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This Micro-Exp did something I didn't expect, it connected my PhD research on eco-anxiety to a community organization actively putting the participatory theory I've been reading about into practice. Mission Monarque's team shared challenges that no published paper has documented, and those insights reshaped how I understand the gap between theory and practice in youth education.

This internship has given me the courage to get out of my bubble to intentionally understand local communities. It showed me the importance of bridging the gap between real life and academic research as well as how I could contribute meaningfully.

This experience really helped me in exploring my ideas, and myself. As a student committed to research, I felt like academic sources were lacking originality, relevance and ideas in my field. I wanted to see if there were to be not just ideas, but new lived experiences to keep going with my inquiry. ScienceReach gave me this. It helped me to discover the world of philanthropy and community organising — which I did not know and I would have probably never known — and it really opened up my mind. From feeling lost and hopeless in my intellectual inquiries, I found a space where ideas are not only thought, but lived and experienced. After this experience, I can confidently affirm that sometimes hands create more knowledge than brains alone do.

Participating in Micro-Exp allowed me to explore an issue I care deeply about while developing new science communication skills. Researching women's health in the context of housing insecurity helped me better understand the barriers many women face and the importance of sharing evidence-based information in an accessible way. As a future educator, this experience strengthened my commitment to using knowledge and communication as tools for positive social change.

The Micro-Exp program helped facilitate my first connection with an organization that focuses on a community issue that I am passionate about. I learned about bridging the gap between community knowledge and academic knowledge, then practiced it when writing my publication in plain language. I also had the opportunity to learn from a peer's work and incorporate their timely feedback into my own writing during the Peer Review step.

Thanks to Micro-exp, I learnt how to reach out to the community organization and I have really realized the outreach with one community-focused organization. It's helpful for my research and I really enjoyed the discussions with tutors and other folks.

One of the most valuable lessons from this project was understanding the importance and difficulty of knowledge mobility. Learning about CSAI showed me how sharing information and support can create meaningful change, such as helping newcomers access services, build social networks, and settle successfully in Canada. Even when the outcome for one person seems modest, it can have a lasting impact on their quality of life. Seeing these individual successes reminded me that sustained community support can become a powerful force for positive social change.