Going beyond borders

My name is Ruby, and I'm a final year student at the University of Waterloo. I'm part of a program called Beyond Borders, and you will be finding out all about it. So let's begin with some introductions!

Introducing the Beyond Borders program...

The Beyond Borders program, offered through St. Jerome's University, encourages students to apply skills and knowledge learned in school to serve our community and work towards building a better society. It is an one-year long program completed through 3 terms, each component taking on a different focus. The program begins in September, and from then till April, students are required to take 2 courses and participate in 3 seminars to prepare us for a 3-month placement in the summer in a developing country. These placements are offered through 2 different partners, Intercordia Canada and World University Service of Canada (WUSC).

Introducing the Beyond Borders blogs...

This blog, quite frankly, has started because of a course requirement. However, I promise you that it is going to be so much more than that. This blog will be home to all my stories and reflections as I record all that I learn and encounter through the program. By sharing through this blog, I hope I can take all of you on this journey as well. There are 13 of us this year, and each of us came from different walks in life, studies a different major in school, has different amount of travel experiences and will be going to different countries working at different placements. On the other hand, we are all similar in that we share the same passion to learn more about the world with an open heart and an open mind. We know that we are not going to change the world, but we believe that by educating ourselves, we will be better equipped to make little differences, every day, in every way. Each one of us is going to have different insights and reflections, both when we are still preparing ourselves during the first two phases of the program, and when we finally go oversea in the summer. I encourage you to explore the blogs of other Beyond Bordians, enjoy the stories, and leave LOTS of comments :)