As a co-op student, a Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) student, and someone involved in leadership roles at Waterloo, Afiyah has been able to make the most out of her degree. Afiyah is a double major student of PACS and Psychology, and as she completes her 4A term, she can reflect on the classroom and co-op experiences that have helped her grow.
Afiyah did not come to the University of Waterloo planning to take PACS. However, in her first year, she took PACS 101: Peace is Everybody’s Business and started to gain interest in studying PACS. In the second semester of her first year, Afiyah took PACS 201: Roots of Conflict, Violence, and Peace with Prof. Eric Lepp and really enjoyed his interactive teaching style. As COVID hit and courses turned online, Afiyah looked out for courses with Prof. Lepp. She mentions that Prof. Lepp taught all her favourite courses including PACS 203: A History of Peace Movements.
I really love history and it was a very engaging course because of [Prof. Lepp’s]’s teaching style. I really enjoy getting to know the world and understand [socio-political] movements that [transform] it.
Outside of courses, Afiyah has had the opportunity to gain real-world experience through co-op placements. While she had an interesting journey with co-op because COVID changed the format of some placements, in fall 2022, Afiyah worked in the University of Waterloo Computer Science Graduate Office. There, she helped schedule courses for upcoming terms and was part of the application review process for spring and fall 2023 terms for incoming graduate students. She also was a go-to person for questions and email correspondence.
It is fun to do something different while studying and it was nice to be of help to people. Both PACS and Psych teach you how to solve problems and think through situations that might feel overwhelming and messy in the moment.
Afiyah also appreciates PACS 202: Conflict Resolution, talks about how to approach interpersonal conflict and how to understand your own conflict style. She learned a lot from this course especially how to approach and manage and transform conflict. This course was also helpful as Afiyah navigated challenges in one of her co-op placements.
In the winter term of 2022, Afiyah reflects on an upsetting incident with her colleagues. She observes how the skills learned from PACS were applicable in that conflict situation.
This course taught me how to calm down, think through what happened and to work through it constructively. It taught me how to let actions speak, not words. It also taught me how to step away and not reply in heated conflicts while I am upset.
Overall, with the combination of PACS and Psychology courses, and the co-op experiences she has had, Afiyah is a more outgoing and confident person.
When I see myself in my first-year year vs now, I see a huge difference in personality, thoughts, [and] how I speak. In the first year I did not talk to people very much and then COVID hit. I was back home with no people around. When I came here as a third year (but it felt like my first year all over again!) it was so easy to speak to people and make friends.
This winter term 2023, Afiyah is not completing a co-op she is back in classes and taking her PACS 402, a capstone senior research course. This large project is mostly independent, and the final paper is longer than most assignments she has ever done. For this paper, Afiyah chose to explore Islamophobia.
PACS as a whole contributed to this topic because I have been able to explore this topic since first year. In PACS, I am able to express myself through the courses I take and the assignments I have done. When I work on an assignment, I relate everything back to my lived experiences.
This is a topic that a lot of Afiyah’s PACS degree has helped create, and she is excited to be working on this paper. Afiyah continues to explain “the moment Prof. Naren [PACS 402 Professor] asked me about the project, nothing came to mind except for Islamophobia”. This project is now underway and going well.
For any students just beginning their PACS journey, she encourages them with this advice:
Do not judge yourself, and your strengths and career choice based on your first year. Take as many risks as possible -try new things, make mistakes, and change decisions as you go. It will help you grow.
As Afiyah comes close to the end of her degree, she has no concrete plan for post-grad, but she hopes to pursue post-graduate studies.