Author: Dani Payne

 

I am now in my fifth and final year at Capilano University and boy has it been a long journey. I am graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary studies, which has been the perfect degree choice for my indecisive self. I am undoubtedly happy to be coming to the end of this road at Capilano University but now the pressing question emerges, “what are your plans after graduation?”. I always believed that by the time I reached graduation I would have a precise plan of what I would be doing, but here I am, one week from graduation with no solid plan in sight. Not to say I don’t have any plan for my future, but as graduation creeps closer and closer I have no precise plan for the time being. I know I want to go into the teaching program in the next couple of years, but I don’t think that jumping from one degree to the next is something that will benefit me and help me grow as a person. I had hoped that I would have the opportunity to travel after graduation but the COVID-19 pandemic has put a pin in that plan. When travelling is accessible again I plan to do as much as I can, to experience the different cultures and different languages. I have also been slowly learning Spanish so I would love to practice what I have learned and immerse myself in Spanish speaking cultures. I truly believe that travelling globally is as educational and important as university, and that you learn just as much (although different things) while travelling that are important things to learn as you become an adult.

I am finding it difficult to make big decisions about my future because I am still trying to discover who I am as a person. My identity up until this point has been as a student, I have never taken a break from school. I went directly from high school into university, so I find it difficult to know if I am headed on the right path and making the right decisions career wise. I don’t know who I am outside of this student identity nor do I really know what I want. Another thing I have been thinking about is the importance of discovering who I am outside of my career choice, which I think is something that much like myself, many grads find difficult. With that being said I believe that travelling either by myself or with friends is an aspect that will not only help me discover who I am outside of my career choice, but also outside of the student identity that I have been in since I was five years old. 

Whenever someone asks me what I am doing at the present moment I express with excitement that I will finally be graduating with my bachelor degree in Interdisciplinary studies, to which they will respond equally excited for me. Once the excitement subsides, they follow their excitement with “now what?”. I always respond with something along the lines of “I’ll be working at Cactus Club as a server to save up some money” or “in the future I plan to go into the teaching program”, but none of my responses come across with the same confidence or excitement that I had at the beginning of the conversation. As I was writing down my thoughts and beginning to write this paper I came to the conclusion that this is all part of the journey, moreover, I should be excited for all aspects of this journey. It is a huge accomplishment to graduate university. I suppose because university education is becoming more common, some people don’t see it as the same big accomplishment that it once was, but I truly believe that it is and it should be celebrated. People also believe that university degrees aren’t necessary to be successful and while I fully agree with that I think university degrees help you become a well-rounded person, they help you gain discipline, learn knowledge on a variety of topics, and generally will help you to be paid a little more in the job field compared to someone who hasn’t gone to university. I think that there is a tough balance with handling these external pressures as well as the pressure within myself to be successful academically and professionally. It is important for there to be a balance between a successful career to show for yourself and becoming a better person/the person you want to become. Over the summer I plan to do volunteering with youth while I weigh my options about various teaching programs I would like to apply for. 

Servers Are Here To Stay

With technology and automation increasing, the future of the service industry has been put into question. This paper is going to examine the future of restaurant servers, specifically in British Columbia, Canada. I have been a host and server for the span of my university career, and even previously while attending high school. It has been an amazing part-time job while I work on my academic career. The restaurant industry has given me the opportunity to save money and work flexible hours while also having the ability to book time off when school became too demanding. With recent events that have precipitated social distancing, the necessity of restaurant servers has again been called into question. 

This question first arose when servers began to fight for their rights and try to unionize their jobs. Since many servers do not work under the best conditions, they are usually taken advantage of by being forced to work long hours with little to no breaks. As the service industry moves towards fully automated systems such as, self-checkout at grocery stores and drug stores, the question remains for many, are restaurant servers necessary? (Evans). According to Evans, it has been estimated that within the next 20 years about 47% of all jobs will be automated. The website goes on to say that the lower skill jobs such as jobs within the service industry are the ones to be targeted at a higher rate. With that being said, the real question remains, will the food industry survive? Do people expect their food and drink order to be taken by a live human server? I believe that in the future, although technology will be there to enhance the industry and the customer’s experience, it will not replace the job of a server. Humans are social creatures and this is one industry that thrives because it is a social experience. According to Restaurants Canada Blog, “technology can certainly help fill some of the gaps, but can’t be a total replacement for the human touch” (“Why Technology Will Never Replace Chefs and Servers”). 

