For this year’s Academic Innovation Fund (AIF) project, the Glendon Campus Continuing Education team, led by Director of Continuing Education and Business Development Katie Ablett, partnered with students and faculty to create a series of six innovative and bilingual 75-minute workshops.
The Student-Centric and Faculty-Sponsored Experiential Education Hub project, ran between January and May 2022, providing students with an experiential learning opportunity, valuable paid experience in their chosen field of study, and a chance to teach others about a subject they are passionate about. The project allowed York University community members and beyond to experience first-hand Glendon’s rich academic offerings.
Creating the six workshops served as an opportunity to highlight the innovative research and work being carried out by Glendon faculty and students, while allowing participants to discover new interests and potential future academic pursuits. The resulting knowledge bank of workshops contributes to enhancing the reputation of York’s faculty members from across the 11 Faculties because the structure of these cross-functional workshops fosters the transfer of knowledge across disciplines, Faculties and languages by harnessing the civic and social justice values of the University.
Foundational skills essential in the 21st-century workplace were developed by bringing faculty and administrative service experts together with students to create cross-functional teams to develop and deliver the roster of online and in-person workshops, which are also grounded in sound pedagogy and backed by rigorous research. The success of this model is based on a student-centered approach where students work closely with faculty and staff at every step of the project.
This year’s workshops covered a range of subjects that highlight the forward-looking work being done at Glendon and the talent of its student body. Under the mentorship of their supervising faculty members and with the support of the Continuing Education team, student collaborators developed workshops in the fields of psychology, economics, math, translation, French and communications.
The workshops include a thought-provoking offering on surveillance capitalism, developed by Carmina Ioia, a fifth-year Glendon student in communications and French studies working under the supervision of Assistant Professor at Glendon’s School of Translation, Alison Harvey. As part of this workshop, participants created a visual depiction of their online selves by researching and examining the personal data collected about them by tech companies. In another workshop project supervised by School of Translation Course Director Sabine Lauffer, the field of translation is introduced through an exploration of how artificial intelligence and machine translation are shaping the professional field and the role of the translator.
Speaking to the motivation behind his project that tackles financial literacy, York University economics student Jian Hao Chiah said, “technology gives young adults unprecedented access to investment products. We want to equip students with the tools and information they need to navigate the risks and opportunities they represent.”
In the near future, the workshops will engage participants in interactive activities. Although they are primarily designed to help high school students discover new interests and potential academic pathways, the workshops will soon be offered to a range of audiences, including young adults and second-language learners.
Each workshop is designed to be offered bilingually both in-person and online, allowing remote access to communities throughout the province and country. Lastly, the contents of each workshop will be made available as Open Educational Resources through YorkSpace.
This year’s, student collaborators are Isha Dua, Marissa Buttigieg, Sarah Akhtar, Mary-Jo Daher and Tylar Robin. The students worked alongside Glendon’s faculty, including Harvey; Lauffer; Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics Samia Challal; Associate Professor in the Department of French Studies Dominique Scheffel-Dunand and Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Professor Brenda Spotton Visano in the Department of Economics.
Up to 400 high students across the province will learn about Glendon and York University through these programs over the next year and up to 300 second-language learners will receive the workshops through the Explore Program offered in the 2022 spring and summer terms.
Both in their development model and their contents, the workshops contribute to three of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – SGD 1: No Poverty, SDG 4: Quality Education, and SDG 8: Economic Growth. The workshops provide Glendon students with paid experiential learning opportunities. The financial literacy workshop in particular aims to provide the financial skills and tools participants will need to avoid economic hardship and secure their financial future.
More detailed workshop descriptions will be accessible online once they are available for delivery. To request a workshop, learn more about the programs, how to collaborate with Glendon’s Continuing Education team, contact continuingeducation@glendon.yorku.ca.