Faculty of ArtThe Field School is grounded in long-term relationships with community partners.
During this six-week program held between May and June, Field School students are placed in community organizations in the city of Vancouver. Students work collaboratively as service-learners with the organization for an average of seven hours a week. During this time they develop, under the organization's request or by their own initiative, specific projects within an organization's program. Programs range from immigrant seniors’ luncheons, to multi-ethnic community gardens; a one time community event or a regular language conversation program; or sometimes simply taking part in the day-to-day life of the organization. Student projects range from doing digital stories and photography projects, creating educational material for citizenship classes, developing a survey, to helping with the creation of a new program.
Students develop social research skills such as doing participant observation of institutional organization and developing interview skill as a means to account for members' experiences. The course stresses working in collaboration with community partners and fellow students, and students get specific training about how to apply social theory to real life situations. In the past organizations have found the specific contributions of students to be particularly fruitful.
We are always open to forming relationships with new partners to place students! If you are interested in becoming a partner organization or would like more information please contact us at field.school@ubc.ca.
“During the Field school students get a chance to apply their academic knowledge with our support and the university support. This is why this is a great partnership and we have really benefited from it. Students come in with new ideas and make important contributions to our organization.”- Lea Laberge, Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House
"The quality of the students and their commitment was really impressive, as was their energy and level of professionalism. The fit with the organization was really good too. Based on the topics that they were learning in the classroom, the placement provided them with an opportunity to interact with a huge cross section of the West End’s population. " - Samuel Mickelson, Gordon Neighbourhood House
"We are still using the video that Keertana, an IVEFS 2012 cohort student, made: the Citizen U video*."
*Check Keertana’s blog here. - Zsuzsi Fodor, Kitsilano Neighbourhood House
"It was really great having the students at LOVE BC. It was the highlight of my summer. They were very engaged, motivated and aware students. The students were a really good fit with our organization because they have an approach similar to our’s: a community development rather than a charity model. For a youth empowerment organization, having students fit with this philosophy is important. It was a mutually beneficial experience for all parties involved." - Camila Fujiwara, Leave Out Violence (LOVE) BC
"The Field school content is applicable to the Learning Exchange work, it connects our mission to engage the academic community on issues relevant to the Downtown Eastside and surrounding neighbourhoods. The energy, enthusiasm and general positivity that students brought was noted and much appreciated." - Kathleen Leahy, Learning Exchange, The University of British Columbia