At the present moment I work as a server at one of 31 Cactus Club Cafe locations around Canada. When I started there 3-4 years ago, they were just beginning to implement iPad use with each server to speed up the process of taking food and drink orders. Now because of COVID, we have minimized the amount of menus in use to a small percentile and we encourage our customers to access our online menu system to view the menu. Technology has the ability to benefit the restaurant industry as well as the service industry as a whole in many ways. While technology has taken away some jobs, it has also created new jobs or given workers more time and opportunity in order to do their job better and more thoroughly. From the perspective of a server, having an iPad has given me more time to socialize with my guests, and more time to run food for my tables and other tables throughout the restaurant. The major benefit of having an iPad to take an order is the increased efficiency. I can take a drink order, send it through, and have the drinks delivered to the table while I am still focusing on guest engagement and taking their food order. This among many other things, would have never happened in the past. The automation of certain jobs has possibly affected the tasks of the job itself, but not necessarily taken away any workers from the restaurant industry (Holt). 

There are numerous restaurants that have attempted to move towards a more automated and technologically advanced restaurant. Some examples are; the tipsy robot in Las Vegas, on track orders, and train/conveyor belt service; there is even an example of this in downtown Vancouver called Sushi Train on Denman Street (Romeo). At Sushi Train you are able to order all of your food through an iPad on the table and it is brought to your table on a conveyor belt in a little plastic train, there is one person there to oversee things but he is only there to do the payment at the end for the most part. I believe that places such as these are cool experiences and people will choose to go to these locations on occasion when they are looking for something different to do. Some may even argue that COVID has caused people to want to socialize less, so these types of businesses and restaurants will be booming, but at the end of the day I am a firm believer that dining out at a nice restaurant, being served by someone who enhances your experience and provides a social aspect is something that will never totally disappear. When restaurants opened again after COVID first happened, I was worried that people were not going to want that social aspect, but to my surprise people were chattier than normal. Many people haven’t been having much socialization in other aspects of their life so this is their opportunity to get that. “An industry built on hospitality and the human touch” cannot be fully taken over by automation and technology because humans value the social experience that they receive when they go out for a dining experience (Holt). 

Just like any industry, restaurants are always looking to cut down on costs, increase profits and efficiency.  Technology and automation can help with that. At the beginning of the summer, when restaurants opened up during COVID, we had a new system where tables could pay their bills online by scanning the QR code at the bottom of the bill. This was rolled out in order to decrease the amount of times we were standing at/near the table with the ultimate goal to minimize chances of passing along the virus. Instead, these QR codes and online payments actually increased the amount of time we were at the table because we had to explain and help customers use the system and pay for themselves, so instead of becoming more efficient it actually added extra time and pressure for each server. There were also technical problems arising with the system and people paying online because if a server had the table opened on another screen and a customer was trying to pay the transaction wouldn’t go through. Unfortunately, no one would know until the customer was gone, so it would be considered a dine and dash. This would increase the servers and management’s time dealing with the loss of revenue. This was an instance where technology required even more server presence at the table, as well as business losses on unpaid bills. 

In an article called, “Why Tabletop Tablets Can’t Replace Servers”, Austen Mulinder examines the necessity of servers within the industry. Mulinder states that “dining out is its own brand of entertainment”. As someone who not only serves but enjoys indulging in a delicious dinner and a few drinks every once in a while I tend to agree . The article goes on to explain that tablets can not only give servers “more quality time with their tables”, but can give servers the opportunity to increase the level of “attention and service” for each one of their guests (Mulinder). I found it interesting that studies have actually shown that not only do tablets help increase the tip percentage for the servers, but they help increase revenue for the restaurant as a whole because customers order more food due to such easily accessible ordering (Mulinder). In the future I could see Cactus adding tabletop tablets or allowing people to adjust their orders through their phone to help increase revenue and allow more time for socializing and other aspects of the service. As a whole, I believe these technological advancements would serve the purpose of aiding the server and enhancing the experience, without eliminating the server’s job itself. 

To sum up everything that has been stated so far, I believe that there are high hopes for the future of the human servers in the restaurant industry. Servers are a very important part of the whole dining experience and although technology will assist them to do their jobs more efficiently in the future, their jobs will not be eliminated altogether. As Steven Holt explains, it really comes down to economics and efficiency versus the guest experience, and although machines can be economical they are not equal to the experience of human interaction. He concludes by saying that “often, one of the best aspects of dining out is interacting with a great server, bartender, or staff member” (Holt). In addition to the social experience that people value, the service aspect as a whole helps to increase the value that people place on the experience of dining out. I truly believe that a fully automated food and beverage industry will deter people from wanting to go sit in a restaurant and dine out. 

