship. It was a unique experience, but it wasn’t attached to any academic outcomes. In retrospect, I wasn’t sure what I was volunteering for. I did it because it happened to fit into my schedule and surely experiencing education from a non-classroom experience couldn’t hurt. In contrast, my current placement is part of a Community-Engaged Learning course, and I was the one that sought out this opportunity. EcoSchools was kind enough to take me on for only four-weeks, knowing they’d have to take the time to train me. In exchange, I’d help with whatever project they might need help with.
When you combine the academic side and the civic-engagement side of an academic institution, you get service-learning with community partners, and you get reciprocity (Chambers, 2009). In these experiences, the student gets to apply their academic skills and tap into the potential career network, and the community partners can benefit from the infusion of those skills. When I was asked about my goals, I had trouble thinking of what I wanted to get out of the organization. It seemed a little selfish of me to think about what I wanted. But now I think the exercise of identifying my skills and taking on more tasks that connect to those skills (instead of doing whatever tasks needed to be done) is actually not being selfish, but being efficient and making the most out of this experience.
However, none of the approaches to service-learning, mainly philanthropic, social justice, and social transformation (Chambers 2009), really apply to what I’m doing here. The “community” that is being served in the theoretical framework has social, political, economic needs that needed to be addressed from a “fight-the-system” approach. What I’m doing at EcoSchools is more like the description of co-operative education, where the approach is like an exchange between extending the student’s professional skills (that’s me!)and providing resources in time and skill to an organization that may not otherwise be able to afford another set of hands and brain.
So uh, I’m in a Community-Engaged Learning course, doing an alternative placement from the Master of Teaching program. It’s like a co-operative education opportunity, but it can be service-learning… if you don’t read too close into the theoretical frameworks of what service and community meant, even though EcoSchools is definitely an important stakeholder in the Environmental Education sector that could use the support. I came to this conclusion after whirlwind of thoughts and questions about what this placement should be called. Just call me Katie eand don’t stick me in the corner.
Chambers, T. (2009). A continuum of approaches to service-learning within Canadian Post-Secondary Education. Canadian Journal of Higher Education. 39(2), 77–100
