Current CMU student Peter Dueck, who will graduate in 2012 with a four-year BA in Biblical and Theological Studies with a Philosophy minor, says his practicum experience was beneficial in a number of ways.
Dueck completed his practicum assignment during 2010-2011 as a Grade 7/8 teacher aid at St. Aidan’s Christian School, a private Christian school in Winnipeg that accepts students who are no longer welcome or no longer feel safe in the public school system. There, he tutored students while serving as a positive male role model for them, many of whom had none.
“My placement challenged me to think seriously about the role of a Christian institution in a non-Christian neighbourhood, and what that role should be,” says Dueck, who is currently volunteering at the school once a week during his last year at CMU.
Dueck says his practicum complemented his academic studies and helped prepare him for an education role. However, he adds that his practicum was also about growing personally and professionally.
“CMU, as a whole, has taught me less about what I should do professionally and more about daily experience and how to work my way through it,” he shares. “CMU and my practicum experience guided me along the journey of discovery within the world; I have developed a greater understanding of how to live and work as a disciple of Christ.”