Training in Toronto!

May 1^st, 2011

I feel like today is the first day of summer! The summer leases are rolling out, university exams are over, people are fitting all their fun, exciting, and hopefully relaxing time in before starting summer jobs.

For me, today marks the first day of Pre-departure training. This morning we met up with Cat and Brian (my Foundation learning coaches/JF supervisors) at the University of Toronto building. I say building because the university campus has MANY buildings sprawled all around Toronto. After introductions, we ran a session about the hopes, fears, and fantasies that we have about our placement. This was meant to allow the JFs to have an understanding of our common feelings.

We then went to an Ethiopian restaurant and had an inspiring speech from George Roter, the CEO of Engineers Without Borders Canada. I love George, because he never stops smiling and showed up today in flip flops. More importantly, he is an incredible motivator. He spoke to us about our role as an ambassador of EWB while we are overseas. He also taught us the connection between being active learners and making impact. He has a lot of stories to relate his points.

We then went back to U of TO where we ran a 2.5 hour session about our impact back here in Canada. They gave us a sheet of paper with a timeline from today’s date to the end of this next school year (April 2012). We made one overarching goal for ourselves, then split up how we’d accomplish that goal. My goal is extending our chapter’s investment in students to reach faculties outside of Engineering. I plan on doing so by running a workshop called “the ROOT cause of Disease” within the Health Science faculties (such as nursing). I plan on developing the workshop while overseas based on the experiences I have with the district hospital in Chitipa, Malawi and the water and sanitation experiences in the surrounding villages.

Today was very well rounded, with a lot of varied information. Cat and Brian organized it wonderfully, and I feel like I have a new diverse knowledge base!

I have to leave know, Cat is about to start the “Intro to Poverty and Development” session. EWB values learning so much! I love how invested the JF supervisors are in us! It’s so honouring and compelling.

Much love,

Karina