Author: Amna Qazi

I have lived in six cities, three countries, and two continents. It is the most important part of my life story since it informs everything I do and how I treat people. The downside of moving so much is that it is extremely isolating, and wherever I went I had to readjust to fit into what people accepted in that particular culture. In spite of trying my hardest to fit in, I always stood out as the odd one out. Although I first blamed myself, thinking that something about me made people turn away from me, I have since come to realize there is a pronounced lack of understanding of cultures in society, which negatively impacts how we treat folks who are different from us. Due to this, I have dedicated myself to increasing intercultural understanding and anti-racism initiatives in my community. 

I was barely a year old when my family and I immigrated to Canada and I had always viewed Canada as my home. I made snow angels in the cold damply fluffy snow in the heart of Winnipeg’s winter and chased autumn leaves as they fell from mighty maple trees in London, Ontario. I started school when I was 4 years old in Canada and immediately was exposed to a phenomenon I had no idea existed; treating people differently based on their ethnic origin. There was a distinct and negative difference in the way my kindergarten teacher treated me and the other children of colour. This combined with the way children would ask me why my skin was so dirty made me want to just disappear into a bucket of whiteness that when I came out of I would be blonde and blue eyed. 

We moved one again to Al Ain, UAE. This was a world away from the world I knew. Suddenly the misty winter scene was changed to an expanse of sand dunes and an infinite blue sky holding the largest looking sun I had ever seen. As strange as it may sound to adults, and as strange as it sounds to me upon reflection, I was beyond thrilled that I was surrounded by individuals with skin that looked closer to mine. But, as a kid I hadn’t understood the fact that there is more than just skin colour that exists as a barrier between people. Within a month of moving there I realized that I was once again the odd one out and within a year of moving I understood why; because although I shared skin colour and religion with the other children, I did not share the same language or culture. Throughout my time in the UAE I worked hard to assimilate. I learnt how to speak Arabic, I adopted mannerisms and customs to feel like I belonged. But no matter what, I remained in the doorway of acceptance. 

I moved back to Canada when I was 12 years old. I had a hope that coming home, I would stop feeling like an outsider; I did not. On the first day of school, the teacher introduced me as a newcomer to Canada and asked people to please keep in mind that I may not speak English or that I may not understand Canadian society. Despite having moved away from Canada, I remained a Canadian citizen and English remained my first language. This trend of being treated like an outsider in a country I called home continued and still continues. What has changed is my ability to understand this phenomenon and my ability to help others understand. 

Before I started as an Intercultural Storyteller, I thought that these experiences were only my own. That no one else could have experienced the same and that they held no value. Through my role, I have learnt the academic side of global competency, intercultural communication and understanding, and anti-racism work. Learning the research and literature background helped validate my experiences and taught me how to take a proactive stance in educating others about the most appropriate methods of intercultural communication to prevent other people from experiencing the alienation I had. I am so lucky to have a platform like TRU StudentLife where I get to explore these topics and help students understand a diverse point of view. 

As I entered nursing, I didn’t realize how much my course work would help me bridge the gap between health and culture. I have been able to connect how experiences relating to immigration, culture, racism, and colonization have direct impacts on health by taking health care ethics, health promotion, and Indigenous health courses. Again, I had thought that these issues were isolated to myself and people I knew. I didn’t realize that they occur on a large scale and that there was academic backing to these experiences. Moreover, I didn’t realize I could take actions to help prevent or mitigate the effects that cultural determinants of health have on communities. 

My global competency is based on a combination of personal and professional experiences. Being an intercultural story teller has introduced me to so many theories and scholarly sources that both validate my experiences and expand my knowledge. Previously, I found it hard to discuss the importance of being culturally or globally competent as I thought that personal experiences weren’t valid forms of learning. I also did not have knowledge of the fact that people actively work to research and accumulate information on how to make universities, workplaces, and schools more inclusive. Now that I understand that there is an art to putting out messaging around how to develop intercultural competencies, I can perform better in my storytelling role. Learning about how cultural determinants of health relate to the quality of healthcare that people receive has been really important to me because I can empathize with patients of diverse backgrounds while cementing the culturally competent care I provide in evidence-based practice. As I move through my career as a nurse, I really want to focus on overcoming barriers to health equity on a systems level. This is why I lean towards public health as a specialty since I can use my role to increase newcomers’ understandings of the health care system. By helping people understand the system they are coming into, you are able to empower them to better advocate for themselves. Being multilingual has increased my understanding of the world astronomically. Each language has differences in expressions and idioms which inform you of the culture they are associated with. Learning to speak a range of languages has given me a deeper look into how people communicate around the world. 

