Category: academics Page 9 of 13

I’m in my third year of International Development Studies, and I think development is something we all need in our lives. Despite popular belief, development isn’t something that an individual can take and deliver to someone in need like pizza. It’s a process which explores important questions of privilege and power imbalances. It teaches individuals to build relationships centred around trust and respect.

At CMU, we are encouraged and challenged to understand how our perception and theorists’ definitions of development is defined by worldviews and values. It is difficult to provide a simple and concise definition of development because good development is fluid, taking the shape of the context and people that create it.

On the other hand, destructive development can be easier to define. A development worker once shared with me a story. She knew a development worker who was riding to the city in a packed community bus through winding roads. Someone got car sick and threw up all over the floor of the bus. No one in the bus seemed disgusted or did anything to clean the mess that seemed to be spreading. Grandparents hopped over the mess and women carrying chickens struggled to navigate their way around it with their children.

The development worker could not believe no one was cleaning the mess and decided that he was going to use his newspaper  to cover it. While the bus waited on the side of the street for individuals to lower their produce from the roof of the bus, he quickly covered all the mess. The worker went back to his seat.

To his horror, as soon as the bus started moving, the wind came through the open windows and caused the newspaper to fly around the bus and smack passengers in the face. The worker slouched on his chair and pretended to take a nap for the rest of the trip! He was unaware that everyone was waiting for the next bus stop, which was near a house where the driver was planning to clean up the mess with a bucket and mop.

That story helped me understand that even with the best of intentions, we can cause harm to those we hope to help. As development practitioners, we need to be attentive to local knowledge – and remember that eating before a bus ride can be a bad idea!

César

My name is Sara and I’m in my second year at CMU in the Environmental Studies program. I love God’s creation and have always been interested in the mysteries of the natural world. My mom jokes that “metamorphosis” was one of my first words (metamorphosis is the transformation of an immature form of an insect to it’s adult form, or the process by which a caterpillar turns into a butterfly).

Sara works with classmates in a small, professor-directed lab at CMU.

A dream that I’ve held my whole life is to be Ms. Frizzle, the crazy science teacher with a magic school bus. I probably won’t be able to take students into space or inside the human body for a field trip, but it’s Ms. Frizzle’s excitement and passion which I want to replicate if I get to become a biology teacher. I enjoyed science and specifically biology in high school when I began understanding the concepts of DNA and genetics. These discoveries excited me, and if I haven’t convinced you that biology is super cool, then I can show you some of the pictures I have of meiosis or you can take a look through the microscope I got for Christmas in grade nine.

After I graduated from Linden Christian School in Winnipeg, I took a year to go to Capernwray Bible school in England. My next step was university. I’d heard great things about CMU and have now experienced them. I got to be in small classes of about 25 people in my first year biology courses, and I had one-on-one help from my professor in my labs. That was worth so much. You would not be able to get this at other universities in your first year.

The professors at CMU are passionate and want to share their excitement with us students. When I talk with Rachel Krause, one of our biology professors, about her work, I can tell she enjoys it. She’s helping me figure out how to reach my goal of becoming a teacher. At CMU people truly care about you and your goals.

It is nice to be in a place where I am taught about God’s creation and have classes like Ecology, Environment, and the Bible, where I can learn the biblical perspective on topics covered in my other classes. At CMU, it is recognized that science is more than what is physically in front of you; science can also be a way for us to see the majesty of God.

I encourage you to consider CMU for yourself and become part of this vibrant learning community.

Guest blogger Sara is an Environmental Studies student.

This year’s Burkina Faso Outtatown spent a morning picking “earth peas” with a farmer and his 4-yr-old son.

When I finished high school, I had no clue what I wanted to do. I decided to take a break from school, hoping to discover what I was passionate about. I ended up on the Outtatown French Africa program.

We spent three months travelling through Francophone Canada (Winnipeg, Quebec City, and Montreal); Burkina Faso (in West Africa); and France. Over this time, we volunteered with many organizations, where we met interesting people and were pushed to look at the world in a different way.

Outtatown’s motto is, “knowing God, knowing yourself, knowing the world,” and this is the best way to summarize my experience.

Knowing God

In Outtatown, I learned that God speaks in so many ways. Through conversations with people in my group from different faith backgrounds, I began to see God beyond my own experience. I learned to worship in new ways, both in Canada and Burkina Faso. By witnessing how those around me lived their faith, I was challenged to grow in new ways and pay closer attention to God’s presence in my own life.

