More than Just a Volunteer: Mishma Mukith’s Journey

By Alvin

For many students, post-secondary education is a routine — one where you drag yourself out of bed every morning, try to pay attention in class, and head straight home after classes, until you graduate.

When Mishma Mukith sat down to enroll in her first year electives, she wanted something more.

“I had no idea what to take for an elective so I chose a volunteer-oriented course called CSL 100,” Mishma told me during our chat. “I was made fun of by a few friends who questioned why I would spend money on a course when I could just volunteer for free.”

While Mishma only intended on sitting in for a few classes to see what CSL 100 was like, she found herself drawn into the course style. As part of the U of A’s Community Service Learning program, the course combined real-world volunteer experience with what was being learned in the classroom. Despite her interest, Mishma did take a short break from the Community Service Learning program. It was not until her third year where Mishma found her way back to CSL after a close friend’s passing challenged her perception of academia.

As she explained to me, “we often have tunnel vision where we get caught up in academia and only see the end line. I wanted to get out of that mindset so I decided to pursue my CSL certificate.”

We often have tunnel vision where we get caught up in academia and only see the end line.

During her CSL 300 course, while on a placement at Jasper Place High School Mishma encountered what she calls one of the most profound moments of her post-secondary education.

“We were sitting at a table with high school students designing a project to make the student body better heard and nobody was speaking because the high school students all sat on one side and the university students sat on the other side,” Mishma said.

To get past the silence, Mishma and her colleague decided to intermingle everyone so the high school students would feel more involved in the discussion and less apprehensive about sharing their opinions.

“As we started discussing what it meant to be heard in the school, a student replied saying it didn’t matter because there was no way of being heard, and then other students started jumping in with their thoughts,” Mishma said. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt as inspired in my degree as I did in that moment because I learned once you give the younger generation a voice, they can roar.”

Forming relationships and skill-building with community members is how Mishma chooses to describe her CSL placements, rather than calling it “volunteering” because she believes it has a temporary connotation.

“What distinguishes a CSL student from just a volunteer is the fact that you are thinking about why you are there and you make decisions on the basis of questioning the sustainability of your actions,” Mishma said.

Mishma urges students who are interested in taking a CSL-designated or CSL-approved course to simply try it.

“Keep your eyes open. No knowledge is ever bad knowledge, even though it may not have been the experience you expected,” Mishma said. “It’s nice to feel like you belong to something, you’re not just being a volunteer, you become a part of the community.”

No knowledge is ever bad knowledge, even though it may not have been the experience you expected