Brock University is expanding on its already strong experiential learning opportunities for students.
Four new positions have been posted at Brock, three of which provide support to Faculties that don’t yet have a staff person focused specifically on creating connections and opportunities for experiential learning.
“These staff positions will work to create partnerships in the community, support faculty looking to build in an experiential component to their course(s), and also to help prepare students for what the experience will entail,” said Sandy Howe, Associate Director, Experiential Education.
The positions will support the Faculty of Mathematics & Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and the Goodman School of Business.
Over the past few months, Brock has worked to establish what “experiential education” means on the campus, engaging senior administrators, faculty, staff and students in a collaborative process to establish a set of definitions. The University of Victoria was a catalyst for this process, offering resources and research as a foundation that allowed Brock to move forward quickly.
Brock knows that impactful learning experiences come in many forms from service-learning to simulations, and field experiences, to creative, entrepreneurial and design projects. These are just a few exciting forms of learning that appear in Brock’s experiential definitions.
“One of the major changes on our campus is a new structure for experiential education. We are thrilled to be growing a central team to support these pedagogies in each Faculty,” Howe said.
One of the Faculties that currently has support for experiential education is the Goodman School of Business, where service-learning has seen tremendous growth over the years.
Gillian Kemp, Service-Learning Relationship Manager for Goodman, knows service-learning has a variety of impacts on both the students and the community partners.
“Students gain confidence in their ability to apply what they are learning in the classroom in real world situations, they gain insights into their community and career aspirations and they gain work experience for their resumes and interviews,” she said. “Our community partners also benefit from new ideas and perspective, as well as tangible solutions and tools.”
The Experiential Education Co-ordinator positions fall within Co-op, Career and Experiential Education (CCEE) on campus, an area that recently celebrated its first anniversary.
If you are interested in being part of something new, collaborative and exciting as Brock grows experiential education opportunities for students, the Experiential Education Co-ordinator postings are currently available here.