Works Cited

Evans, Kim. “Will an Automated Food Industry Result in Fewer Jobs in the Future?” Www.jobs.net, www.jobs.net/article/cb-209-talent-network-restaurant-will-an-automated-food-industry-result-in-fewer-jobs-in-the-future/.

Holt, Steve. “Will Foodservice Robots Take Jobs Away from Human Workers?” Eater, 3 May 2018, www.eater.com/2018/5/3/17314620/restaurant-robots-spyce-boston-daniel-boulud.

Jul. 08, Peter Romeo on, and 2016. “This Week’s 4 Head-Spinning Moments: Special Robotics Edition.” Restaurant Business, 2016, www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/weeks-4-head-spinning-moments-special-robotics-edition#page=0.

Mulinder, November 2013 Austen. “Why Tabletop Tablets Can’t Replace Servers.” FSR Magazine, 2013, www.fsrmagazine.com/fsr/expert-insights/why-tabletop-tablets-cant-replace-servers.

“Why Technology Will Never Replace Chefs and Servers.” Restaurants Canada Blog, 25 July 2018, blog.restaurantscanada.org/index.php/2018/07/25/5265/.

Since I started my university career I have been interested in teaching elementary school, and over the course of five years at Capilano University I have begun to feel even more passionately towards this career path. I now volunteer on Thursday mornings at Lynn Valley Elementary school. Watching the children as they understand something new or build relationships has increased my interest in the different aspects of learning as well as the different ways children learn. I have started to pay attention and watch the way that each child learns and what I would want my own classroom learning to look like. I have been focusing on the various benefits of play based learning, social and emotional learning, outdoor education and bedtime stories. For this literature review I am going to examine the first three actions above in terms of their importance in a classroom setting. Many of the articles I find myself gravitating towards are chunked up into somewhat smaller sections which I find easier to read than one unanimous, long article. These articles were all written with a purpose to guide educators, parents, or anyone else for that matter, in order to help children be successful in the future. I believe it should be every teacher’s goal to help children understand what life skills are important, how to build relationships and how to cooperate with others; these being the main reasons that I chose these articles to discuss. 

It is not clear that there is a specific author for the first article “The Importance of Play-Based Learning”, but rather a team that has come together to create the article in order to help teachers be the best they can for their students, as well as to give them resources in the classroom. I know co-authors such as this will be very useful when I begin my teaching career. Volunteering in a grade 1 and 2 classroom has been vital to my learning about the importance of play based learning within the classroom to create a social environment. I remember in my young elementary school years I used to have “free play time” at 2:30 for the last 30 minutes of class. My mentor has explained to me that play based learning is extremely beneficial for children. In her classroom specifically, she chose to do play based learning at the beginning of the day rather than the end of the day because she believes that it is best to start the day allowing the children to be creative, and it helps to keep them engaged throughout the day. The author of this piece explains the massive importance of play based learning as well as the benefits it can have on children in regards to their development and growth. Throughout the article the writers continue to showcase studies that explain the different benefits that play based learning can have on children. Lastly, the author explains that although some people believe that play based learning is not “real learning” it is in fact real learning and you should not have to choose between “play based learning opportunities and rigorous academic standards” (ResilientEducator). Play based learning is not just a free for all for children to do whatever they please, but it is “purposeful play”, where children express their learning aloud rather than through worksheets and tests. 

The second article written by Roger Weissberg called “Why Social and Emotional Learning is Essential for Students” is a very informative piece of writing on the importance of social and emotional learning in order for children to succeed throughout their life and in the future. Roger Weissberg who is a professor of psychology and education, as well as a researcher wrote this article in 2016. It begins with a diagram that showcases everything students should learn through social, emotional, and academic learning. I believe this is a perfect way to start the article as it really catches my attention and I feel the need to continue reading. Right below the diagram the article showcases a statistic that expresses the importance of social and emotional learning that continues to keep me engaged. Again, this article is chunked up into smaller sections in order to not lose my interest, these sections also make it clear what five key skills should be learned within social and emotional learning. The five key skills are; self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. It is important for children to learn these skills so in the future they can problem solve on their own. As I discussed in my previous assignment, the personal narrative essay, I hope that as a teacher I am able to help lead children in the right direction when they may not get the most help from home, and these 5 key skills are extremely important to be successful in that. 

