It’s just a few weeks until the end of the summer and the end of my time working as a summer student at the NWT Literacy Council.
I love making connections with people, and this job offers many opportunities to do this. I’ve interacted with the public at community events and workshops promoting all types of literacy.
There is so much variety in my work. I get to spend my days working with kids, designing posters, doing arts and crafts and organizing resources and events. There’s always something interesting to work on. I’ve never felt stuck in a rut of doing one monotonous task for the entire day. I’m able to pick up and set aside tasks as new ones come up. It was a great way to learn how to prioritize important tasks.
At the Literacy Council, there are often opportunities to work outside. Throughout the summer we’ve worked with artist Diane Boudreau to paint a big canvas tent that we’ll be using for future Family Literacy events. It was lots of fun getting children involved in the whole process. I also gave away free books from our book mobile and engaged children in family literacy activities at the Farmers Market every Tuesday. All this while enjoying the beautiful Yellowknife summer. I much prefer it to being tucked away in a dusty back room filing all day!
The best part though, is that I’m given responsibility, and get to take on projects that I can see through to completion. This independence helps build important problem solving, time management, communication, and leadership skills.
For example, I researched, wrote, edited and designed booklets and bookmarks on this year’s theme of health literacy for NWT Literacy Week 2014.
I can’t say thank you enough to the incredible team at the NWT Literacy Council. Everyone was very welcoming and helpful. Their tireless work ethic is admirable. All in all, working for the NWT Literacy Council helped make for a memorable summer.
