One of the great ways of learning about best practices in any field is via conferences, by talking with colleagues in person and asking others questions about their work in real time. The CPSAP inaugural conference, called “Prepared Minds, Prepared Places,” was held in Toronto in October 2009. It was a great success, and we were thrilled to see so many of you there. With more than three hundred participants attending and presenting, lots of information and expertise was shared in just a few short days. In fact, our biggest problem was that people found so much of interest that they couldn’t get to everything they wanted. (As one of the participants said: “it would be great to be able to attend three presentations at the same time.”)
Sad that you missed it? Well, the good news is that all the presentations are available online.
And while we’re on the subject, we’d also like to let you know about two upcoming international conferences on post-secondary education access and success:
- The European Access Network is devoted to increasing education access for underrepresented communities across Europe. The title of this year’s conference is “From Access to Success: Closing the Knowledge Divide.” The 19th EAN Annual Conference will run from June 14-16 and will be held at the Södertörn University in Stockholm, Sweden. Full details are available here.
- The National College Access Network, which does fantastic work on access issues in the United States, will be holding its 15th anniversary conference a few months later. “Changing the Face of Education” will run from October 11-13 in Washington DC. Information on that conference can be found here.
Both the European Access Network and National College Access Network have helped shape what CPSAP is today. The European and U.S. learnings they have shared so generously with us have inspired us to establish a firm footing for services in Canada. Both EAN and NCAN conferences routinely provide a wealth of resources and ample opportunities for networking with practitioners from all over the world.
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Daniel is a young leader that sets a great example on how determination and willingness (combined with very little resources) can help change an entire community for the better. Access work it is international – this work has to happen in the “global village” context.
It has been almost a year since Daniel Correa, a young leader from the YMCA of Medellin, Colombia presented his successful experience at the CPSAP conference. He talked about himself as a young person, whose opportunities to access University were almost inexistent, and his perseverance to change his fate and those of hundreds of youth in one of the poorest communities in his city, once known also as one of the most violent in the world. Daniel’s program “PreunYcom” is in his fifth year and so far has prepared over 400 youth to Access Postsecondary Education out of which 150 have passed the demanding entrance test of University of Antioquia and many more have successfully accessed other postsecondary institutions in the city.
The experience of coming to Toronto to speak at the CPSAP conference was very important for Daniel and his youth group, who for the first time were invited to share the experience outside of Colombia. Besides having the opportunity to talk about PreunYcom, Daniel had also the chance to attend different sessions on education and learn about best practices in Canada and other countries, that he could successfully implement in Medellin to continue improving his program, which ultimately contributes to end the cycle of poverty and violence in his community in Medellin.
Thanks to the CPSAP organizers for this opportunity to meet again online!