As I stated for the first two articles this third article called “Benefits of Outdoor Education for Middle School Age and Teens” also begins with diagrams and bright colours which attracts me to continue reading. The writer of this article explains why outdoor learning is so beneficial for children and how outdoor learning can help improve negative moods that some tend to feel towards social studies, math and science. The article also explains that when children are exposed to the outdoors and nature it affects their cognitive abilities in a positive way and can give them a stronger ability to focus, especially with children who suffer from ADHD. We went on a neighborhood walk through the trails last Thursday and I had the opportunity to see the children play and goof around, they were picking up sticks and loving every second of it. It is amazing to see the children in classroom settings where they are learning but it is even more rewarding seeing them outside learning in nature and building relationships with their peers. 

These articles are hugely important to me moving forward in my own education and future teaching career. I wholeheartedly agree with these articles and the importance of this versatile education, I have been lucky enough to see the benefits of each of these actions within a classroom setting and I am excited to use these skills in my own classroom. I emphasized a stronger focus on the content of these articles rather than the writers of the articles because I am generally more motivated by content than the author itself. I think it is admirable that these writers have invested their time into educating or studying these important actions and the benefits children can reap from different types of learning. Not only are these articles important to me personally, but they are important to the education field as a whole. These articles and many others have helped to inform educators in this field, and I am sure they are seen as helpful and important tools for the education sector as a whole. I feel that it is very important to understand what actions we can do and teach that will make the biggest differences in a child’s life; to put less of a focus on tests and assignments within a classroom and more of a focus on the child’s growth and development in a variety of areas. 

TOP 10 literature review list:

Play based learning: https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/play-based-learning/

Social and Emotional learning: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-sel-essential-for-students-weissberg-durlak-domitrovich-gullotta

Outdoor learning: https://www.seewhatgrows.org/key-benefits-outdoor-learning-education-children-teens/

Benefit of bedtime stories: https://www.parents.com/fun/entertainment/books/the-brainy-benefits-of-bedtime-stories/

Social and Emotional learning: https://www.edutopia.org/social-emotional-learning-parent-resources

Importance of teachers: https://online.merrimack.edu/importance-of-teachers/

Redefining the role of the teacher: https://www.edutopia.org/redefining-role-teacher

Importance of learning outside: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_surprising_benefits_of_teaching_a_class_outside

Importance of child education: https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/importance-of-early-childhood-education/

Play based learning: https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-use-play-learning

Feb 1- Tofu teriyaki rice bowls with vegetable stir fry and spicy yogurt

This assignment was given to our class in order to help us understand that even small individual activities, choices and behaviours can and do make a huge difference. It is important to understand that in order for change to occur the first step has to be taken, which I am not sure I would have taken if I wasn’t in this class and given this assignment. With that being said I chose for me and my family of five to do meatless Monday’s. No one was extremely against the idea but their responses were all similar, expressing their concern that if our meals don’t include meat how will we create a well-balanced meal and what protein will we use. So the biggest challenge so far has been to make a meal that is fulfilling enough to make everyone happy. With that being said tofu has been our go-to protein for sure, solely based on convenience which is similar to meat (also tofu is yummy). 

Feb 8- Tofu and cauliflower tacos with sauteed vegetables

As a family we have been successful with this behaviour change so far, but it has been the slightest bit challenging and it is necessary to make a conscious effort to be meatless. I think it is very manageable for more people to dedicate certain days to being completely meatless, although in general I do find that the convenience of meat is difficult to avoid completely and I think that is one issue many others face as well. One thing that we have been doing is planning the meal ahead of time in order to make sure we have all the ingredients in the kitchen ready for Monday nights. We are all quite busy throughout the week so one challenge we have is not having a lot of ingredients in the kitchen, in this case we generally end up making whatever we can find in the pantry that night. So having a plan in regards to meals beforehand has been something that has helped us overcome that obstacle. We haven’t had too many issues in terms of motivation to follow through with this task each Monday, but since there is five people involved it’s easier to stay motivated. As Richard Stock explained there is a need for reinforcers to keep motivated to continue an action, for this specific behaviour the reinforcer is my family, if one person doesn’t want to take part for some reason the other four people keep them motivated. 

