Arts Experiential Learning
Take your undergraduate education beyond the classroom by participating in Experiential Learning in the Faculty of Arts!
Choose from six different streams: Community Service-Learning, Study Abroad, Work-Integrated Learning, Innovation and Strategic Experiential Learning, Indigenous Land-Based Learning and Research.
Through participating in Experiential Learning in the Faculty of Arts, you will have the opportunity to connect to your field of study, ‘learn by doing’, and reflect on your personal and professional growth.
Community Service-Learning
Community Service-Learning (CSL) offers students the opportunity to work and make a difference with a local community group, while reflecting on their experiences for credit within a university course. These community partnerships give you first-hand experience contributing to the social and political life of our community.
Study Abroad
There are many opportunities for students in the Faculty of Arts to study and work abroad: consider learning Chinese in Taiwan, doing archaeology in Jordan, or studying French while living with a local family in La Rochelle, France! There are many opportunities for you to discover new cultures and skill sets through different program options. The Faculty of Arts even has its own international school in Cortona, Italy, where you can truly get immersed in Italian culture by attending a whole semester.
Work-Integrated Learning
Faculty of Arts Work-Integrated Learning programs allow students to transfer the skills they learn in the classroom into a professional work environment. This could include gaining real-world skills through Arts Work Experience or participating in a Field Placement as part of your degree program. By gaining professional work experience in your field while still in school, you will have an excellent understanding of where your career might go after graduation.
Arts Work Experience (AWE)
- Gain paid, full-time career-related professional work experience before you graduate.
- Students can complete 4, 8, 12, or 16 months of work experience with one or more employers starting in September, January or May of each year.
- Open to all Faculty of Arts continuing undergraduate students in any discipline who have between 24 - 105 credits and a minimum 2.3 GPA.
Criminology Field Placement Stream
- Students complete two field placement courses (SOC 399 and SOC 499) as part of their degree program that each consist of 160 hours of work with a criminal justice system organization.
- Students will produce a major research paper based on the field placement experience which will be graded by a criminology professor.
Innovation and Strategic Experiential Learning
Innovative & Strategic Experiential Learning can include anything from Experiential Learning components found in the many certificate options in the Faculty of Arts to developing innovative entrepreneurial ideas via eHUB. It can also include participating in case competitions, cross-faculty experiential learning initiatives and studio and performance work in the Fine Arts. Explore what the departments of Art & Design, Drama and Music have to offer on their department pages.
Indigenous Land-Based Learning
Land-Based Learning allows Indigenous students to reconnect with and reclaim Indigenous languages and storytelling traditions, participate in intergenerational knowledge transfer, cultural events and community-driven initiatives, all through a variety of Experiential Learning opportunities designed to encourage and promote Indigenous self-determination.
Land-Based Learning also enriches the settler student experience by drawing connections between the land on which they live, study and work with Indigenous peoples' ways of knowing, inherent rights of Indigenous peoples of Canada and honouring Truth and Reconciliation and the Calls to Action.
- Faculty of Arts Indigenous Students Cultural Activities e.g. Ribbon Skirt Making
- The Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology (IPIA)
- Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute (CILLDI)
- Elders at First Peoples' House
- Annual Round Dance and Tawaw
- Secwépemc History Field School
Research
Participating in research can include adding an honors program to your degree, participating in lab research or joining the Undergraduate Research Initiative. You can develop connections with professors and other academics in your field, and get a taste of what graduate school might offer.