Royal Roads University

A greater percentage of RRU graduates go on to become business leaders than any other school in Canada.

Join us on Sept. 3 from noon to 1 p.m. PDT for an online information session to learn how the Royal Roads MBA in Executive Management can accelerate your career, expand your network and turn your experience into meaningful impact.

Royal Roads University

Kinda chic to be an RRU student.

Robin Smith Mandel gently leads her classmate, Bethany Lopez, toward a tree in the orchard at the Farm at RRU. Bethany kneels down slowly, eyes closed, in front of a knothole before briefly peeking at the awaiting surprise.

“Wow! It’s a whole world in there!” says Bethany, opening her eyes just long enough to take in the wonder of a world few take time to witness.

The two notice an exoskeleton, likely left behind by a former resident.

“This is someone’s home,” says Robin.

“Yeah, it’s a bug hotel,” says Bethany, “no, it’s a castle, a bug castle,” she says, correcting herself.

As part of their residency for the Master of Arts in Environmental Education and Communication, Prof. Hilary Leighton, PhD, RCC guides the students through the sensory exercise, "Look into the mirror."

The idea of the exercise is to imagine that, when you open your eyes at a specified time and take in a scene — perhaps a leaf, a buzzing bee or a flower — you’re looking in the mirror, she explains.

"While natural science tends to look directly 𝘢𝘵 nature, we’re looking 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 the nature of each being to promote deeper identification and kinship as we see some of our own nature reflected back to us," Leighton says.

“Ecopsychological thought is that we’re not so much in a crisis of climate, we’re in a crisis of perception that we see ourselves as dominant to other life forms," Leighton says. "In systems thinking and systems psychology like ecopsychology, we see ourselves as world, experiencing the world and we see ourselves co-implicated with and kin to every other living being.”

It’s a lesson Bethany and Robin, both teachers in Alberta, plan to take back to their classrooms.

“It alters your perspective and allows you just to notice nature in a really different way — a more mindful and creative way as well,” Bethany says. "I would use it in a poetry unit or sensory exploration, in science for just noticing and observing and making hypotheses and that sort of thing. Even just storytelling. Imaging taking a child to that hole and being like, write me a story about it. I think there’s endless possibilities.”

Why aren’t facts and data always enough to solve the climate crisis? Because human emotions are driving the wheel.

Dr. Sarah Elizabeth Wolfe and her Society, Environment and Emotions Lab (SEE Lab) at Royal Roads just landed $452,000 in SSHRC grants. Every single dollar is going straight to funding graduate student researchers! 🌱

RRU grad students will be getting hands-on, community-embedded experience on Vancouver Island, researching everything from climate anxiety to how urban cemeteries can serve as modern green infrastructure.

Read the full story and learn how prospective students can join the SEE Lab: http://rru.life/D1

Award-winning communicator Stephanie Barsby Boisvert turned curiosity into strategy while building capacity for a growing town.

Communications student puts gold feather in her cap with industry award | Royal Roads University An award-winning communicator turned curiosity into strategy while building capacity for a growing town.

Building a more just world requires more than good intentions. It takes critical thinking, courage, and the ability to navigate complex social challenges with insight and compassion.

Join Dr. Kathleen Manion on Aug. 26 from noon to 1 p.m. PDT for an engaging online info session to explore the Master of Arts and Graduate Diploma in Justice Studies at Royal Roads University.

Royal Roads University