How CMU made me enjoy living in Winnipeg | Emma Williamson

Growing up in Winnipeg, I always thought I would leave this wintery plain the moment I turned 18. University seemed like the kind of thing you had to move away from Winnipeg for, to have a good experience like you see in the movies. I had visited other universities around Winnipeg and had seen the thousands of students rushing around the overwhelmingly large and at times not-so-aesthetically-pleasing campuses, running to catch busses in the freezing cold. I thought, “Yeah, I might take my business elsewhere.”

Then I ended up at CMU by chance for a high school internship. The internship itself taught me so much and gave me the opportunity to work with a publishing company at 17 years old, but I was also enchanted by the architecture of the old castle building and the tiny classrooms compared to large lecture halls of other universities. This learning experience seemed to promise a more one-on-one approach.

I grew up in the North End of Winnipeg, which I found difficult for a plethora of reasons. When I moved to northern Manitoba, I made a promise to myself that when I moved again, I would never move back to Winnipeg. If you’ve ever seen the movie Lady Bird, I had sort of the same melodramatic line of thinking as the main character. As she says in the film, “I want to go to the east coast. I want to go where culture is.”

I took a gap year after high school and kept my options open. I remembered that internship at CMU I had when I was 17, where I got the chance to edit the works of published authors. I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, but I knew I wanted to do that. I wanted to write, I wanted to read, and I wanted to have the space to talk about it with my professors and students alike.

Suddenly my promise to never move back to Winnipeg disappeared. How could I dislike a city I had hardly experienced? How could I ignore the experiences I’d had outside of my little bubble and disregard the new opportunities this city had to offer?

I moved back to Winnipeg to live with my dad (who, ironically, lives very close to a different university), ready to try going to CMU as an English student. I can very clearly accredit that moment in my life to when I started developing a love for Winnipeg and stopped longing to leave.

I believe that university is a time for learning how to be an independent adult and for gaining new experiences. That will likely remain true no matter which university you attend, but CMU specifically is the place that gave me a wholly positive experience of entering adulthood in Winnipeg.

From the people I’ve attended class with, to the people I’ve learned from, to the work I’ve done, CMU has fulfilled every romanticized ideal I thought university learning would be like—and I didn’t even have to leave Winnipeg for it.

Emma Williamson is a second-year Bachelor of Arts student, majoring in English.

From farms to far-off adventures: How do students spend their summers? | Cloe Penner

Cloe Penner

As the end of the year was upon us and students were going between applying for jobs, moving out, and preparing for the summer, I swooped in to cause a distraction and find out what the average CMU student is using their summer for.

The average answer is one you would expect: working to pay for school. But I found a few students that, in my opinion, were doing something more interesting with their months off.

One residence student is taking a trip to South Korea and possibly Japan with their family. As the writer (fuelled by jealousy and surprise), I absolutely had to ask some questions. “My aunt’s family is from Korea, so they’re meeting up with us and showing us around,” the student explained. “Plus, my mom’s a huge fan of the culture and wants to see it all. I’m really excited!”

While travelling was a pattern among the answers, not everyone is travelling to sightsee. A student athlete I know headed over to British Columbia for work planting trees. He’s been doing this for a couple years now, and seems to really like what he’s doing. Hundreds of thousands of trees will be planted by him and many other groups over the summer, in areas that loggers have cleared.

Another group of students are preparing to go on a two-week trip to India through CMU’s Estamos program, getting academic credit and experiencing another culture away from home. Estamos is a chance for any student to experience the world while still fulfilling degree requirements. From what I heard, this trip to India is going to be a really exciting one!

More mundanely, this writer has no plans for the summer that are as exciting. I travelled back home to Ontario and I’m splitting my time between working for school and seeing family and friends. I work at an adventure farm, which is basically a huge playground for families! It includes a petting zoo, wagon rides, and a low-level treehouse ropes course—all a big hit with kids. It’s all bee and farm themed, and my favourite job I’ve ever had. Aside from working, I don’t have any big trips planned, but I do see many sunny beach days in my future.

Whether you’re returning home for the summer, travelling, working most of the time, or taking a much-deserved rest after the school year, I send good vibes and hope that the summer is everything you need. Maybe these CMU students can inspire you to try something new while getting rejuvenated for the 2024/25 school year. Have a great summer everyone, and see you in September!

Cloe Penner is entering her third year of a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in history.

Is my participation necessary?: Reflecting on local development and volunteerism | Hannah Peters

I spent last semester learning about and practicing community-based development and local participatory methods in Kenton Lobe’s Participatory Local Development course.

