I have completed the first part of the NICE Community Relations course as part of a General Studies Programme offered by my school, Friends’ School Lisburn. The reason that we do General Studies on top of our normal academic subjects is to help us develop into more rounded individuals with improved leadership and teamwork skills, and a wider interest in world affairs, who are ready to enter the real world after school. The reason I chose Community Relations is because throughout my life I have always felt I have been in a privileged position and I thought that it was time to give back to the community, and learn how to get more involved.
As a student who transferred into sixth form from a foreign country, Zimbabwe, at the beginning of Year 13, I feel I particularly benefited from the community relations course on another level. Not only did I find the content of the course extremely stimulating and interesting, but I think that it made the transition much easier by helping me to become integrated into the school environment in a way that I am not so sure would have been so easy before. Getting to take part in group discussions and activities helped me get to know other students, their interests and beliefs and how they perceive the world. I think that I, in turn, had an opportunity to introduce myself and talk a little bit about relations between the communities in my home country.
I thoroughly enjoyed the course; our teachers were very passionate about what they were trying to get through to us, yet the sessions had a remarkably relaxed and casual atmosphere so it was possible to get delicate topics out in the open in an informal way. I definitely came away from the course with an altered perception of people – the idea of not making assumptions or applying stereotypes.
We also learned different methods of handling conflict as well as the importance of learning to put yourself in other people’s shoes, and see life from their point of view. The most important thing I think I learnt from this course was that diversity in a society should be looked at as a tool for the good – that all people, differences aside, have the same hopes, dreams, fears – and that we can use the diversity of society in a positive way to effect change.
Community Relations
