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.