I’ve since concluded that the world doesn’t always need my participation nor my attempts at development.

However. I desperately need to participate. I might not need to change the world, but rather I might need the world to change me.

Through our seminar-style class which assembled every Wednesday night, we engaged such themes and questions. We looked at methods for mobilizing local communities to address complex and intractable issues, working through three overarching questions:

  1. Development of what?
  2. Why local?
  3. Whose participation?

Although we consulted the work of development scholars and composed critical reflection papers on the subject, much of our learning happened through less conventional methods. Kenton rarely gave lectures. Instead, we drew. We moved. We debated and argued and disputed and discussed. We tried out participatory methods for ourselves, practicing facilitation, time-keeping, workshopping, and consensus decision-making.

In an intense and drawn-out process, we also managed to collectively determine an appropriate final project for the class: eight hours of volunteering for an organization working on food insecurity and a final reflection on the experience. (This blog post is in fact my final reflection!)

Hannah (right) with classmate Kat at Agape Table.

I ended up volunteering for Agape Table alongside my classmate Kat. This local non-profit organization cares for Winnipeg’s most vulnerable populations by distributing bagged meals, clothing, and hygiene products.

Kat and I woke up bright and early to make it across town for our 7:00 AM shift. When we arrived there was little fanfare, just some cursory directions about our respective tasks. We promptly began bagging lunches, working alongside a dozen other volunteers to get the food out the door.

I was tasked with putting soup containers into paper bags, an admittedly menial job. I had to wait for the volunteer ahead of me to ladle out the soup and close the lid, and I found myself standing around, waiting, with little to do. Truthfully, this was rather humbling. Although I didn’t delude myself into thinking this four-hour shift was going to save the world, I expected to at least feel useful.

Thankfully, the pace picked up later in the shift, until we were encouraged to take a break. Although probably intended as a 15-minute pause, Kat and I began to visit with Agape Table’s General Manager Dave Feniuk, and our break turned into nearly an hour of idleness.

I found our conversation with Dave fascinating, as he shared about Agape Table’s work, different complications they’d faced, their core values, and advice for working in the non-profit world. Even so, I felt guilty for taking such a long break. Shouldn’t I be on the floor, contributing to that morning’s work?

Eventually we resumed our tasks, but by the time I left, I was questioning how much of a help I’d even been. I was new and needed direction from the more experienced volunteers. I hadn’t put in very many hours of work. And the work I did do wasn’t anything extraordinary.

Truly, I was not essential. The success of Agape Table that morning didn’t depend on me and my labour. My presence for those four hours wasn’t changing the outcome of the morning. I wasn’t saving the world through my volunteering, nor saving Winnipeg from food insecurity.

So what’s the point, then? Why bother volunteering at all?

I’ve wrestled with this question in the days since my first shift. I’ve concluded that although my volunteering doesn’t necessarily change the wider world, it does change my world.

In that first shift, which lasted little more than four hours, I learned a lot. I learned about Winnipeg and the neighbourhood Agape Table serves; about food insecurity, homelessness, addiction, and desperation; and about generosity, service, and the unconditional love this organization practices.

And I found myself inspired and energized. Even as I felt redundant and expendable, I wanted to come back! I desired to join the team, become more knowledgeable, and broaden my perspective.

I also found myself appreciating the simplicity and the repetition of the tasks. It was a different pace from the urgency of university life, as well as a different context. Further, my life at CMU sometimes become shockingly insular as I spend most of my time on campus. Agape Table reminded me of the wider community, while challenging me to slow down and be present. Plus, there was a deep satisfaction in the doing. Paradoxically, the work felt meaningful, even as my individual contributions felt insignificant. Just by showing up, I felt like I was part of something important.

I’m eager to return to Agape Table; Kat and I are already talking about making a volunteer shift a regular part of our schedule and discussing how we might persuade others to join us.

Because volunteering isn’t always about the outcome. It’s rarely going to eliminate hunger, overcome homelessness, or quantifiably change the world. And yet, it’s important all the same.

So, I encourage you to participate in your community. Not to achieve some measurable goal, or for the praise, or to feel important. Do it for the transformation that occurs in the doing. There is such immense personal growth that occurs in the process of working for change. Your contributions to the world—although important in their own right—are absolutely revolutionary for you, your perspective, and your understanding of the world.

Hannah Peters is a third-year Bachelor of Arts student, majoring in political studies.

