Experiential Learning in Action: Brittney Maynard's Community Service Learning Experience
Feb 10, 2025 | Experiential Learning
In this video, Brittney Maynard shares about an experiential learning opportunity she recently participated in through the Social Service Worker program at Canadore. This kind of experiential learning is called Community Service Learning, where students engage in volunteer service within the community.
The video transcript follows:
I chose the CSL opportunity for the Lighthouse program here in West Nipissing. It is a safe hub for youth who identify as LGTBQ+ and are ages 12-18. I would like to say thank you, sincerely, for the opportunity to do this type of learning because I walked away from this CSL with a whole new foundation of thoughts and beliefs and some things that I think will be really, really pivotal in my learning as I continue to go forth to be a Social Service Worker.
It went super well. I didn’t want them to feel weird, I didn’t want them to feel judged or anxious. Kind of understanding the landscape of today’s youth was really eye-opening. A lot of mental health struggles, a lot of issues with poverty. Children, which I resonate with, with neurodivergence and autism, ADHD… how they’re doing in school, and how they are comparative to their siblings, and how they feel about themselves, and where their mental health is, and all these like, really deep issues we were able to delve into.
When I first got there, there were a few select kids that were kind of eager to open up to me, they were like “Hey! She’s kind of like us,” but by the end I had some of these kids – I will call them kids, teenagers – literally plead me to come back. They’re like, “you better come back!”
I miss those kids, honestly. I think about them almost daily, and I hope that they’re doing okay. Because they were really, really cool. I went home and I was decompressing after the fact, and I kept thinking of these kids. But it just made me so much more passionate and realized, like, darn! Do I want to work with youth? I never considered that before. Because they are literally the future.
As a Social Service Worker, I have the potential to change lives and assist in helping the future generations.