Category: Humanities

On March 6th our class departed for our final PLP trip. Since I entered this program in grade 8 the field studies have been one of the things I most looked forward to. Having the opportunity to do things I would never do on trips with my friends or family is one of my favourite (and sometimes least favourite) things about these trips. This trip was going to take us to one of the most famous, and influential cities in the world. A hub of business, entertainment, and culture, Los Angelos, California.

As with all our PLP trips there was a project focus, for this trip it was the collective identity of the West Coast. Leading up to the trip we researched everything from Disneyland to the National Park Service. The west coast collective identity was broad, it was extremely hard to find an identity which encompasses small towns like Comox and Port Angelos to world renowned cities like Seattle and Los Angelos, to tourist hotspots like Whistler or Tofino. However after hours of discussion, research, and thinking we figured it out, somewhat. 

We (the teachers) broke the groups down into 5 elements of west coast culture, unreal realities, the great outdoors, cultural mosaic, film & entertainment, and art & architecture (my theme). If you had to ask me which topics I could speak on at the start of the project, I could tell you about the great outdoors and maybe film & entertainment. After this project and field study I feel like I understand how all of these elements come together to create the west coast culture we know and mostly love. 

This understanding was put to the test with our creation of a docu series. 5 episodes, speaking on each of the aforementioned themes of west coast collective identity. The creation of the videos certainly came with its FAILS and hiccups. From a miscommunication between the teachers and my group which led to a highly rushed stand up section at Griffith observatory. To us not realizing how hard it would be to find knowledgable people willing to let us interview them about our relatively niche topic. If I’m being completely honest I only think our documentary came out ok. Personally I think I could of done a better job at filming a lot of the angles in a more interesting way, and worked with my group to get more stand-ups and videos.

I’m also proud of myself and my group mates Keenan and Ryan for getting things together and creating a cohesive video and story even with setbacks such as our narrator getting sick. I think that we all did a good job at playing to our strengths to get this video out on time and answer the driving question of the project. I learned a lot from filming this which I can apply over the next 4 years in University. Hopefully next time I create a video project there will be less FAILS and more successes.

Now one element of the project I haven’t touched on very much yet is the driving question. “Why are some people able to see around corners in ways others are not, and by doing, shape how we see ourselves in this changing world?” Well the driving question does not seem initially linked to the aspects of west coast identity, innovation and “seeing around corners” is a key aspect of west coast culture. Brands like Disney, Starbucks, and Boeing all innovated there respective industries in a new and exciting way. Even outdoor conservation was innovated on the west coast in ways which are now copied across the world. Why does this happen so much on the west coast though? It comes back to the allure of this region, bringing in innovators and business’s. As well as the inspiring scenery and laid back culture which promote thinking and new ideas. 

Schools, a place of “learning” and “growth”. Yet most students just go through school, maybe trying to get good grades. They graduate and have no real idea as to what they want to do in the future, burnt out from school, and lack career skills. So in typical PLP fashion we did a project about “blowing up the school system.” Don’t worry our projects didn’t involve violence. 

While many of my classmates did fantastic projects about how we could overhaul the school system for everyone, I decided to focus on how we could offer students opportunities to help them develop career skills for one of the largest industries in BC, outdoor tourism, natural resource management and conservation. These industries employ around 10% of the population within in BC and are all growing considerably. Yet the skills, and connection necessary to success in these industries aren’t promoted at all within NVSD. A school district sitting between the ocean and the north shore mountains. 

So I proposed we introduced an out of timetable elective block to senior students across NVSD. You can read more about it here.

I was inspired to create this program when talking to my cousin over the may long weekend. He was telling me about the outdoor ed program he was taking at his school (Howe Sound Secondary). He had received important training, gone on incredible trips, and and gained valuable connections with outdoor companies all across BC. 

So I put out a survey on my instagram asking people to tell me about their experience in outdoor Ed, and how it is influencing/influenced them and their career. I got many responses telling me about how important the connections they made during outdoor ed were. As well as, how it influenced their involvement in conservation movements. This made it even more clear to me that NVSD needs an outdoor Ed program to develop engaged and informed citizens in relation to conservation and sustainability. We need to help develop the future leaders in conservation, natural resource management, and ecotourism. 

I proposed the program to offer outdoor safety programs. These help students learn skills necessary to staying safe outdoors. In addition to being important stepping stones to many careers in the aforementioned industries. I also proposed a number of trips doing various activities, these would help students explore a variety of skills, as well as learn about various environments across BC. Finally I proposed the program to have career development and connections incorporated. This would mean meeting with local ecotourism providers, natural resource management companies, and conservation agencies and learning about potential careers in these industries. 

