Category — James

James is a Commerce student who is passionate about everything that is related to economy and its controversial aspects. He describes himself as a kind, generous, social guy who likes to be outgoing and finds to always be the leader when working in a team; Except that this time he is the only guy participating in the project, which makes him to be the “minority” of the group, however he says it will make the experience even more fun and challenging for him. James also likes diversity, he believes that having only one opinion is not enough if people want to evolve and create new ideas. He discovered the project in a brochure on his first day of school,and thought that it was a great opportunity to try a new experience: “I was never an environmentalist or a humanitarian before, and then I met all the people in the team, and they have changed my perception of things. The one person that is really going to change me,I think is Sarah, because she is so „green‟ and has all these „green ideas‟, and since the very first day we met I changed some aspects of my behaviour towards the environment”.

He affirms that this project is going to change many aspects of his personality, but it will also make him a more aware person of the reality and conditions of Africa: “I‟m going to have to mentally prepare myself, because the only poverty that I‟ve ever seenisin the media, so I have to be ready and get adapted to that situation”. He also thinks that it is everybody‟s duty to give back to society their qualities and skills, specially the youth, because: “young people are the ones who start the generations, they are more energetic and have more time to experience new things, to create awareness amongst themselves and others of what is happening around us”. James is very enthusiastic about the fact that our college is going to be an example for other institutions to get involved in study programs like this one; he also thinks that Canada is going to be looked at, as a nation who loves giving a helping hand to other countries in need, but mostly that when coming back he is going to spread this idea and be „contagious‟ to other people aboutgetting involved in life changing experiences like this one.

To see more pictures of James please click on the link below

http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/international-education/projects/vefa/malawi/james/index.html