What’s in a bone? You, your friends, and your dog are walking along the river valley. It is a nice sunny day; the birds are chirping the trails are full of adventurers but wait… your dog seems to be coming out of the bushes with something that looks like well it looks like a human […]
A brief visit to the big pond in governance
For many students, and people in general, the institutions that govern so much of our lives can be very confusing, distant, and opaque. My Stretch Experience, as the Undergraduate Board of Governors Representative for the University of Alberta, has helped me to understand how board governance works, and why boards make the decisions they do, […]
Make Health Happen YEG: Building a NGO Partnership Out of My Basement
Let’s rewind to September 20, 2018: I was not exactly sure why or what I was doing trying to tackle the entirety of the Canadian health care system as a 19-year-old, under-certified, and exceptionally clumsy university student.
Resistance as a form of Survival
Imagine being kicked out of your home. Not by your parents but by soldiers, soldiers who have been trained to see you as the enemy – as the unwanted ones. By a government that does not recognize your existence as a human being but only as capital gain. Imagine being forced to flee your home […]
When I say Discover you say…
E! To the curious audience reading this post, hello! My name is Davina, and I am a neuroscience major in the faculty of science. This past summer I had the opportunity to lead summer camps through DiscoverE as part of my stretch experience. DiscoverE is a non-profit that provides fun and engaging STEM programming to […]
Accessibility Period.
by: Nicole Sanchez Research suggests that menstrual hygiene products such as pads, tampons, and applicators have sales tax because they are considered “luxury items”. However, if you talk to any and every single female, they would not agree with this statement. A normal menstruation lasts about 5-7 days and occurs every single month. Imagine paying […]
Ameliorating the Overdose Crisis in Underserved Rural Communities in Alberta
In 2018, there were nearly 4500 opioid-related overdose deaths in Canada. This amounts to approximately 12 lives a day; more than twice the number of fatalities resulting from traffic collisions. However, the overdose epidemic is not merely an urban emergency in Canada. Although often overlooked, rural and Indigenous communities in Alberta have the highest rates […]
Saigon Savvy Summer
By Idara Effiom Summer of 2019 was a very interesting one for me. It was a summer of exploration, professional development, travel and volunteerism. I got to explore southern Vietnam, live in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) for a month and work with my favourite demographic of people- children! Talk about a […]
“Minding” the Gap: A Mental Health Awareness Project
-Alyssa Mae Domingo When I applied to Peter Lougheed Leadership College, I knew I wanted to give back to the country where I grew up in, the Philippines. The 200-hour “stretch experience” is a great opportunity to make it happen. I started from scratch with only the “motivation” and the “purpose” in mind to do […]
From Ideation to Actualization: A Remote Approach to Custom Orthoses
It began with a simple question: “How can we provide rehabilitation services that would otherwise be unavailable to rural and remote communities?” Okay, maybe it is not that simple of a question, but it is undeniably a question of great importance. Patients living in rural Alberta often face challenges in accessing rehabilitation assessments and treatments. […]
My Life-changing Teaching Experience in Natal, Brazil
“Olá, meu nome e Xiaole.” On June 27th, I arrived in Natal, Brazil. On August 14th, I left my older version of myself in this charming and magical city. As an English teacher, I volunteered for 6 weeks in Centro Educacional Dom Bosco, a Catholic informal education school that has different social projects for children […]
Mbolo Moy Dole: A Story of Leading Through Change
Julia-Don Edwards The bussling East African urban centre of Nairobi is known for many things; vibrant markets, epic traffic jams, and, most exciting to me, a powerful underground theatre community. In July, I was privileged enough to witness a group of young theatre artists from Mathare, Nairobi’s largest collection of slums, use public performance and […]
PLLC Stretch 