The Ultimate Field Trip: How experiential education teaches life skills to youth
For many kids at schools across Canada, the field trip is one of the few times during the year where they (finally) get to leave the classroom and experience real life experiences firsthand.
Think back to when you went on a field trip with your school. Did you go to the museum? How about the local farm? Maybe you were one of the lucky ones to go wild with your imagination at the Science Centre.
But what if that experience was a civics class in the place where the Charlottetown Accord was signed? Or a bike trip through the Rockies to see where the Gold Rush took place? Surely a trip by dogsled to the grocery store would teach anyone how to survive in northern Canada.
With the YMCA’s Youth Exchanges Canada program—a reciprocal exchange program for youth 12-17--students in communities across Canada get the lesson that teaches beyond the classroom, experiencing Canada through the perspective of their fellow Canadians.
Erin Gorman, National Manager of the YMCA Youth Exchanges Canada program.
“We work with all kinds of youth in communities across Canada,” says Erin Gorman, National Manager of the program. “They (and their teachers) are excited about seeing a part of Canada through the eyes of the people that are hosting them, so they’re truly getting to experience Canada from a local perspective.”
The program, funded by Canadian Heritage, sees youth in schools and community groups across Canada organize and fundraise with their teachers and community leaders to host a group with similar interests paired with them through the facilitation of the YMCA of Greater Toronto's regional coordinators. After they host, they travel to the other group’s community, often far away enough that they travel by air. “The travel is what often gets people the most excited--some are getting on a plane for the first time in their lives when they go on exchange,” says Erin.
In the 3 decades of the program’s existence, thousands of youth have participated in week-long exchanges, taking them from as far east as Grand Bend, Newfoundland, to the western shores of Victoria, British Columbia, and as far north as Pond Inlet, Nunavut. Sports teams from opposite ends of the country play each other in friendly matches, then train local kids in skills workshops they designed themselves. School bands meet each other for the first time, then play a concert for seniors in their community. The possibilities are endless, and the friendships made last forever once the exchange is over.
“Groups will often go through the ‘forming, norming, storming, performing’ process, where they’re initially awkward, then they’re connecting, then they become really tight, and then by the end you can’t tell who’s from which group. When they come back from their experience, we hear a lot about how they learned that people who they thought were so different from them at first are just like them in the end.”
Mélanie Joly, Minster of Canadian Heritage (second from left), visits with an exchange group in Montréal, Quebec.
Friendships aren’t the only thing that last beyond the exchange. For parents and teachers, they are often encouraged by the immediate and long term growth of their children that is sparked by their exchange experience. “They take more risks, apply for other exchange programs, run for student council...they go on to become leaders within their schools and communities. Some youth become peer mentors for others who are preparing to go on exchange. Our Youth Advisory Council is made up of youth who work with us on projects that make the exchange experience even better for future participants.”
When asked how the program has changed her perspective on Canada, Erin enthusiastically replies that in the six and a half years she has been managed the program, it has shown her that there is still much to learn about this country. “I thought i had a good understanding of the scale and scope of Canada--but i actually didn’t have any idea. In meeting, working with and hearing the stories of people from all over Canada, I’ve learned how big and diverse this country really is, and my hope is that for youth going on exchange, they experience the same thing.”
“Despite our differences, we’ve seen that an openness to new experiences and to meeting other people with open hearts and minds leads people to discover what common threads weave through Canada--that’s been amazing.”
The YMCA’s Youth Exchanges Canada program accepts applications year-round; the next deadline for travel in January-June 2017 is September 30, 2016. For more information and to apply, click here.