Category A:

AGSC 2200

This course was incredibly interesting to me and it completely changed my outlook on food systems and sustainability. I can honestly say that I had never considered how complex a scenario the messaging around dietary guidelines combined with environmental considerations is. I had thought that everyone had the same level of health and environmental literacy I did. For example, through this course I learned how deeply intertwined health guidelines of the 20th century are with the increased emphasis on dairy and meat products as health building food and then how although the messaging has changed now, how hard it is for individuals to enact that change because of how deeply rooted the previous messaging is. Thus contributing to the increase in I gained a much deeper appreciation for how sustainability, health messaging, and policy making are all deeply intertwined.

BIOL 1210

This was most definitely one of my most favourite Biology courses. This course incorporated sustainability through increasing understanding of how animals interact with their environment. In the context of today’s rapidly changing environment, animals might evolve to fit the current climate but a lot of species will also go extinct. Through knowledge learned in this course, I understand how important it is to prevent species from going extinct because of the vital role each one does in our environment and making it hospitable to humans.

HLTH 2300

While this course isn’t listed on the list, I have still made a last minute decision to include it. I was reflecting on sustainability and I really believe the we cannot have a conversation about the environment without honouring Indigenous knowledge. This course impacted my learning about environmental sustainability in the most profound way. We learnt about how important land and preserving the ecosystems is to Indigenous populations and how it directly correlates with Indigenous determinants of health. One of the most memorable classes was when we had a guest presenter come in and speak with us about waterways and how they are so deeply tied to health in Indigenous communities. Furthermore, it helped me define health as beyond just that of physical wellbeing, but incorporating an environmental wellbeing aspect as well. Overall, it made me recognize how vital sustainability is, not just in terms of halting climate change, but in terms of lifestyles and health equity.

NURS 1730

This course was revolutionary to my learning as it helped me understand he interconnectedness of health and the environmental and empowered me to make an active effort to include environmental considerations into my nursing practice.

Category B:

Adventures of Co-Creating a Sustainable BC! – 15h/month from September to May

During the 2019-2020 school year, I was part of a pilot project initiative by the Fraser Basin Council called Co-Creating a Sustainable BC. This initiative involved making a groups of youth from their community who are interested in sustainability and then providing them with tools and connections to come up with a project that would contribute to sustainable practices and development in their region. Our group chose to try and implement curb side composting but in conversations with the City and other decision makers we realized it was something already in the works and not likely to be implemented over 10 months so we shifted gears to work on providing businesses in town with the knowledge, tools, and equipment to compost their waste. The entire initiative was split into 3 phases; consulting with experts, planning and implementation. This initiative really increased my knowledge of what a sustainable community looks like and how to go about implementing ideas into actions.

Here is a link to the website where pictures of me taking part are posted: https://fbcyouthprogram.ca/ccsbc/

The link to the final presentation we did is my give back piece so you get to hear more there 🙂

Picture of my testimonial from the website

Category D:

Fraser Basin Council – Youth Advisory Committee

For 2 years now, I have been part of the Fraser Basin Council’s Youth Advisory committee dedicating about 4 hours each month to a meeting where we discuss, plan, and brainstorm on topics related to the Fraser Basin Council’s Youth Programs which are all centred around sustainability and how to involve youth in sustainable initiatives. We even get to consult on projects like clean energy and give our feedback!

From my experience working as an Intercultural Storyteller at TRU, the youth program’s coordinators asked me to build a social media guide for them. So as part of my contribution to the Fraser Basin Council I created a social media guide. While you may wonder “what does social media have to do with sustainability”. The reality is, that everything depends on messaging. We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with messaging of all sort and if we can learn how to get the message across to youth that there are safe, free, and engaging opportunities for them to make a difference in sustainability that is directly related to sustainable development because its creating an atmosphere where we can then work on environmental sustainability.

