捆绑SM社区

The conference took place in May, 2016. For those of you do not know or have not heard of CSSE, CSSE is the largest educational conference in held in Canada, in conjunction with the Congress of humanities and social science. For more information, please visit:

Kannaskis- Here, I saw mama bear and baby bears playing and I also saw male sheep fighting over a female sheep!

The CSSE 2016 took place in . When I first arrived to Calgary, I was welcomed by beautiful valley. I was very excited about this year鈥檚 CSSE particularly - partly because of the amazing keynote speakers lined up in the field of Indigenous Education, and partly because Calgary was only 2 hours away from Banff.

I personally try to make any trip I take to attend a听conference trips into a sort of mini-vacay.听One of the perks about being a graduate student is that, you get to travel for academic purposes. So why not use the advantage and explore the city and nature near by the conference sites?

听So I decided to make a stop at Banff, Canmore and Kannaskis after the conference. 听

CSSE was one of the first conferences I attended as a graduate student. Fortunately, I have been lucky enough to get to know lots of great mentors and colleagues through CSSE.听 Serving an exec position at and gave me insights and valuable experience in collaborating with other fellow graduate students and faculty members. For me, CSSE is not only an academic venue to present and learn other peoples scholarly work, but it is also a community.

Particularly, this year, SERG had a keynote speaker, () who gave a talk on the history of SERG. Getting to know the history of SERG community as well as different stories provided by people in the audience was very engaging.听

Dr. Bartley showed up in his Yukuta, and told us about his recent trip to Japan.

These stories provided by senior faculty members who had been building a community was inspiring, for a 鈥渘ewbie鈥� like myself.听 The keynote as well as the stories provided from audience walked me to the history of the Canadian science education community that I now am part of. 听Seeing people that you read on e-journals working in service and creating community was for me very inspiring.

In the end, academic life is not only about your own research and teaching; but also about being a part of a bigger community.听

After Keynote session, SERG community headed to a local pub for dinner, where I had an opportunity to hear more stories from senior professors and other faculty members. They gave me funny stories and tips on how to survive academic life and work-life balance. I also had an opportunity with connect with other graduate students from different universities. Our conversations from CSSE are now continuing to this date, giving me new insights on my own work.

Connecting with other fellow graduate students has been one of the important aspects for my academic journey. I remember one of my colleagues saying, 鈥淥h I do not go to graduate students鈥� presentations. I want to focus on making a connection with faculty members鈥�- Yes, connecting with faculty members is indeed great and important. However, sharing stories and connecting with other graduate students is as important if not more, important for me as the interaction with these peers gives me a new perspective, and more opportunity for continuous conversation in future. In the end, these fellow students are going to be my future colleagues, right?

CSSE in that regard is a great venue for connecting with other fellow students through CCGSE and other opportunity to serve community through grad representatives for different special interests groups (sig).

Beading, food, and stories with CASIE

Also, had a 鈥溙齂itchen Table鈥� where people could come and rest during the conference and make beads. Here, I learned to how to bead and met diverse people and was given many stories.

The stories have听since听guided me in my own PhD journey. CSSE is for me, a treasure box. You never know when and where you are going to run into new people, new ideas and stories. 听(AND FREE FOOD!)

听

Dr. Dawn Wiseman receiving the Dissertation Award from the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies (CACS)