This project really helped reignite my passion and involvement in our schools. I think that by discussing how we can change schools to create more educated and informed citizens. We all became more educated and informed citizens ourselves. 

Wow, only one more year left of school! It’s a strange feeling, I feel like it’s gone by so fast, yet so slow. My lack of experiences from grade 8/9 thanks to the pandemic has certainly been a different experience. But we’re here to talk about this year not, not all of high school (at least yet…) 

This year was supposedly “back to normal”. Yet there’s not really a normal when all 4 years of high school have had drastically different schedules. It was quite the adjustment to go from 2.5hr classes to 70 minutes (although a welcome one). Within about a month of the year starting I became more overwhelmed with schoolwork then ever before. In order to overcome this challenging and high volumes of work across all my classes I had to come up with new methods. It took some trial and error but by about January I had figured out how to manage the work in 3 challenging courses (PLP, Chem, Pre Calc). I used some of the methods we had worked on in PLP over previous years, to do lists, time blocking (although this didn’t work for me), and goal setting. 

However despite these successes in January my school work kind of went down hill for the next 2 months. I felt extremely uninspired, and overall just tried to coast through school. This had the biggest effect on my PLP work. For some reason I managed to keep on top of my BCFP, and my Bio work without much trouble, but even thinking about PLP just exhausted me. I was considering dropping the program, but then our Stories of Hope Field Study came up. I had started the project off quite frankly not caring at all about anything related to it. However when we were down there, I remembered some of the reasons I liked PLP in grade 8 and 9. I came back more inspired in all of my classes, in particular PLP. I did take a while to put my footage together into my video. That’s on me but we have all discussed why that project was a bit of a FAIL on all of our ends.

One thing I did learn a lot about this year, and really helped my school was using craft. I began to realize the potential it has in many projects. I personally don’t use the linking feature as much as the teachers encouraged us, but I do love how easily it allows me to connect ideas in my notes. I even did my spring exhibition project primarily in craft, you can view it here. Or you can view one of my writing projects here.

In this last project I began to feel more inspired again. The project felt more personal to me, it made me more motivated to do my work. I think I leveraged my personal strengths in a way I hadn’t since project podcast in grade 10. Going into Grade 12 I will need to remember why this project was so much more effective and meaningful then the rest. I will use the strategies I learned this year to stay on top of all my work, and not neglect my PLP work when I get lots of work in other courses. 

In recent years we have all heard the words, hope, resilience, adversity, survival. Whether it was related to the COVID 19 Pandemic, one of the many human rights issues which have been fought over, or the war in Ukraine. These words seem to be thrown at everyone experiencing these hardships. But what do they really mean?

Recently our class has been discussing all of these terms, how they relate, what they mean, and what are some examples of them.

Survival is defined by Oxford Dictionary as “the state or fact of continuing to live or exist, typically in spite of an accident, ordeal, or difficult circumstances.” Surviving is just continuing to live. Being a survivor doesn’t mean you did anything impressive, it just means you got lucky. If you can overcome and grow after an adverse situation that is resilience. One individual which demonstrated this resilience is professional surfer Bethany Hamilton. She’s a pretty famous figure so I won’t get to deep into her story, but here’s a quick summary. At 13 years old Bethany Hamilton suffered an attack from a tiger shark. While she survived the attack the lost her left arm. Despite this life altering injury Bethany became a professional surfer at just 17. Since then she has won many competitions, and wrote several books about hope. 

Throughout Bethanys life surviving the shark attack isn’t the most important thing she did. That was largely luck. Her resilience after the traumatic event, and how she used it to grow is what is notable about her life. She experienced what Psychologists call post traumatic growth. This is when a traumatic event causes the victim to experience a shift in perspective. This leads to a greater sense of purpose and content about life. 

What fuels people like Bethany to keep going at there lowest. It is hope, Bethany’s hope of one day becoming a professional surfer helped her get back in the water. She went from being one of the most talented youth surfers, to riding longboards on whitewater, she still hoped that one day she could get back to where she was. Her story, like many others is a story of hope. 

So what is a story of hope? A story of hope can be any story where an individual or community survived adversity, and used resilience to strengthen themselves after.

After looking at all of these themes I realize how closely linked they are. Each word just apart of a story of hope.