Education

14 SUPPLEMENT TO THE FREE PRESS • SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2022 EDUCATION GUIDE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA e experience of a lifetime BY JIM TIMLICK I magine attending classes in the heart of the Amazon rainforest and learning from people whose roots in the region date back more than 800 years. As implausible as that scenario might seem, it was exactly the kind of situation Amy Spearman found herself in not too long ago. Spearman, who is enrolled in the Fac- ulty of Arts at the University of Manitoba, spent 10 days in Ecuador in February 2020 as part of Amazon: Rainforest Experience, a Community Engaged Learning program that is recognized as an official experiential learning opportunity by the university. As part of the program, Spearman got to work with members of the Amupakin Collective, a group of Indigenous Kitchwa health practitioners who provide midwifery and other services to people living in the region. She also helped harvest traditional medicines in the field, gather and cook tra- ditional foods, and met with local Indige- nous people who shared their stories with her. Spearman says it was an eye-opening ex- perience. "It sometimes felt like you were out of touch with civilization and then you realize civilization has a whole different meaning than what western countries think it is," says Spearman, who is currently studying Global Political Economy. "It was cool to be able to challenge my own ideas of what civilization is and my western ethnocentric views. It just went to show how little we know about our world. It was a very humbling experience." Spearman says one of the main reasons she decided to take part in the Community Engaged Learning offering was the fact she is a huge proponent of experiential learn- ing. She studied in several different coun- tries throughout high school because she was intrigued by how people learn else- where. Experiential learning is hardly a new idea. At its core, it's about learning by doing. Brandy Usick, executive director of stu- dent engagement and success for UM, says one of the most common misconceptions that people have about the university is that it focuses exclusively on theoretical learning and doesn't provide much in the way of hands-on, practical experience. Nothing could be further from the truth, she explains. Experiential learning has been a core component of programs such SUPPLIED PHOTO R W B . O R G / R E G I S T E R Join us! Classes start on September 11 CONTINUED ON PAGE 15 Our signature experience of unlimited learning begins at age 2. WELCOME TO THE CLASS OF 2038 APPLY NOW WWW.BALMORALHALL.COM/BEGINNINGS

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