A Personal Journey to Global Citizenship: Mr. Smith, founding teacher

The first ConneXions class, the class of 2007, lived in Taulabé, central Honduras.  We returned for a second, but then moved to Ecuador due to safety concerns. 

With our educator/guide, Rodolfo, of ICYE Honduras.

My own journey began with a childhood love of the outdoors, the culture of Canada's First Nations and a curiosity about world issues--no doubt inspired by nightly news-watching parents who immigrated from England with my oldest brother in 1968.  In my university years I explored Celtic culture and the literature of the former British colonies (The Bone People By Kiri Hulme, is one of my favourites). Then, after graduation I took a job that changed my life forever: I taught for a year at  Escuela de Las Americas, an English-speaking school in Venezuela's oil belt. Latin America began to run in my veins: its geography, its language and its rhythms. Two years later, this new love of Latin America merged with my childhood interest in indigenous culture when I connected with the Quechua culture of Peru. The historic Inca cities of Cuzco and Machu Picchu inspired me, but  the people I met inspired me more. They were young activists from the Rural Agrarian Catholic Youth Movement, and they shared our residence in the outskirts of Lima to discuss ways to sustain and improve their communities while maintaining their cultural identities.  The Holy Cross Fathers led our group on that March trip, and they ensured a deep understanding of the challenges involved in achieving social justice.  At the start of the next school semester,  I started an extracurricular club called SOLID, the Student Organization for Learning about International Differences, with the help of my friend and colleague, Terry Bishop. The club still meets bi-weekly and Mr. Bishop became my team teacher for the third ConneXions class, the class of 2012. With the first two classes, I developed a community partnership with Taulabe, Honduras, but sadly, the violence of the drug war of the Americas has made trips there too unsafe. With this third trip, Mr. Bishop and a Spanish-speaking parent chaperone established a new partnership with Peguche, Ecuador. A third change brought us to the Boruca first nation of Costa Rica. 

A Personal Journey to Global Citizenship: Nicole Brandt, alumnus

My passion for world issues began in grade six while listening to a presentation about a group from a local highschool building houses in Dominican Republic. Instantly, I was compelled to participate in a similar project, and in 2005, I experienced two weeks in Costa Rica with a group from Waterdown DHS as a Global Learner with Canada World Youth. I lived with a host family there for the duration of the trip and returned to Canada with a completely different outlook on the world. In 2007, I was accepted to participate in the ConneXions program, with which I traveled to Honduras on another Canada World Youth trip, and again became more enlightened and desired to create more positive change. These experiences led to my university program in International Studies. Glendon College provided me with the opportunity to join the Model United Nations club, with which I voiced my opinion while representing various countries at conferences in Toronto and Ottawa. I was also accepted to participate in a year-long academic exchange in Poznan, Poland in 2010/2011 where I learned a new language and had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world who were participating in similar exchanges. The following year, I did an internship at Egypt’s International Economic Forum in Cairo, Egypt. The opportunity to live and work in a developing country was both educational and eye-opening, and has only furthered my interests in international society. This summer, I am heading to Bagua Grande, Peru as a Research Assistant for a group called Students for International Development, where I will be studying the local economy of the town and devising microfinance and child welfare projects along with a small team. I am excited to put my academic knowledge to practice in the real world. I cannot stress enough how much the experiences with ConneXions and SOLID changed both my perspective and direction of my life. I have found my passion and I look forward to having the agency to express my opinions and knowledge on a global stage.