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Guest Seminar February 8, 2007. LONDON - Experiential education describes the type of learning that occurs in Professor Craig Boydell’s Kinesiology course, Sport and Community Service. The ten varsity athletes that make up the class are actively learning how to use their status as student athletes at UWO to serve the London and surrounding community through a number of projects. One of their first projects is taking place next Thursday February 15 at Thompson Recreation and Athletic Center. This will be the 2nd Annual Western Mustangs First Nations Track and Field Day. In an effort to create a positive experience for the children attending, the class continued their First Nations education by hosting three guest speakers in the Mustang Boardroom on February 5, 2007. Vivian Peters and Mike Deleary of UWO’s First Nations Resource Center along with Monty McGahey, a First Nations student at Western, all spoke about their experiences growing up and their thoughts about the upcoming Track and Field Day. As First Nations people, the guest speakers provided valuable insight into potential concerns those attending the event might have as well as what they hope the day will accomplish. Many First Nations children see UWO as out of their reach. The Sport and Community Service class hopes that by participating in this fun-filled day on campus, the children will feel more positively about university and see it as an attainable goal. Vivian Peters pointed out that the objective is not to assimilate First Nations people into UWO. Students should not have to change who they are in order to attend; the First Nations Resource Center is doing an excellent job at providing support for students in order to avoid a loss of culture. Listening to the stories of the speakers, it became apparent that there is something besides their common heritage that connects them, and that is sport. While Boydell’s class is currently discussing the topic of sport being more than just a game, it is clear that the speakers’ active participation in sport throughout their lives helped mold them into hardworking, goal-oriented individuals. Sport participation and success in life are undeniably linked in Deleary, Peters, and McGahey, a former member of the Mustangs Track and Field Team. The Sport and Community class is moving in the right direction by using a Track and Field Day to introduce the First Nations students to the idea of university and what it takes to graduate with a post-secondary education. “Strength, Pride, Determination”, the slogan for this year’s event, sums up what Boydell’s class hopes the First Nations students leave with. Thanks to this week’s guest speakers, the Sport and Community Service class may use their better understanding of First Nations people to make the children from surrounding area Reserves feel at home during their visit to Western. The class hopes to build on the success of last year’s First Nations Track and Field Day to continue breaking down barriers between First Nations children and UWO.
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