Ayesha Kaleem
Bachelor of Secondary Education, 2nd Year
Course: CSL 100 (Winter 2021) with Instructor Jay Friesen
Who was your community partner and can you describe the project objectives?
I am working with the Gradual Rising of Women (GROW) blog placement. I write blogs about our community regarding a passion for identifying discrimination, racism, and other forms harassment towards women and finding solutions for these concepts. These blogs are in accordance to women more specifically shedding light on minority women. Because of how the workforce is changing, this placement is trying to think of new roles and concepts for women to thrive in.
What was your biggest takeaway from your CSL placement?
My biggest takeaway is researching solutions to the multiple perspectives and faces of oppression women go through everyday. I never knew there were so many concepts employers can incorporate into the workplace; however, by researching this I learned more about the vast categories of methods employers can do this by implementing strategies into their workplace.
How can you apply any newly gained knowledge/skills to your future endeavours (courses/employment/volunteering)?
I will definitely view employment opportunities from a critical point of view and as a woman of colour I will think about concepts how far I can grow in a company. Also, other concepts like how many women are in this company and succeeding? This placement makes me analyze brands from several perspectives not just how well known a company is. It makes look thoroughly at job descriptions and understand how well companies support women before applying.
What are some of the ways that COVID-19 has affected your community partner or your placement?
Jobs for women have been immensely impacted by COVID-19. It is already difficult to be hired as a minority woman and now that application process has been cut in half. GROW adds awareness to this and explores ways women can also thrive within COVID-19. Some of the blogs I write discuss this concept and how the pandemic is impacting women. Many things have shifted online and people are spending more time with technology. In this sense blogs are very nice to have and bring awareness to this topic. GROW also discusses forward thinking companies and how employers can support this new generation of women and minority women in the workplace.