Capacity Development and Extension Students Employed in Community-Based Initiatives

This summer, fascinating and important employment opportunities are being taken up by students in, or soon graduating from, the MSc Capacity Development and Extension program at the University of Guelph.

CDE student Francis Jabile has a new job at the Canadian Centre for Food & Ecology as one of their Market Coordinators. Francis writes, "It is a lot of fun and interesting work. We are running programming and food literacy projects to encourage more people to purchase local food and 'vote' with their dollars for foods grown in healthy, living soils.  The target demographic is young adults who are 'eco-trenders'. Eco Trenders like to share their knowledge of new trendy eco-actions, they are like a megaphone for the systems thinkers and community activists."

Francis is also spearheading a new research initiative at the CCFE on re-imagining food as a social good in action through queer theory, photovoice, and a weekly low cost/free produce market within the Centre for Social Innovation. 

Recent graduate Tya Milne is working as 10C's Civic Inclusion Assistant. Tya works in partnership with community organizations and leaders involved in education events that strengthen citizen engagement in community advocacy work. Tya writes, "The hope with this work is that it will help remove barriers for participation and create a sense of belonging for Guelph citizens and equal opportunity for all voices to be heard."  Preparing for the forthcoming municipal and provincial elections, Tya is building a Resource Index, compiling a database of tools mainly centred on civic education that can be used in classroom settings and engaging individuals in hands-on learning.

These are just a couple of examples of how our students who are graduating or soon completing their MSc CDE program put their new knowledge, skills, and aptitudes into practice!