Luke Stocking

Peru trip a D&P course in development

By 
  • April 20, 2013

TORONTO - The Canadian bishops’ development agency is running an experiment with about 16 high school students, hoping to discover a new way to grow the movement for global solidarity in Canada.

On July 8 this year students will get on a plane bound for Peru, accompanied by teachers and Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace professionals. For 12 days they will stay with the Clerics of St. Viator and the Loretto Sisters, meet with D&P partner groups and learn about Peruvian history, culture and the dynamics of development.

The course was developed by Adventure Learning Experiences and D&P. Students engage in research and discussion online both before and after the trip. “I don’t see this trip we’re developing with Adventure Learning as a goody-goody field trip,” said D&P director of programs Luke Stocking. “The emphasis is not at all on the idea you’re going to go to Peru and save the poor.”

In fact, it’s a credit course offered through the Toronto Catholic District School Board’s continuing education department. As an online offering, the course is certified by the Ministry of Education for a credit with any of Ontario’s Catholic school boards, which opens up the trip to Catholic students from anywhere in Ontario.

But the course will be more than an academic challenge. It will be an experience of learning, service and community, said Adventure Learning Experiences founder Greg Rogers.

“We need to build a c ommunity. That’s why we have the classes beforehand. We do a lot of Jean Vanier’s work before we go,” said Rogers of the L’Arche founder. “What guides all curriculum, including this one, are the Catholic graduate expectations.”

The Catholic graduate expectations, developed by Ontario’s bishops, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, the Ontario Catholic Trustees’ Association and the Institute for Catholic Education, demand graduates are capable of making decisions in light of the Gospel and are committed citizens who strive for a just and compassionate society.

Once students have experienced community among their peers, they will be ready to extend that community to people in Peru, Rogers said.

“It’s through D&P that we understand the social justice aspects that are there,” he said. “Obviously, with a Catholic organization like Development and Peace we’re much closer to those goals automatically because of the context of going with D&P.” D&P believes the students will spread the good news of the Catholic development movement.

“It’s not just a one-off experience,” said Stocking. “These students will come back and be ambassadors at their schools, which will in turn deepen the relationship with the school to continue past when they graduate.”

For years as a D&P animator Stocking would visit high schools and tell stories of his experiences in the global south. Teachers and students would ask him about opportunities to go abroad and Stocking would have to tell them about a few, limited D&P opportunities for young people above the age of 18. Giving the students an opportunity while they’re young is a way of making a life-long connection with the next generation, Stocking said.

“It’s been identified as a strategic objective to renew and revitalize our base and deepen our engagement. This is one avenue for doing that,” he said.

While in Peru students will visit Catholic parishes, development projects, travel to Machu Picchu and tour the Pueblo Archeological Museum. The course costs just under $3,000 and registration is open until the first week of May.

For more visit www.adventurelearningexperiences.com.

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