A community builder authentically embodies the qualities and competencies to build community and connection through meaningful, academic, and experiential engagement.
Community builders have a deep understanding of the communities they serve, including their unique needs, challenges, and strengths. By combining academic and experiential engagement, community builders can create a rich and rewarding environment that fosters connection and growth.
A community builder will:
Engage
Engage in ongoing learning and reflection, and participate in meaningful dialogue and discussions
Collaborate
Collaborate with others to find solutions to community-identified challenges
Explore
Explore new and alternate perspectives to broaden knowledge and understanding
Connect
Create connections and build a network of support, both personally and professionally
Community Builder Development Areas
Local and Global Engagement
As a graduate student, local and global engagement empowers you to connect with your community and address issues that directly affect their lives, contribute to the broader global community, and address issues.
- Bring about positive changes in their communities or organizations.
- Seek opportunities to connect with others with the same values, goals, and interests.
- Participate in communities to learn from others, share knowledge and experiences, and collaborate on projects that can have a greater impact.
- Connect with other graduate students to gain new perspectives and ideas, help to build a wider support network, and provide opportunities for collaboration and innovation.
- Help individuals to understand the broader societal issues and challenges that affect a wider population.
- Something to do with cultures – unconscious bias.
- Volunteer in the community
- Participating in a Research café
- Attend a Building Better Research workshop
- Unconscious Bias Workshop
- Explore workshops through HRE
- Participate in an exchange or global conference
- Visit Hadiyaˀdagénhahs and connect with local Indigenous communities
- Attend a First Nation, Metis and Inuit Services workshop
Collaboration
Collaboration requires open communication, shared goals and objectives, and a willingness to work together towards a common purpose. As a graduate student, you will recognize that many problems and challenges cannot be effectively addressed by a single discipline or perspective alone, and instead requires input and expertise from multiple disciplines.
- Build and maintain relationships with others
- Expand knowledge and expertise, gain access to new ideas and perspectives
- Work with individuals from different disciplines or organizations
- Establish trust and respect among collaborators and clear roles and responsibilities.
- Bring together diverse perspectives and skills
- Support and promote new ideas to foster a collaborative and supportive environment
- GSA workshops
- Join a Community of Practice
- Attend internal or external conferences
- Seek out like-minded research groups
- Attend a graduate student social event
- Drop in to Writing Café and connect with other graduate students
Reflection
Reflection is a powerful tool for personal and professional growth and can help graduate students develop greater self-awareness, empathy, and resilience. It allows you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, recognize patterns in your behavior, learn from past experiences, and embrace growth.
- Question assumptions and beliefs about yourself and the world around you
- Ask for feedback from others to gain a deeper understanding of yourself, as it allows you to see yourself from a different perspective and learn from others’ experiences.
- Acknowledge personal growth is an ongoing process
- Commit to ongoing self-reflection and a willingness to be vulnerable
- Be open to feedback and develop a growth-oriented mindset
- Attend a SWAC workshop
- Participate in CPI Reflection workshops
- Join a Mind mapping, journalling or Storytelling workshop with Brock LINC
- Visit the indigenous Healing Garden and Spirit Bear Little Library
- Take a reflective walk through our Labyrinth