YMAP 2010: The Year in Review | 2010 YMAP Adventurous Leadership Journey | Exploring Canada Through a YMAP Perspective | LINC Student Shares Newcomer Experience with YMAP Students | Ren's Story: YMAP - A Place of Belonging | CIBC Scholarship Recipient: Tuyet Tran

YMAP 2010: The Year in Review 
By Sara Hanson, YMAP South Coordinator

With 255 students from over 50 different countries who participated in one of six YMAP sites this year, YMAP’s team of enthusiastic coordinators worked hard to develop programming that reflects the  diversity of our students, while also providing them with meaningful opportunities to get involved in their communities. By starting the recruitment process a little earlier this year, we extended the program by a few weeks, which enabled us to build stronger relationships with our students and also introduce a variety of new activities.

While the highlight of the year was by far the annual adventure to Camp Chief Hector, the students also appreciated learning about the many important skills they need to succeed in Canadian society. Two students from the East Achievers program specifically noted what they learned from attending YMAP.

 “YMAP has bettered my communication skills,” says one student. “It also helped me to get a job by showing me the dos and don’ts at job interviews. Nancy [the East YMAP Coordinator] was great. She made everyone feel welcome.”

“This year in YMAP I learned so much even though I was introduced to the program late,” says the other student. “I was introduced to new friends, learned to be responsible when I grow up and know how to take care of myself.”

While the Achievers were learning about employment, the Leaders were exploring topics such as leadership, diversity, human rights and global citizenship. Throughout the year, Leaders from the different YMAP sites participated in a number of experiential learning activities that furthered their leadership skills and broadened their understanding of social justice. Among others, these activities included volunteering at the Drop-In Centre, where the students learned about the challenges facing Calgary’s homeless population, and hosting a bake-sale at the Eau Claire YMCA to raise money for YMCA Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. 

To further explore multiculturalism and diversity, the NW Leaders created personal identity reflection facemasks. This activity allowed the students to learn about each other’s cultures as well as explore their own identities and goals. While the NW leaders got their hands dirty with paper mache, the SW leaders rolled up their sleeves to learn about sustainability with members of Alberta Acts, an environmental citizenship group. By planting strawberry plants with beans, the students got a lesson in ecosystems and perma-culture as well as the opportunity to take home individual pots and watch their plants grow.

In addition to attending weekly sessions, the YMAP students also took part in a number of special events including the kick-off party, a trip to theatre Calgary, and the Youth Employment Centre’s annual summer youth job fair. Many YMAP students also attended the 19^th annual Global Youth Summit, which this year attracted over 100 youth who all share a passion for social justice. At this event, students participated in a number of workshops covering everything from Adbusting to the environment and active global citizenship.

The YMAP year ended on a high note after the annual trip to Camp Chief Hector where new friendships were forged and life long memories were made. While the students were sad to see the year end, there was also a great sense of excitement as each site celebrated their accomplishments and looked forward to creating new memories and friendships next year.

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2010 YMAP Adventurous Leadership Journey
By Sara Hanson, YMAP South Coordinator

In May, YMAP hauled 116 students, 11 volunteers and seven YMCA staff out to Camp Chief Hector for the annual Adventurous Leadership Journey. With six buses packed full of enthusiastic students – many who were about to experience camp for the very first time – we left the city in anticipation of a weekend packed full of new adventures and new friendships. Among the many activities the students enjoyed over the weekend, the giant swing was by far the greatest highlight, as the students were able to challenge themselves by going to new heights.

Heidi Montejo Luis, a student in the South Explorers program, felt especially proud of herself after pulling the lever and letting herself fly through the air.  

“Pulling the lever was the easy part, because I had control the pull the leaver,” she says. “Swinging in the air was scary and made me nervous, but I learned I could confront my fears. Next time I will go all the way to the top because I learned from my experience.”

While the thrill of swinging high above the ground will likely never be forgotten, the opportunity to form new friendships with students who come from all over the world was another highlight of the weekend, says Santiago Romero, an international student from Mexico who participates in the South Achievers program.   

“I really enjoyed getting to meet people from everywhere,” says Romero. “I find learning about cultures so interesting - the geography, customs and different traditions.”

Angelina Komissarenko, another student from the South Explorers, also enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people who she might not normally make friends with.

 “I learned that you should not be scared to meet new people,” she says. “You should try to make new friends because you never know what kind of people they are and if you would like to be friends with them.”  

In addition to meeting new friends from different quadrants of the city, the YMAP students were introduced to a much different side of Canadian culture from that of living in the city. Many students expressed that this was not only their first camp adventure, but also their first opportunity to experience the beauty of the Rocky mountains. 