Link to Youth Advisory Committee page, you can find my bio and picture there. https://fbcyouthprogram.ca/yc/

Link to social media guide: https://sites.google.com/view/fbcsocialmediaguide/home

This guide took me more 20 hours to complete and involved lots of discussions with FBC staff on how to present climate change and sustainability to youth in a way that would entice them to take action.

Category E:

Adaptation Canada Conference 2020 – Attended and played the role of a youth observer (Occurred before the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic)

Before the COVID days, when we actually attended conferences in purpose while my classmates relaxed on their reading break. I took a plane to Vancouver and attended the Adaptation Canada conference. I cannot even put into words how MUCH I learnt there. This is where my brain really understood how to combine health and climate change together. The more I listened the more I realized that I had to incorporate the knowledge of climate change into my nursing practice. As the climate warms, more and more people are put at risk for heat related illness and death and as a nurse, we can help with patient teaching around what to do to keep cool and connect our clients with community resources if they do not have air conditioning at their home.

I also got to meet the fabulous Sheila Watt Cloutier and got a signed copy of her book! I once again just was stricken with how urgent it is for us to find a way to mitigate climate change or make contributions and efforts to stop it if we can since she spoke of northern communities being dependent on the cold to continue living their lifestyles; thus the name of her book “The Right to be Cold”.

I got to make a speech about how now that we have more knowledge and are energized the steps we need to step or considerations we need to keep in mind to put words to action when we get home but unfortunately I have been unable to locate the speaker notes.

Role description:

More pictures:

Category F:

AGSC Food Sustainability Video Project

This video was filmed before I had developed my camera skills but it really represents my understanding of sustainability because I took the concepts spoken about in class and make connections to it on a global level.

Despite having completed this project, I still think about how sustainable my food sources are and really enjoy exploring how different cultures practice sustainability.

I cannot remember a time when the environment was not important to me. I recall being a young kid and wanting to do all my science fair projects on saving endangered species and bringing people’s attention to what we then exclusively called global warming. As I grew to a teenager and now a young adult, my zeal for involving others in climate action never wavered; but my understanding of how to go about enacting change and motivating others to engage in change has grown and expanded immeasurably. 

During the summer before university, I went on an expedition to the Amazon Jungle in Peru where I assisted scientists working for Operation Wallacea in tracking animal behavior and the ecosystem with the goal of furthering sustainability and championing for environmental preservation. When I got back, I went straight into a Bachelor of Science thinking that the only way I could contribute to sustainable development was through being a scientist. At that time, I was incredibly interested in studying microbes and the impact they have on greenhouse gas emissions and absorption. Within one month of classes starting, I knew I did not want to spend the next four years of my life earning a BSc. However, I was bound by the fact that I thought the only people that can have an impact on climate action are people working directly in sciences. I continued to “tough it out” in sciences for 2 years before with a heavy heart thinking that I could never contribute to sustainability now, I switched into the nursing program.  

Going into nursing, I had no idea that I would be able to incorporate my passion for sustainability together with my passion for health equity. When I was presented the opportunity to join the pilot year of Co – Creating a Sustainable BC I was overjoyed that although my education wouldn’t allow me to contribute to sustainability, extracurricular volunteering would. I was not at all prepared for the massive mindset shift I was about to undergo. Through CCSBC I learnt that environmental sustainability isn’t just isolated to research and jobs advertised as green jobs; environmental sustainability is everywhere and every industry and individual has to make change. I was excited and newly motivated with my newfound knowledge of the interconnectedness of sustainability. Through CCSBC I had the opportunity to attend the Adaptation Canada 2020 conference in February of 2020. This conference was the real turning point in how I was going to incorporate the environment into my nursing practice. At this conference we had multiple presentations by different organizations and among them were the First Nations Health Authority and a health research group from Montreal whose name I cannot recall.  During these presentations, I learnt about how the changing climate will be impacting people’s health and especially people who are already in vulnerable positions. This was revolutionary learning for me because as stated earlier, my biggest passions include sustainability and health equity. When I got back from the conference, I poured over my notes from the previous semester to look for information on how health and the climate were intertwined and reflected back on my Indigenous Health class and my Health and Health Promotion class, realizing how integral to my nursing practice environmental sustainability is. Unless the world collectively takes climate action, people’s health will suffer in relation to the higher temperatures and environmental hazards. More than that, food and water sources are tied with the environment and humans need both to live. Climate change isn’t just an environmental issue, it is a health issue because health and environment are irrevocably tied together; that is the understanding and impact I hope to have in healthcare. 

