Nursing students from UBC’s Okanagan campus shared their knowledge about global health issues through a series of classroom visits with Grade 11 and 12 students at Kalamalka Secondary School in Vernon.
Kalamalka Secondary School students plan trip to Panama to turn knowledge into action
Nursing students from UBC’s Okanagan campus have partnered with the Students Without Borders Academy (SWBA) program at Kalamalka Secondary School to help Grade 11 and 12 students learn about global health issues.
High school teacher Dave Fehr welcomed UBC nursing students Amanda Fehr, Ashlyn McAmmond, and Melissa Stoesz into his classroom to teach the SWBA students about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) put forth by the United Nations in 2000. The MDGs are eight international development goals that the United Nations, and at least 23 other international organizations, have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality rates, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
“Including the student nurses in the Students Without Borders Academy classroom sessions provided a new perspective to the Millennium Development Goals,” says Dave Fehr. “The health care lens through which they created their lessons added a real-world heartbeat to a potentially academic process.”
Fehr, McAmmond and Stoesz developed learning modules about the MDGs and engaged with the high school students over 12 weeks to teach them the basics of global poverty, inequity, and inequality.
SWBA students will be applying the classroom lessons to real-life situations during a month-long school trip to Panama this January, where they will take part in development projects, experience Indigenous Panamanian culture, and donate much-needed school supplies to local children.
“Our goal has been to share our knowledge of global health issues with these students so that when they travel to Panama they will be more aware of barriers to equity and equality and better understand ways these barriers can be removed,” says Amanda Fehr. “The SWBA students have welcomed us into their process of organizing large fundraisers. Money raised will go to provide an improved education experience for Panamanian children. It is great to see such young leaders organizing meaningful events for the betterment of others.”
SWBA students have organized a Vernon’s Got Talent show to be held December 7, a formal charity banquet on November 23, and a benefit concert in downtown Vernon on November 30. One hundred per cent of proceeds will go directly to SWBA efforts in Panama.
