Human services students gain global perspective in Mexico

The kindergarten students didn’t need much help.

As Lakeland College student Emily Butz watched children carefully cut paper shapes and glue them into place during a classroom visit in Mexico, she paused at what she saw.

Back home in Canada, she says, students the same age are often still developing those same independent classroom skills with more hands-on guidance. In this classroom, the difference was immediately noticeable.

“The kindergarten kids there were able to sit and do their tasks without being helped — like cutting and gluing,” says Butz, a second-year child and youth care counsellor (CYCC) student at Lakeland College. “I found that really interesting to see.

That moment became one of many small but striking observations during a recent international learning experience that took 11 Lakeland students from Vermilion, Alta., to Mexico this spring.

Students from the early childhood education (ECE) and CYCC programs spent time immersed in community settings, using a refuge for at-risk girls as their home base while visiting schools, rehabilitation centres and community organizations, including El Refugio Fundacion, A.C.

The trip was designed as an extension of their classroom learning — an opportunity for students to apply their skills in human services while experiencing how culture, environment and resources shape the supports available to children, youth and families in different parts of the world.