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August 22, 2023

Photo: Jess Willows (L) and Nigel Mantou Lou (R)

The psychology of immigration course takes place outside the classroom in a community setting where students engage with newcomers about their lived experiences. Assistant professor, Nigel Mantou Lou, wants his students to reflect deeply on the migrant experience.

"As an instructor, one of my goals is to encourage students to reflect deeply on how they can establish meaningful connections and be responsible for their community,” Lou says. “This ability will prove invaluable throughout their professional endeavors.”

The upper level course teaches students about mental health care, language barriers, identity, youth & family considerations, and immigrant women and girls' experience.

During the first two weeks of the course, students chose a specific organization to work with, including the (ICA), the (VIRCS), , and the (VICCIR). Throughout the course, students volunteered one to two hours a week with their community partners.

“All of these organizations are extremely dynamic in their newcomer services…I'm excited that our students got to be an important part of these organizations during the course,” explains teaching assistant, Jess Willows.

“I think this aspect of the experience might help the students consider the type of organizations they would like to work with in the future as they complete their degree programs,” adds Willows.

For fourth-year student, Natalie Wolter, the course helped bolster confidence through the hands-on learning exercises.

“I have never participated in a project like this before, so I do have some nerves, but I am also excited to apply my knowledge in a real-world setting,” says Wolter.

Making connections and building rapport was an important part of the experience for student, Sophie McIntyre. Through this process, Sophie could see the connections between what she was learning in class about the importance of language and its community links. It informed how she reflected on her skills as a volunteer in communicating with newcomers who didn't speak a lot of English.

The regular meetings with the community supervisor and the weekly course reflections made the community-engaged learning experience successful for students like Sophie McIntyre. Regular meetings with the community supervisor helped students to set goals and expectations. The weekly course reflections that included questions about the community-engaged learning experiences supported students to stay on track with their goals and explore what they were learning through the experience.

On the final day of the course, each team gave a presentation about their research projects; all the community partners attended. The students chose topics from a diverse list: issues in migrants' mental health, language learning processes, immigrant families and settlements, and barriers to accessing healthcare.

Jennifer Lei King, Coordinator of Volunteer Services for ICA, explains the importance of this work and connecting knowledgeable volunteers with immigrant populations.

“Newcomers bring valuable assets to our community,” says King.

“Volunteers provide important support to the work of the ICA; with the knowledge and deeper understanding about immigrants, student volunteers from UVic CEL programs have created a positive impact by building a bridge between newcomers and our community,” adds King.

“This course redesign, supported by UVic Experiential Learning Fund Grant, is just the beginning, and there’s still so much to do. I want to find more sustainable ways to have more psychology students have the opportunity to be involved in meaningful engagement with the migrant and other communities while they are at UVic. I see this could be a valuable experience to many of our students and the communities,” says Lou.

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