Student's work leads to new field school in Belize

Samantha Letourneau is “refreshed, awakened and determined to make a difference” after returning to Canada from a three-month internship in Belize where she studied the need for community planning.

Letourneau was one of three Malaspina University-College Global Studies students selected for an overseas internship funded by the federal government's Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and managed by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC).

She travelled to Belize with her six-year-old daughter and husband Paul Manly, also a student in Malaspina's Global Studies program, who was completing his own internship.
"Paul worked with the University of Belize on several video projects to help promote their programs," explained Letourneau. "It was wonderful that we both had  opportunities to work in Belize at the same time. This kind of international experience opens and broadens your perspective, and gives you a chance to step outside the box and try something new."

Belize, which shares borders with Mexico and Guatamala, is a tiny country about the size of Vancouver Island. Many communities there – the biggest about the size of Nanaimo – have sewage and infrastructure problems, and severe debt, said Letourneau. To top it off, the area lies within a hurricane belt.

Letourneau’s supervisor, Dr. Larry Wolfe, who teaches in Malaspina’s Geography department, visited Belize several times before and discovered that community planning is either weak or non-existent.

“There are only a few planners in Belize,” explained Letourneau. “There’s one master plan for the main city, but they don’t follow it. Many towns don't know where their borders lie, and there are very few maps. Community planning is desperately needed."

During her internship, Letourneau visited all eight districts in Belize, including six towns and two cities, and completed a comprehensive needs assessment for community planning. “I looked at various issues focusing on governance, including issues of gender, size, vital statistics, strengths, resources they need, and capacity constraints," she said.

Letourneau met with a broad range of local, government, community, and university officials, and identified a range of educational and other interventions that could assist Belize in establishing a planning profession. 

As an immediate result of her work, Malaspina’s Geography department is acting on her recommendation to set up a field school in Belize this spring to help Orange Walk Town with preliminary community planning work. Geography students will work closely with the University of Belize so students there also have the opportunity to learn about community planning.

A second field school by Malaspina’s Recreation and Tourism Management department may also be involved in the Orange Walk project, assessing tourism opportunities. 

Letourneau, who graduates from Malaspina in April with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Global Studies, is excited that her internship work will have a lasting impact, especially for the people of Belize. "It was important to me that something concrete came out of this," she said. "It appears that it did."

To find out more about Letourneau's work in Belize, visit the Malaspina Global Studies website at www.viu.ca/globalstudies.