Life in Pearson after Pearson

Life in Pearson after Pearson

It feels great to be back. And it's intense too! I forgot how life on campus felt like and, although I have no deadlines to reach or classes to attend, I've tried over the past few days to engage in campus life as much as I could: Social Innovation CAS, Fitness Tuesdays, long cafeteria talks, Indigenous Day, tsunami alert, Intramurals soccer tournament, Art workshops, Calgary homemade pizza party, TOK, jogging in the forest, TEDx, Ukranian dance, Life After Pearson talk and countless informal encounters with students and staff. I've been going to bed every night at 8pm exhausted, happy and impressed. 

Everyone here has been extremely welcoming and curious about who I am and what I've done over the past two decades. Not only that, but one of the most popular questions I've had has been "so, what's changed from since the late 90's?". It's been a very interesting question to answer because on the surface most buildings are the same with the exception of the floating one, the spiritual center and some renovated houses or areas, but as time went by, I've noticed profound changes. 

First of all, I want to acknowledge the fact that the overall campus vibe is a healthy one. Although stress levels vary from person to person there's an underlying fundamental change that has allowed students to better cope with the hardships of this place. Food in the caf has improved, the Health Center is open everyday with the head nurse living on campus and student-led Fitness Tuesdays are in place, because students now know that burning calories is positive for them in many aspects. Fitness is available for all levels and personal preferences. Students were humble and happy to hear my advice on how to properly perform some of the exercises and the theory behind them. 

Second, student initiatives have been recognized and made official. Back in my day there was a lot going on outside of what the IB mandated, just like today, but it didn’t count as part of the IB. In my case, I remember spending lots of hours learning how to play the guitar and starting a rock band, Mary’s Rock, but none of that counted as part of the IB although it arguably met all of the criteria. The College has come to realize that in a place like this, spontaneous creativity and gathering will occur, and that it has to be recognized. Students put a lot of faith, passion and sweat to what they believe in and this is what ultimately matters. Just as an example, I was honoured with an invitation from the students that started Social Innovation CAS. These guys are doers. They’ve done what every startup should do: identify a precise problem in a community, solve it, market it and distribute it. Their current efforts are focused on PCGROWceries.com which offers students to buy supplies from their website with a premium and the CAS Group will by them for them at Walmart and deliver them to their room. Shopify, Strype, order management, marketing, discounts, distribution are some of the management concepts and tech that they apply, test and talk about every week to make things happen. C$300 of sales this week and 3 hours of debate and brainstorming with me speak for themselves. Once again, humility and thirst for knowledge is what drives these students. Hopefully I’ll be able to dive into many other student-led activities over the next days. 

Third, last Wednesday we celebrated Indigenous Day. I might be wrong, but I don’t remember having celebrated a full day of workshops like this one in my days outside of National Days (which are called Regional Days now). This initiative, led by Clint Kuzio, Indigenous Educator, Advisor & Coordinator of Reconciliation, and a group of students, aimed at acknowledging Indigenous People in Canada through a series of debates, movie screening and workshops. It was a very emotionally intense day which started off by Clint warning us about the movie we were about to watch showing the abuse that Indigenous children suffered in Residential Schools in Canada for the past decades up until 1996. Student workshops were very engaging and knowledgeable. 

Over the next three weeks I'll be living on campus spending as much time as I can with the unique population of this place. Faces have changed, but energy levels and vibes are still the same. 

Intramurals soccer tournament

Raquel, year 6, Spain, leading a watercolor workshop

Calgary House boy pizza party

Indigenous Day

Common Room inauguration

To be continued… 

Albert Lluís, year 24, Spain