Learning by Leading! Humber Connecting Community and Nature through Global Citizenship
February 25, 2021
Humber College’s Global Citizenship Certificate (GCC) is a multidisciplinary and exciting cross-college program that allows current students from any faculty to broaden their perspective and enhance their post-secondary experience through three online courses with the fourth being an elective. The goal of the initiative is to ultimately prepare students further for a culturally diverse and rapidly changing world.
During the Fall 2020 semester, the Humber Arboretum piloted a new branch of its Learning by Leading™ student learning experience, “Community Connectors'' as part of the GCC.
Bringing the global citizenship concepts to the Arboretum
Community Connectors is a one-semester, 40-hour service-learning experience that will support the Arboretum while developing students’ knowledge, skills, and connection to nature. Students enrolled in the ‘GBLC 002: Citizenship at Humber’ course can complete their required volunteer hours by connecting what they learned about global citizenship to the Humber Arboretum’s focus on creating thriving nature, healthy communities, and world-ready citizens.
“Our goals were to apply global citizenship concepts and identify opportunities to promote Humber Arboretum to Humber students regardless of their disciplines,” said Thinh (Theo) Phan, a senior student of BComm - Supply Chain Management and also a participant. “As one of the first students from the GCC working with the natural interpreters, I had the privilege of exploring multiple citizen science concepts through exclusive mini-projects and training provided by the team.”
“For example, I was able to initiate a project that detailed how the supply chain could benefit Humber Arboretum’s sustainability goals which would be one of many direct inputs in the development of Humber’s Sustainability Plan. Overall, the GCC and Humber Arboretum helped me enhance my online learning experience and expanded my professional networks at Humber.”
Thinh (Theo) Phan, a senior student of BComm - Supply Chain Management
Students reap numerous benefits from Community Connectors
The benefits of Community Connectors range from participants having their experience formally recognized on their Co-Curricular Record and gaining specific experience relevant to future employment at the Arboretum and similar organizations, to meeting new people in a fun and supportive online setting. Most importantly, students acquire a foundation in sustainable living and engaged citizenship.
“Aligning the Community Connectors branch with Humber's Global Citizenship Certificate program provided an opportunity to help students foster an appreciation for the natural world in the hopes that they themselves will utilize the skills and knowledge they gained from this program to become environmental leaders in their communities or communities they work with worldwide,” said Jimmy Vincent, Coordinator of Education, Camps, and Community Outreach for the Humber Arboretum.
The GCC and Community Connectors experience shows Humber’s continued commitment to its Internationalization Strategy by enhancing and expanding opportunities for students to prepare, contribute, and be engaged in a global and rapidly changing world.
“The Global Citizenship Certificate is a unique Humber offering that helps students develop the global competencies to differentiate themselves and thrive in a diverse and globalized world,” said Margaret Tellis, Operations Manager, Humber International Graduate School. “The certificate also supports students’ ‘global consciousness’, encouraging them to think of the world as a complex, interdependent web of connections. “The global citizenship is a transformative experience for students that results in a lifelong pursuit to meaningfully engage with a globalized world and make it a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable place,” she said.
Click here for more info about the GCC: humber.ca/global-opportunities/global-citizenship.html
