There are some things you can’t learn in a classroom.
For third year Sociology students studying natural resource issues, mentoring students from John Oliver High School was the most effective way to learn about protecting the environment.
By adopting a Community Service Learning (CSL) component, students in Sociology 360B worked with Be The Change Earth Alliance, a non-profit charitable organization that encourages people to make sustainable and just lifestyle choices through programming in schools, communities, and the workplace.
UBC students promoted weekly conversations around environmental awareness and they discussed different steps they could take to raise awareness of ecology in school and at home. These steps included everything from turning off the lights at lunch hour to locating recycling bins beside garbage cans to encouraging parents to buy low flush toilets.
“Right now we’re in a midst of a significant shift in worldview,” said Maureen Jack-LaCroix (BA ‘74), founder and executive director of Be The Change Earth Alliance. “It’s one thing to theorize about these changes. It’s another thing entirely to work with people and support what they are doing to create change.”
For fourth year Sociology student, Maya Reisz, this course helped to put her academic learning into action: “Learning different theories on consumption can be fairly abstract and it’s really easy to lose sight of the relevance it holds in everyday life. The juxtaposition of CSL and standard learning practices enabled me to be critical of the readings. These readings became information to feed into my experiences, not just stagnant facts to be regurgitated in an exam.”
While investigating how political and economic structures contribute to environmental problems, students were surprised by how challenging it was to implement academic theory into real world situations. The CSL program allowed them to gain a greater perspective on these everyday issues and concerns.
“I wish CSL had been available when I was at UBC!” said Jack-LaCroix. “I loved learning and was very interested in exploring all humanity had to offer, but there was often a big gap between what I was learning and what was happening in the real world.”
Through her partnership with UBC, Jack-LaCroix believes that students have a valuable opportunity: “The university students are not just mentors—through these activities, they are also helping themselves understand what this whole process of making change is.”
By Mary Leong
