By Aatisha Avasthi, current graduate student pursuing an MA in English and Science and Technology Studies
As a young Psychology Undergraduate, I was interested in gaining experience in my field and applying what I learned in the classroom to real world issues. So when I came across the Office of Regional and International Community Engagement (ORICE)’s experiential education program, I enthusiastically applied to be a part. In 2024, I completed a placement with ORICE, in collaboration with Green String Network (GSN), a mental health organization in Kenya. As a Research Assistant for GSN, I drafted a literature review about their youth-based mental health program called Kumekucha Quest. Between 2024-25, I continued collaborating with GSN on this project, as an ORICE Scholar. Another year later, I am back at ORICE, inspired by values of reflexive praxis, intersectionality, and ethical relationship-building that prioritizes community organizations. As part of my time here, I have been interested in tracking the history of the organization through its many years on campus. I went back into the archives and interviewed other alumni who have similarly been involved with ORICE over the years. Interviewing these folks revealed the central theme that made us all so passionate about collaborating with ORICE, and kept us wanting to come back: ORICE’s critical approach to experiential learning. It allowed us to recognize the significance of community partnerships and incorporate that into our own interests in varied ways.
[L-R] Aatisha Avasthi, Noah Marsden and Josh Bransford.
One of the earliest members of the organization that I interviewed was Kerri Leeper. Leeper did her placement with ORICE, then called International Service Learning (ISL), in 2009 and then came back as an Advisor for the programme from 2012-2016. While completing her Undergraduate degree in Political Science, she had been particularly interested in conflict-management. However, in her classes, she had only had the opportunity to engage in state/nation-level learnings around the topic. Therefore, the chance to work on similar themes at a more grassroots level was really compelling. She found that working with SOS Children’s Villages in (now) Eswatini was “a really meaningful way to take these concepts that were discussed in courses…, and bring them to a community level.”
When asked what made her want to come back to ORICE to support its programming as a staff member, Leeper reflected that she was enthusiastic about being a facilitator of knowledge for other students. Helping others’ learning allowed her to learn more about herself, “it really gives you a chance to learn about how you show up in challenging learning experiences as an individual.” The opportunity to work with ORICE was really impactful as she went onto complete higher education in conflict and peacebuilding work. Though the work she did beyond risked being focussed on the nation-states level, she was cognizant of the impact it had on the community level. She reflected that “the knowledge (that) expertise sits at the community level … is incredibly valuable and often overlooked.” This was a huge takeaway for her, and is something that continues to show up in her career as a result of her work with ORICE.
“(ORICE) did things right by prioritizing long-term relationships and showing that students understand that it is a learning experience.”
Another ORICE alum from 2013, Viet Vu (now, Manager of Economic Research at The Dais) also reflected on ORICE’s ethical approach to community relationships, something that continues to stand out to him all these years later. Vu’s placement was with COBAGUAL, a small Bolivian community-based water and sanitation organization. He reflected that the placement was so meaningful due to the attention that ORICE paid to the pre-departure learning sessions. He found that the sessions were crucial in allowing him to recognize that he may not be able to work on all of the organization’s projects but that there were things that one could do in “small parts” that were helpful to the organization.
For Vu, community-service programmes that prioritized long-term relationships were a “gold standard” in community-based work. It was a learning that he had picked up at his high school, in Vietnam, that had a strong community-service programme. ORICE’s employment of similar values of long-term partnership-building were what encouraged Vu to lobby for the organization in 2013. The International Service Learning (ISL) program was being affected by budget cuts and its future at the University was uncertain. As a Councillor for UBC’s Alma Mater Society (AMS), Vu had some political might at the University then. He saw ISL/ORICE’s commitment to its long term partners and wanted to “do right by (them).” As a result he worked, alongside many students and faculty at the time, to secure funding by writing an article for the Ubyssey and lobbying for the programme through his position. Vu’s wishes came true when ISL was adopted by the Faculty of Arts in 2015, and then rehoused as the Office of Regional and International Community Engagement (ORICE) at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs in 2020, where it continues to reside today.
“...Experiential learning taught me a lot of …questions (like, what does it mean to be developed within development economics?) cannot be taught or understood fully (just) from a classroom at UBC.”
ORICE’s engagementships and placements with various organizations continue to be forged and maintained today. More recently, I spoke with a current Undergraduate Economics student Fardin Kabir who also reflected on the similarly critical impact that ORICE has had on his degree. For Kabir, collaborating with ORICE and Afripads in 2023, a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) dedicated to menstrual health and hygiene solutions, was a transformative experience. It allowed him to explore his interest in development economics and political economy, inspiring him to switch from a Philosophy major to an Economics major.
Having participated in various programmes at ORICE, Kabir was especially grateful for the pre-departure learning sessions. The reflexive tools used in these sessions allowed him to ask questions like “what does it mean to be ‘developed’ within development economics?” or “how are varied communities impacted by ‘development work’”? The sessions and the placement allowed him to see the ‘other’ side of the coin, confronting him with the impact that ‘development’ work had in Uganda. It inspired him to critically evaluate the work he does within the classroom (and beyond). As his degree comes to a close, ORICE’s support has inspired him to pursue a career in international development work post-graduation.
Kabir’s story, much like that of Leeper and Vu, demonstrates the critical nature of ORICE’s approach to experiential learning. Not only are students prepared to collaborate with a community partner, they are also acquainted with the systems at play behind such partnerships. They are encouraged to recognize the significance of their own positionality and its relationship to the work they are engaging in. My own partnership with ORICE and the Green String Network began in a similar way. It showed me the importance of valuing long-term relationship-building, and centring the community-partners in such relationships. I came to ORICE with a visionary set of eyes but I left with a different, more ethical and critical vision of my own future, much like the others I interviewed. ORICE inspired us to find our own interests alongside the values we learned here, and gave us the space to do so while still being students. Experiential Learning through ORICE was crucial in the graduates we became and are still becoming.