Whether canoeing, cooking bannock over an open fire, chasing friends through the forest in the animal game or encouraging their peers in the challenge course, camp provided a number opportunities for the YMAP students to challenge themselves, build confidence and learn from each other.

When the buses arrived on Sunday afternoon, everyone, especially the staff and volunteers, was exhausted, but the students were not ready to leave. While the experience of camp may have been short lived, the memories will continue to be shared through the many friendships and connections that were made throughout the weekend.

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Exploring Canada Through a YMAP Perspective
By Dalmy Baez, South Explorers  

YMAP Explorers had a fantastic year full of new experiences and lifelong friendships. Our group was rich with culture with students from all corners of the world including Eritrea, the Congo, Russia, Burma, Thailand, Mexico and the Philippines. The students quickly connected with one another sharing their diverse perspectives and their common experiences as newcomers to Canada.

With World Cup taking place this year, soccer was definitely a dominant theme throughout program sessions. This was apparent when the class attended a high school soccer match with a few YMAP students playing on each team. Those students who were not playing in the match formed an energetic crowd with colourful posters and their loudest cheering voices. It was an exhilarating game full of excitement and anticipation. There was so much energy both on and off the field that many YMAP fans lost their voices from cheering so loud.

Another highlight was when students embarked on an adventure to Camp Chief Hector for the May long weekend. All of the South Explorers were in attendance which gave the group an opportunity to become even closer than they were before. For many of the students this was their first introduction to the Rocky Mountains. The students bonded as they faced new obstacles and challenges together and took in the fresh mountain air.  

The Explorers are excited to begin the summer component of the YMAP program where they will continue to practice their English in Summer School and gain meaningful experiences as they volunteer in the community over the summer months. They also look forward to the opportunity to join the Achievers program next year.

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LINC Student Shares Newcomer Experience with YMAP Students
By Sara Hanson, South YMAP Coordinator

Three years after immigrating to Canada, Mahdi Rahimi is already doing something that many young Canadians have yet to do –get involved in their communities through meaningful volunteer work.  

As a LINC student at the YMCA, Rahimi participated in his first Canadian volunteer experience at the 2009 Peace Medal Awards ceremony. He found this experience to be especially rewarding as it provided a great way to meet new people and see how things work in Canada. He asked his LINC teacher if there were other ways he could get involved at the YMCA and she recommended that he apply to work with the YMAP program.

“I wasn’t really sure if I could [become a YMAP volunteer],” explains Rahimi. “But, then I went there and saw they are actually ESL students and they are just like me – they are new in Canada and learning about the culture and how to apply for a job.”

As a refugee who is originally from Afghanistan but who also spent several years living in Germany, Rahimi experienced a number of challenges when he first immigrated to Canada. These challenges included learning English as well as struggling to find a job without having sufficient language skills. Like many new Canadians, Rahimi also faced the challenge of trying to understand his new country in relation to the country he grew up in.  

“When I came to Canada, what was fascinating to me was the country,” he says.  “I never saw a beautiful country like Canada. You can’t compare back home, Afghanistan, to Canada. Sometimes I ask myself why is part of the world like this and part is like Afghanistan? But you can’t change it.”

Since he arrived in Canada, Rahimi has worked hard to learn English, participate in his community and seek out employment. Within weeks of arriving, he landed his first job at Panago pizza and although he could barely speak English, he slowly learned by taking orders on the phone. Today, his efforts have paid off as he was recently promoted to store manager. As a volunteer, Rahimi’s work experience proved to be invaluable when it came to discussing jobs in the YMAP classroom.  

 “I think the experience I collected in Panago helped them a lot with their questions,” says Rahimi. “It also gave them an idea of how it is working in a restaurant and what things they need to consider when applying in a restaurant. That was a quality I could offer them.”

In addition to supporting the YMAP students through the job search process, Rahimi also brought his own cultural perspective to the classroom, as well as the ability to communicate with several students in his own first language of Farsi. While he was surprised that his own language was useful, Jillian Coulas, the NW YMAP coordinator, was especially grateful for Rahimi’s added cultural insight.

“As someone who is not well versed in everyone’s culture, I found that having a volunteer who shared the students’ perspective was helpful for me because my students may not open up to me all the time,” says Coulas. “Mahdi was able to provide that cultural perspective, but he was also in a position where he led the group, so he could see the teacher’s perspective as well.”

While Rahimi brought many enlightening experiences to the YMAP classroom, for him the greatest part about volunteering was the ability to both teach the students and learn from them at the same time.

“What I am really proud of, is that I am going there and I have a different position than them, but I also learned a lot,” he explains. “I’m helping to teach the newcomers and also learning something while I’m helping and that is the greatest thing.”

