CFICE Research Assistants (RAs) are making waves in community-based research! Emily Amon, an RA with the Student Pathways working group, was recently profiled by Random Acts of Green as a way of highlighting her Master’s research on community impact.
An excerpt of the article is included below, and you can read the full piece here!
TrentU Master’s Candidate Emily Amon studies the effectiveness of Community Based Research
Emily Amon is a passionate community-based researcher.
She has completed THREE environmental science community research projects during her Bachelor of Environmental Sciences and Studies undergraduate degree at Trent.
Her current project as a Masters of Sustainabilities Studies Candidate at Trent University is focused on community-based research. This type of research involves working with a diverse range of partners to help gather different perspectives, contribute expertise and share decision making.
Emily is exploring how student research can be used to drive community activism and influence sustainable community changes. At the heart of all social and environmental movements, groups of people have worked together to achieve common goals. It is important to understand the process of how people band together to create meaningful changes.
Community groups with research needs are partnered with Trent students to complete community-based research projects through Trent’s experiential education programs, facilitated by both U-Links Centre for Community Based Research (for projects in the Haliburton Region), and the Trent Community Research Centre (for projects in the Peterborough Region).
- Waste audits at the landfills in Algonquin highlands that led to a new recycling program
- Water quality monitoring projects which have engaged cottagers and improved awareness of environmental concerns around their lakes
- The establishment of community gardens and nature education programs
- Improving operations for the local farmers markets
Emily’s research focuses on what happens to the community after the student completes the research and how positive changes continue in the area.
Read the full piece here to find out more about Emily’s research.