The five years (yeah…) I spent doing my undergrad degree at U of C was an amazing experience. To be truthful though, this had little to with my concentration and more to do with my involvement on campus and some amazing courses and professors. Coming out of high school, Political Science was the natural choice for me. I actually had no idea what I wanted to do with my life (still don’t) but I knew where my interests lay. If I had to do it over again I probably would have chosen Social Work or Education, but I certainly gained a lot from Poli-Sci. It has only been 3 years since I graduated, but it was not long after I completed school that I felt it pulling me back. However I recognized that I needed more life experience under my belt before I could really decided what I wanted to do. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my career path began before I even completed school when I got a job as a Youth Employment Coordinator. This lead to me working with youth in a variety of capacities at the City of Calgary, Child & Youth Friendly Calgary, and the Youth Employment Center. I had a brief stint at Bow Valley College that I enjoyed tremendously, but when the opportunity came up to work with youth again (and avoid commuting to Calgary everyday) I jumped at the opportunity. So I’ve been the Community Developer for Youth at the City of Airdrie for a year now and I think I’ve found the job and organization that is for me.

Over the last few years I’ve put a lot of thought into what I would do if I returned to school. It was always a toss up between a Masters in Counselling, Social Work, or Education as these three fit best with what I was doing and wanted to do in the future. As time went by and my life changed it became clear to me that fitting traditional schooling into my life would be very difficult so I began to looking into distance and online education. This limited what I wanted to do, unless I wanted to start from scratch and do another bachelor degree. Just when it seemed returning to school would be a pipe dream, I stumbled upon a program at Athabasca University called the Master of Arts in Integrated Studies. I was particularly attracted to this program because it is multidisciplinary and also because there is an opportunity to concentrate in Community Studies. The community development aspect of Social Work is where I have most of my experience and also the area I’m most interested in. But such is life that as soon as I discovered a program I was interested in there seemed no way I could pay for it unless I wanted to go further into debt.

I had pretty much resigned myself to putting off school for a number of years when I received word of a scholarship from the Family and Community Support Services Association of Alberta. The scholarship was only available to FCSS and PLC employees for programs that are directly related to your employment. Fortunately my position is funded by FCSS and the MAIS program is related to what I do. So back in November I submitted my scholarship application and hoped for the best. In February I heard back and was surprised I was granted the full amount I asked for - $9000! As exciting as this was, it meant nothing until I was accepted into the program so I did up a rather lengthy application and crossed my fingers. Last month I was accepted into the program that starts in September! Knowing me this will completely change, but these are the courses I’m hoping to take:

Making Sense of Theory in the Arts & Social Sciences
Researching the Arts and Social Sciences
Community Development
Planning and Action for Community Change
Organizational Prospectives
Social Movements
Transformative Learning for Social Change
Governance & Leadership
Innovative Public Management
Canadian Social Policy
Integrated Project

I’m both excited and daunted by the thought of going back to school. I wasn’t a particularly good student in University, so I’m really going to have to push myself in a graduate program. Oh, and did I mention I have a full time job, a wife, and a kid who need my undivided attention too? Good lord!

Doing this program won’t result in any sort of promotion or salary increase, but that’s not why I’m doing it. Even though this is related to my career, I’m really doing it for self development. I have no idea what will happen when I complete the program, but all I’m really hoping for is to grow as a person. I kind of see it like this:

Secondary School Robbie:


Undergraduate Robbie:


Graduate Robbie:


Self importance, here I come!