I would definitely hope that students
would recognize the value of what
they're doing and the importance of
seeing that their academic knowledge is
central to what they're working on in
their community placement but also that
concurrent to that they're really
thinking about the interests of the
organization itself that they're placed
within I think sometimes you can feel as
though your academic goals maybe aren't
necessarily being met or centered in
your placement experience but it's
really important to remember that you're
only there for a few days a week and
well what you're doing is so meaningful
and essential for that organization
there's also a bigger picture that you
might not necessarily be in tune with
and so to recognize that it's not as
though your placement supervisors aren't
cognizant of the value for the academic
for yourself but also that they're kind
of orienting themselves a slightly
different way so you're a part of the
picture but you're not necessarily the
central focus within it if you are going
to sign up for a CEO course or a CEO
opportunity that you're committed to it
because there's been a lot of background
work both from the community and from
the faculty put into putting it together
and also there's a real need for you to
be there and in that in that
relationship so what you produce is
actually going to be quite useful so if
you're going to do it I would say be
committed to it because it's really
quite important that that relationship
gets maintained and it's positive so I
think community engaged learning
students should come prepared they
should do maybe a little bit of research
first so often with the courses that
I've been involved in there's a number
of placement opportunities that can
speak to different interests in student
spam and so for students to really think
about what intersects with their own
interests and then also remember to
communicate openly with your community
partners so if you're facing a challenge
or you're busy in midterms or exams that
you really let your community partner
know you know the challenges maybe with
your schedule for example and so that
they can come best accommodate you in
the experience to be mindful of who you
are in terms of your position ality and
be mindful of that where your placement
is so you may be doing frontline work
where you require us to
cultural sensitivity suggests always
keep yourself in check and make sure
that the way that you're behaving is is
in a sensitive manner to your placement
I think the critical thing for me is not
to look at it as strictly a volunteer
opportunity I think the idea is to take
a close and critical lens to what is
happening in communities and who and
what organizations and what types of
players are building the social
infrastructure that keeps our city great
the if you go in thinking about it as
it's sort of transactionally so that
it's I'm getting experience and I'm
giving a service to an organization you
lose out on the richness of what a
community engaged learning experience
can offer