What are people for? | Sarah Wood

The core question that guided our class, Ways of Knowing, last semester was: “What are people for?” This felt daunting at first. I was just getting the hang of things when suddenly I was asked to academically evaluate the purpose of my existence. Regardless of the intimidating question, my classmates and I powered through, and I’m very glad we did.

Entering university can be quite intimidating, especially when stepping into a completely unfamiliar environment. It’s natural to feel uncertain about what lies ahead. However, one of the most reassuring aspects of the Ways of Knowing course was the shared sense of unfamiliarity among everyone. Since each student in the class was in their first year, we were all in the same boat, navigating the newness together. This created a unique atmosphere where we could lean on each other for support as we figured out how to balance all that came at us. Thanks to the small class sizes, I found myself engaging with classmates I might not have crossed paths with otherwise, leading to the formation of lasting friendships.

Once a month, we would combine with two other Ways of Knowing class sections, to partake in a roundtable discussion. These sessions gave us the opportunity to delve deeper into the concepts that were explored in our weekly readings. They served as a fantastic way for us to broaden our perspectives and engage in conversations with both peers and professors alike. During these discussions we were strongly encouraged to intermingle with students from different classes, which forced us to reach out and form new connections that may have otherwise remained undiscovered. Many of my friendships here at CMU were sparked in these classes. Without having this shared experience with all my fellow first years, I’m certain I would not have made as many connections as I have.

This class gave everyone an opportunity to let their creativity flourish. As the semester drew to a close, each student was tasked with crafting a representation of their own understanding of the core inquiry of the course, “What are people for?” The finished projects were showcased during a symposium held at the end of the year. The open-ended prompt led to a diverse array of projects, ranging from cultural culinary explorations to large catapult designs, from original musical compositions to life-sized tree models. This experience emphasized the inevitable variety that surfaces when projects are approached with such openness, highlighting the individuality of each student’s response to the main question. It was truly incredible to see what everyone came up with when given the opportunity to creatively represent their opinion.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of university life, the Ways of Knowing class felt like a breath of fresh air. The professors were awesome—they genuinely cared about how we were doing and put in a considerable amount of effort to ensure we had fun in class. There were many activities that accompanied the material we read prior to class, and we were often rewarded with chocolate (shoutout Professor Karen Ridd!). This course created a space where our voices were not only heard, but valued. Ways of Knowing was truly a blast!

Sarah Wood just completed her first year of a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Exclusive interview with the newest President of Student Council | Trisha Boodhoo

I am Trisha, a new student ambassador at CMU, and my three favourite things in the world are people, talking to people, and oh did I mention people? Using my detective abilities, I was able to track down Alayna Smith and obtain a one-on-one interview to know all the juicy details about the new president of CMU’s Student Council (STUCO).

Alayna is a third-year student at CMU, pursuing an interdisciplinary degree in Design and the Common Good. “There is not enough relevant information passed down from years to years and it can get lost in the shuffle. I am hoping we can work to create good systems so that future student councils are set up to do the best job that they can do,’’ she said. After three years at CMU, Alayna still believes the best part of CMU is the community and living in a place where one can have easy access to a great social environment full of interesting and unique people—we are so cool, indeed!

Trisha Boodhoo and Alayna Smith

During the interview, we learned that Alayna’s hobbies include art and drawing. How fabulous is that! She also loves spending her free time in leadership roles, planning events, and connecting with people. Fortunately, her search for leadership opportunities led her to be elected as the director of the Arts and Entertainment committee at CMU in her second year. She initially started off her amazing journey in STUCO as one of the two first year representatives in her first year.

Alayna expresses her immense gratitude and her excitement to have been voted head of student council this year. “It felt good that all these people had faith in me and trusted that I could fulfil this role,” she said. “It is exciting to be able to connect with people but also a little scary, for I am representing all of the student body and trying to do the best thing for all of these people. I am going to try my best and work hard to live up to this new role.”

Alayna encourages anybody to be involved in STUCO, even as representatives, which can be one way to be actively involved in CMU, for the voice of students and their welfare matters greatly to the community. She strongly feels that each student can add ideas that create improvements or bring new aspects to CMU and other students’ welfare. I definitely agree with Alayna on that part—get involved in STUCO or other leadership positions and you get a chance to become even cooler!

During the interview, Alayna showcased great passion for her position and further said, “You need to follow your passion and act on it instead of waiting for someone else to do the job for you.” We are all thrilled and look forward to seeing Alayna make her time as President of STUCO as wonderful as possible for us students and for CMU’s community. And with that, this is me signing off as one of the iconic student ambassadors—until my next blog!

Trisha Boodhoo is in her first year of a Bachelor of Arts degree.

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