Knowing Yourself

I realized that I was capable of more than I gave myself credit for. Being surrounded by a loving community, I was able to do things that I never would have been able to do otherwise. I went bungee jumping, even though I am terrified of heights, and learned that I love adventuring. I also realized that I am passionate about building relationships with people who have a different story than myself, and asking what it would look like if the world was just. This love of adventure and social justice has continued in my studies and as I seek out new opportunities for adventure.

Knowing the World

I experienced a world that is broken and hurting, but filled with courageous people. Through my readings and conversations, I was struck by poverty as well as the people making a difference. Though the world can feel hopeless in the face of such issues, the people I met lived with the hope that things can change, and called me to that as well.

Every time people ask me about my experience, I answer that it was one of the best choices I ever made. It was a time when I was supported in asking questions, had a lot of fun, and learned what it meant to grow and change.

Laura

The Outtatown visit day is November 23! Sign up here.

After my year spent in the Outtatown program, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I loved hearing peoples’ stories and travelling, and I had a deep desire to make the world a better place.

When I started my first year, I was nervous because I wasn’t sure if I was ready to step back into the academic world or what classes I was going to take. So I decided to take a little bit of everything: international development, science, theology, and peace and conflict studies.

I’ll never forget my first Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies (PACTS) class. I felt as though this program was designed especially for me. It had everything I cared so deeply about: learning how to deal with conflict on a personal and global scale and how to develop healthy relationships and prevent violence.

I’ve never truly enjoyed school; I’ve always struggled with taking notes, memorizing, and writing tests. But I was blown away by the practical and experiential way that PCTS material was taught. Personal stories were shared, group insight and discussions were encouraged, international and local peacebuilders came to speak to us, and there were field trips to hold my attention. I remember more then once we would leave the classroom to do some type of activity, whether that be sitting in a circle to share our thoughts or doing the blanket exercise (a powerful teaching where participants take on the role of indigenous peoples). For the first time in my education, I felt as though I was learning something that I genuinely cared about and I wanted to learn more.

Since then, I have taken many PCTS courses, such as Restorative Justice, Youth Voices and Peace Activism, Peace Psychology, Coaching and Mediation, Art of Peacebuilding and Culture of Violence, and Cultures of Peace.

I have also found it helpful to take a variety of courses as part of my PCTS degree. These have helped to diversify my perspective of peace and justice. Theology courses have encouraged me to look at peace and conflict with a biblical lens, philosophy has challenged me to ask hard questions and seek different angles, and psychology has taught me to consider many different view points when seeking peace.

I’m hoping to do some volunteering and travel this summer, when I can learn how others see peacebuilding in their communities. Next fall, I’ll begin my practicum. I’m considering mediation services or the Stoney Mountain penitentiary, but the options are limitless and I am so excited to see what God has in store.

Emilie

May 26, 2013, was probably the most stressful day of my life: it was the last day to decide where I wanted to go to university. I come from Kitchener-Waterloo, in southern Ontario. In my grade 12 year, I had auditioned at the top music schools in Ontario and was delighted to be accepted into all of them. As exciting as this was, it presented me with some difficult decisions. After making countless pros and cons lists, I decided on CMU, not knowing how life changing that decision would be.

CMU has presented me with challenges and opportunities that I didn’t know I needed. I’ve discovered gifts that I didn’t know I had. The most defining part of the Music Program for me has been the hands-on approach. I’ve had the opportunity to conduct ensembles, accompany an opera, perform as a soloist with an orchestra, compose music for worship services, teach music classes, accompany graduation recitals, and so much more. I could not have had these experiences at another university.

I believe that the most important thing an undergraduate program can provide a music student with is a well rounded education. While I’m concentrating in piano performance and music ministry, I have also developed my skills in music education and collaborative piano (accompanying). There is no way I could have known what aspects of music I wanted to pursue at my age. I’m thankful that I chose a school that allowed me to pursue all parts of music. I will leave the music program with many doors open to me because of my diverse education.

Grade 12’s: I get it. You are faced with SO many good options. I encourage you to consider what school will open up the most opportunities for you, and what school will make you the most well rounded musician you can be.

Guest blogger Anneli is a music major.