The biggest learning, I have acquired throughout earning the Leadership in Environmental Sustainability Certificate is that anyone in any industry can make a change because sustainability doesn’t just have one facet. I now have the tools, motivation, and knowledge to advocate for developing sustainable practices within the health care field that do not compromise patient safety and quality of care. Furthermore, I can now impress upon my peers in healthcare the importance of tying people’s health and the changing climate together and how vital it is for us to be prepared to provide supports to communities; mitigating the effects of dangerously high temperatures and poor air quality. To be a truly environmentally conscious and sustainable global community, we all need to take steps to make our areas of work and living sustainable. Each building block of change amounts to the greater goal and no block of change is too small to be excluded. 

Category A: 5 points

I have grown up in 6 cities and 3 countries around the world. Each country and city with its own language, culture, and educational system. Having began school in London, Ontario I didn’t learn a language other than English at school despite being fluent in Punjabi and Urdu as they were the languages we primarily spoke at home. When I moved to Al Ain, UAE and started at the International School of Choueifat I was required to learn how to speak French at a very high level of fluency as the school followed the SABIS educational system which started in Lebanon, a French colonized country. I had to work double as hard to catch up to my class mates French speaking and writing abilities. However, when I moved back home to Canada, the possibility of sending me to a French immersion school was overlooked and instead I went first to Aberdeen Elementary and next to South Kamloops Secondary School – neither of which rigorously included French in their English based curriculum. On my first day of French class at SKSS, my French Teacher Mme Woods picked up on the fact that I spoke more French than other students and she along with Mme Jauregui advocated for placing me into the French immersion French classes while allowing me to remain in English classes for the rest of the curriculum. Through this change, I was able to expand my French fluency and eventually wrote the DELF exam certifying me as a B1 level speaker and I am still incredibly grateful for their advocacy.

Category B: 3 points

Hlth 2300

The Indigenous health class exposed me to learning about Indigenous cultures in a way that I never got the opportunity for before. My knowledge about Indigenous cultures, way of life, and Indigenous Determinants of Health grew infinitely and provided me with a base to anchor my culturally competent care as a nurse.

Nurs 1730

This course further enhanced my learning of health in Canada and across the world and how different cultures define health, cope with disease, and what determinants of health effects minority ethnic groups in Canada at a higher frequency.

Phil 2310

As a healthcare ethics course, this course allowed me to explore the effects of racism on health equity and the ethical impact of racism in the health care context.

Globally Competent Employment Related Activity: 5 points

From the summer semester of 2020 I have been an Intercultural Storyteller at TRU (the website still says Student Marketing Assistant – we need to just fix that). I worked full time over the summer and work 10 hours per week now to create, promote, and collaborate on intercultural learning materials, social media posts, and videos among other very interesting things!

Here is my bio posted in the FSD website:

https://www.tru.ca/current/student-life/communications-storytelling-and-events/meet-the-team.html

Link to annual report which features some of my work:

https://www.tru.ca/__shared/assets/2020-21__FSD__Annual__Report54251.pdf

Link to examples of my work:

https://inside.tru.ca/2020/10/29/culture-is-not-a-costume-a-halloween-checklist/

https://www.tru.ca/intercultural/resources/diversity-equity-glossary.html

Total 13 points.

This is a link to our final presentation about our Co-Creating a Sustainable BC project. This presentation was collaboratively made by our group during a working sessions and we all collaboratively presented it to the Fraser Basin Council staff, participants of other CCSBC cohorts in the Sea to Sky region, ministry representatives, community members, and experts that we consulted with – You’ll notice James Gordon from TRU mentioned there too!

https://prezi.com/view/qBJP1TIeUmkHrPB30zCA/

For my give back piece I have chosen a project that I am the most proud of and I believe has the biggest impact on the community which is the Eye on EDI podcast that I produce, host and work to promote. This project provides me with the opportunity to share my learning with the listeners as well as actively engage the guest in conversations for promoting mutual learning.

https://eye-on-edi.trubox.ca