Mount Allison student accepted to top European schools for urban/regional planning
2013-05-06 11:00:26
Mount Allison University graduating environmental sciences student Giacomo Vecia has been accepted to master’s programs at both the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Leeds as he works towards a career in urban and regional planning.
“I originally came to Mount Allison with plans of becoming a surgeon. I asked people in the medical community in my hometown (St. Catharines, ON) and many recommended it for undergraduate studies,” he says.
His focus changed from medicine to planning after taking a course in planning processes with geography and environment professor Dr. Mike Fox and participating in Global Brigades during his first year.
“I was fortunate to work in the triage clinic in Honduras for two days,” says Vecia. “While I really enjoyed that experience, it also made me recognize the relationship between public health and urban planning and the potential that informed planning has to positively affect communities.”
Vecia and his family came for a campus visit during his senior year in high school and he was sold. “I met the President and vice-president, student affairs during my short visit. You could tell this was the kind of place where you wouldn’t be just a number.”
Vecia has lived in Sackville for the past four years and says his time in the Town has also contributed to his education.
“It gave me a chance to see what a career in planning might look like in a variety of areas. In a town like Sackville, you see a greater connection between the Town and its residents, at council meetings, and other activities. Everyone knows who the town planner is,” he says. “Growing up in a larger urban centre gives you a different perspective and I think both will be useful for a planning hopeful like myself.”
And he’s working to bring these hopes into practice. This spring, Vecia co-presented a climate change simulation exercise for high school classes through the Mount Allison course Community Adaptation to Climate Change, which saw high school students engaging in planning exercises written by Mount Allison students. The exercise was so well received that Vecia and his classmate Emily Phillips are now planning to publish the lesson plan online so other high schools can use it.
He’s also become a familiar face in Sackville, working and volunteering with several community organizations including serving as a fire marshal with the Town of Sackville’s fire department and holding summer positions with EOS-Energy, the Cape Jourimain Nature Centre, and as a summer wedding photographer.
Vecia is working to secure an internship with a planning commission in Ontario this summer before heading to Europe to pursue his master’s.