At Bedford Road Collegiate, Mr. Soren Nostbakken and Mr. Richard Cossette have spent nearly a decade guiding Grade 9 students through a class that challenges them to rethink what a city can and should be. Their Young Urban Planner course challenges students to be active members of their community and imagine possible futures for our city.
This October, their ability to inspire earned them the Fraser Gatrell Citizen's Planning Award, presented by the Saskatchewan Professional Planners Institute. The award honours those who do exceptional work to promote community planning.
As students consider what makes a thriving community, they explore their own values and what makes city life inclusive to them. Most students are too young to drive, so they often prioritize creative options for public transportation. They also focus on the planet, brainstorming ways to incorporate solar panels, rain-capture, and wind turbines into the cityscape.
Many students consider new technologies that could make housing more abundant and affordable, such as storage container conversions and other alternative building options.
Students bring a sense of fun and playfulness to their urban planning projects. Their ideal cities include more colour, bolder architecture, amusement parks, and plentiful venues for music, movies, and public art.
City of Saskatoon planning staff, who nominated Mr. Nostbakken and Mr. Cossette for the award, highlighted how inspiring the students' creativity is. As they put it, "the students teach us professionals that we too can be imaginative, empathetic, bold, and even have a little fun in our work. Perhaps the students from Mr. Nostbakken and Mr. Cossette's class will make us better planners and more active participants in our communities too."
Whether or not they join the planning profession after graduating, students leave the class with stronger critical thinking skills, empathy, and a sense of boldness in challenging "the way it's always been."
We congratulate Mr. Nostbakken and Mr. Cossette for their outstanding work!
Pictured: Richard Cosette (left), and Soren Nostbakken (right), stand with former student Alexa O'Hanley, who has gone on to a career as a Planner with the City of Saskatoon.
