I’m not gonna lie. For a couple of reasons, I have been struggling for the past year to find inspiration to post on this site. First, the pandemic. I know that some of my colleagues adjusted well to remote teaching when forced to do so during the pandemic. Not me. I found it to be somewhat of a soul sucking experience. Staring at a screen full of tiny squares, some with real live people (the best case scenario), others with a photo or sometimes not even that. Watching the clock too closely as I tried to get through the class wondering if students were mindfully present or multi-tasking – checking emails, texts or doing some laundry. Wondering this because that is what I often do when listening to a webinar or attending an online meeting i’m not that keen to be at.

All too often the class would end and I would feel a bit sad, missing the meaningful engagement with students before and after class in the ‘before covid’ times.

Remote learning is just not for me.

I was so ready to return to the classroom in 2022. It was a challenge at first as we all learned how to maneuver through the new normal of masking and distancing, but we figured things out. It was just good to be back. Sadly, we had another setback. We barely made it through the term and a fire in one of the Merchants Corner housing units meant that we would be displaced again for several months. I was taking a 6-month sabbatical beginning in July 2022. It couldn’t come fast enough. I desperately needed a break.

I returned in January 2023 and a month later we moved over to Merchants Corner from our temporary digs at the Ukrainian Labour Temple a few blocks away. Most of the students had never been in our beautiful building before. They were impressed and a bit surprised that they had not heard of Merchants Corner before. The University of Winnipeg’s best kept secret I said.

What a great group of students. Once they got to know each other a bit, they were quick to engage in class discussions, respectfully sharing diverse experiences without judgement. Grappling with the ideas explored in class and wondering why government policies are not designed in such a way that they actually alleviate poverty. A very fair question.

As much as I was enjoying the class and being back at Merchants Corner, i remained uninspired to post. At times I wondered why i was putting pressure on myself to do so. Its not like anyone would miss it. And it would be one less thing to worry about.

But then 2 things happened.

Celina Clements and Shawna Peloquin dropped by. Hannah Krenn ( Urban and Inner-City Studies Academic Advisor) and I had a great visit with them. Celina graduated from Urban and Inner City Studies in 2022 and she is over the moon about her accomplishment. As she should be. Celina studied part time for several years, and it wasn’t easy. She first joined our department when we were in our temporary basement space down the street. Shawna is in the process of completing her degree. We all had a good laugh remembering the musty but cozy old basement space and the stomping of tiny feet from the children at Makoonsag Intergenerational Children’s Centre located above us. We reminisced and caught each other up on who was doing what now.

Celina talked about bumping into a former student on the bus just a few days earlier. She said she encouraged her to come back and finish her degree, telling her “I did it, and I know that you can too”! Celina said she was going to follow-up with her to again encourage her to return to her studies. This reminded me of the unintended impacts of our department and our place-based experiential learning model. Students support each other—they encourage each other to persevere despite the sometimes daunting challenges. And they don’t judge their peers if they need to step away for a bit and continue when life is a bit more manageable.

Thanks Celina and Shawna for such a great visit! You inspired me.

A few days later, I listened to students in my Urban Poverty and Policy course share a bit about what they learned over the term. As is typical in our classrooms, students in this class come from diverse backgrounds and experiences with different relationships to poverty. Some have had no direct relationship with poverty at all, but an interest in learning about poverty related public policies. Others recalled childhood experiences of poverty. Some in the class continue to struggle with poverty and the oppressive systems that make it near impossible to escape it.

Students talked about what they learned from the course content, but mainly what they learned from each other. I shared what i learned from them. It was a nice way to end the term. After class ended some students lingered a bit, saying their goodbyes and wishing each other well. It made me smile. This is what a place-based experiential learning model looks like. It’s students from diverse backgrounds, being exposed to something new, in a new neighbourhood or with people from different backgrounds that they may not otherwise have been exposed to.

Thanks winter 2023 Urban Poverty and Policy students. It feels good to be inspired again. Hope to see some of you in the fall.