|
For more information: |
About Kristina Leidums
Hi! My name is Kristina and I recently moved from the Yukon to Creston to join the SelfDesign team. I already feel like I’ve found a second family—like I’m finally ‘home.’ The refrains of my life have always been, “I am very excited,” and “I find that very interesting!” I hope to able to share my enthusiasm for learning and living with the SelfDesign Creston learners and their families. I have always been encouraged to follow my passions and to keep a child-like enthusiasm and curiosity for all things. I can’t say enough how happy I am because I’ve been allowed to follow my own path in life and to ask questions along the way. There—I would call that my philosophy for working with the learners. Everything is secondary to their happiness and freedom of thought. When those needs are met, learning happens naturally and powerfully. People always said I would make a great teacher ‘when I grew up.’ I believed them wholeheartedly, because I have always loved being around young people and watching them blossom. Becoming a teacher was my goal in life, ironically, until a few months into my Bachelor of Education degree in northern Ontario. I realized quickly that the system doesn’t work for many people. It more often than not causes pain, frustration and apathy. There is little room to ask questions, to challenge or to follow tangents. I decided that if that was what being a teacher meant, I didn’t want to be one. I wanted to be a guide, a friend, a support and a resource. I started a search for an educational philosophy and program that fit with my beliefs and was elated to discover Self Design. I was lucky to have participated in a unique interdisciplinary program at Carleton University. I left high school desperately wanting to study philosophy, religion, politics, art, music, classics, literature and history all at the same time, and I got my wish when I entered the College of the Humanities for a four year honours degree. After that, I was again fortunate to find a unique Bachelor of Education program called Outdoor Ecological and Experiential Education. Both degrees had specializations in Geography and environmental studies. The joy of my life has always been nature, exploring the wilderness and sharing it with others. I have had a multitude of jobs, or ‘life experiences,’ as I like to call them. I have been a dog sled guide in the Yukon Territory and Ontario, as well as a canoe, hiking and mountain biking guide. I really love taking young people on multi-day canoe trips and seeing self-confidence grow before your eyes. I have been a tree-planter, a tree-puller, a naturalist and a door-to-door Lawn Aeration Specialist. I have worked with teenage boys in custody in a wilderness setting, and exchange students from Taiwan in outdoor ESL programs. A great deal of my time has been spent at various outdoor education centres and camps, working with young people in experiential, hands-on programs. When I’m not traipsing around the Yukon wilds, I am reading, writing poetry or collecting rocks, books and maps. I am interested learning more about carpentry, mechanics, plants and animals, bush-craft and knots, sustainability, geology, creative writing, nutrition and Canadian history (fur trade and exploration especially). But that’s enough about me. At SelfDesign, we have the whole world at our fingertips, and that makes me giddy with excitement. We’ll get outside, run around, maybe get a bit dirty if we feel like it, get into the community, explore, make things, grow things, create our own science experiments and recipes and sometimes, we might just relax and daydream. I can’t wait to get to know the current learners and welcome new ones.
|
||