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Ren’s Story: YMAP – A Place of Belonging  

After two years of participating in the YMCA Achievement Program, Ren Hong decided to give back to the program that provided him with so much by volunteering with the YMAP Central Leaders. Hong started his YMCA career with the YMAP Achievers and went on to become a YMAP Leader, a CIBC scholarship recipient and a counselor at Riveredge day camps. While YMAP has provided Hong with many different opportunities and experiences, most importantly, he feels that it provided him with the one thing all young people are looking for.

“A place that told me I belong,” explains Hong when asked what he took away from his experience as a YMAP Achiever. “I think that is the most important part of YMAP, to let you know that you belong in this country, that everyone does.”

This sense of belonging is something that Calgary’s schools inevitably aim to provide for newcomer students, however, Hong notes that whereas school is mandatory, YMAP provided him with a safe space that he always wanted to go to. In addition to finding a sense of belonging within his YMAP classroom, Hong also notes how his YMAP experience opened his eyes to the immense diversity of Canadian society and all that he could learn from students of different cultural backgrounds. 

“Being in YMAP I got a closer sense of multiculturalism and how it applies to everybody in Canada,” says Hong. “When you talk to people from other countries, you learn what another country is like. It makes me think that I want to go see the world some day when I finish university.”

As a first year participant in the YMAP achievers program, Hong was introduced to the many different career options that awaited him in the future. Through this process, he discovered that what he enjoys most is working with his hands – a discovery that helped point him towards his current career path as he prepares to study engineering at university next year. While achievers helped Hong to figure out what he is passionate about, being in leaders provided him with an opportunity to grow in new directions.

“The first year of YMAP pointed me in a direction that I am supposed to go and leaders made me more outgoing,” says Hong. “I took a lot away from YMAP with the scholarship, all the friends, the experiences, so leaders allowed me to give back through volunteering.”

Whether volunteering in the leaders classroom or chaperoning current YMAP students out at Camp Chief Hector, Hong continues to foster the YMCA core values that he initially learned as a participant. While the core values are reflected in Hong’s dedicated involvement with the Y, they are particularly evident in the relationships he has built along the way and will continue to build in the future.   

“I think I say this every time I talk about the Y, but I don’t have a brother or a sister, so all the people I met at the Y, especially at Riveredge, they are like my little brother and sisters,” he says. “All the other counselors are like my big brothers and sisters. It’s really neat.”

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CIBC Scholarship Recipient – Tuyet Tran  

Each year, YMAP nominates grade 10 students from across the city for the CIBC YouthVision Scholarship, which selects thirty inspiring young people from across Canada who are participants in either a YMCA or Big Brother/Big Sister mentorship program. This year Tuyet Tran, a grade 10 student from Bishop O’Byrne student and a participant in the south YMAP Achievers program, was selected as one of the thirty lucky students who will not only have their post-secondary education paid for, but who will also receive a summer internship with YMCA Calgary.

As the only YouthVision scholarship recipient from the YMAP program and from Calgary, Tuyet was overjoyed when she heard the news, but she explains that even her excitement could not be matched by that of her mother’s.

“When I told my mom that I got the scholarship, she was so happy,” says Tran. “Because I am the youngest one, my mom worried that she couldn’t pay for me. She worried about me and was really happy because I got this scholarship. I am happy too, but not as happy as my Mom is.”

 For Tuyet, this scholarship means much more than simply winning an award, as it provides the key to her post-secondary education and her dream of pursuing a career in accounting. As the youngest in a family of twelve children who immigrated to Canada from Vietnam in 2008, Tuyet truly values the importance of education. While like many high school students Tuyet admits having trouble concentrating on her homework at times, it is a different story when it comes to her math homework.

 “I can’t explain it, I never get bored with math I guess,” she explains. “Even when I play games online, I just like to find the ones that you actually have to think for.”

With a natural aptitude for math, Tuyet has decided that studying accounting in university is the best option for her future. As the only member of her family to receive high school education in Canada, Tuyet recognizes that she has a responsibility to pursue a university degree that will allow her to give back to her family who sacrificed a lot when they immigrated to Canada.

In addition to her high school education, participating in the YMAP Achievers program has further opened Tuyet’s eyes to the importance of education in a different capacity. She really appreciates all that she has learned about career planning and employment in Canada, especially the knowledge she gained about Alberta’s employment standards and the laws that are in place to protect employees’ rights.

When she isn’t studying or attending YMAP, Tuyet appreciates any opportunity to spend time outdoors fishing with one of her elder sisters outside of Medicine Hat. While fishing provides some much needed peace and quiet that is characteristic of the great Canadian outdoors, it is also reminiscent of the peacefulness that Tuyet experienced growing up on a farm in Vietnam and thus provides a link that preserves connection to her home country while also making her feel at home here in Canada.  

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