Feb 15- Vegetarian lasagna and Caesar salad

Since this activity is only done one day each week it hasn’t been super difficult to not include meat in our meals. Meatless Monday in my house has actually turned into a fun activity that everyone in the family has become involved in. We all discuss and try to think of something more creative to eat that does not include meat. As a family who for the most part survives on very plain dinners (and almost always meat) in order to get nutrients and protein, it has been fun to find meals to cook that actually taste good each week while making positive choices for the planet. As Richard Stock said in his presentation, although many people feel the need to ignore the issue of climate change and just hope that the issue will be resolved by someone else, it is so important that our behavioural changes begin to happen now. He says that “the changes we do promote will help create a behavioural wedge that gives society time to implement the necessary technological fixes and policy changes” (Richard Stock). In other words these small changes are vital to surviving in the future.  

Feb 22- Mediterranean flatbread with olives, goat cheese, red onion, spinach, and sundried tomato

Since we have made it more of a fun activity rather than a dreaded commitment each week I truly believe it is something that will be continued each Monday. If I were to promote meatless days such as this in the future I think I would take a similar route, making it seem like fun choices with others in your household rather than something that people feel forced to do. As Per Espen Stoknes discussed in his Ted Talk, this would fall under the “social” category of the 5 S’s; making it a fun activity that includes others which he described as peer to peer motivation.  According to “climategen.org” the meat industry is responsible for more than 7% of greenhouse gas emissions and that by choosing to eat a vegetarian diet for one day you cut 7.5 pounds of C02 in regards to your carbon footprint. My family of 5 all chose to partake in this activity for the Mondays of February so our combined carbon footprint cut is 150 pounds of C02. To top it off, according to “mondaycampaigns.org” if you choose to skip even just one serving of beef each Monday for a year, it is the equivalent to saving driving 348 miles in a car. Numbers such as these are extremely motivating and it makes me want to continue this behaviour. To put this behaviour into numerical statistics it helps to better express the impact that meatless Monday’s can have even though it is just one day out of each week. In the future I hope to move to more meatless days each week, but I think it is a good start to go with one day a week if you generally eat a lot of meat throughout the week. 

My New Beginning

Throughout my university degree I have taken courses in a variety of areas such as classes in Spanish, psychology, and human kinetics. Although my major is in Interdisciplinary Studies I have found myself gravitating towards courses in the area of sociology. I find sociology to be an interesting and diverse subject area that constantly has me wondering about how society works as well as how society shapes who I am today. University has been difficult for me as I have never been a super strong academic, and I have had to study harder than some in order to get similar grades, but that did not stop me from gaining the same education. My academic struggles have only pushed me harder, where I have now been able to get on the dean’s list for the past four semesters. This is a huge personal accomplishment for anyone, and I believe that this accomplishment has conveyed my strong self-discipline, hard work and dedication. Just as I am sure many would say there is nothing especially unique about me, but in truth everyone has unique features that make them special and different than the person beside them. Everyone has something different to offer to the world, and I believe that my diverse university career has taught me just that. 

Everyone is shaped by their experiences, by the difficulties they have faced in life, and although everyone has been presented with different difficulties it really comes down to how one handles these struggles. I am extremely competitive and have always been a super athletic person, but unfortunately while competing in high level sports I tore my ACL twice, this is one of those difficulties that I believe has shaped me to be the person that I am today. These injuries have affected many aspects of my life as well as how I handle difficult tasks that are thrown my way. After my first ACL tear I worked extremely hard, 7 days a week, going to physio and rehabbing, and nine months later my physiotherapist and I got to the point where we felt confident enough that I was ready to go back to my first soccer practise. The first practise back I managed to tear my ACL once again. That second tear knocked me down, it took much longer for me to come back from that, but I did. I understand that to some tearing your ACL may not be a huge deal, but for someone who only knew sports, and who struggled in school and many other areas in life this really felt like the end of the world. 

These injuries caused me to shift my plans, they gave me an opportunity to focus on friendships and relationships, while giving me time to think about what I really want in life. Although I have an extremely supportive family, and supportive friends who helped me get through this hard time in my life, knowing that I could no longer be the athlete I wanted to be. I came to realize that I was the only person that could bring myself out of the negative mindset I was in. These injuries show my strong persistence to continue when things get hard in order to be who I want to be in life. With all that being said, I do believe that being involved in sports has helped me become the person I am today. Being on competitive team sports teaches you how to collaborate and get along with others as well as forcing you to rely on others. Team sports help people build strong relationships and strong trust between others because it is important to have those strong relationships in life for when times get hard. 

I am grateful every day for the chance that I have to hold such strong relationships with my family, I genuinely have the most supportive family and I know that can be rare. My family has always instilled confidence in me and that confidence has been taken with me into every aspect of my life. As I get older, I have come to the unfortunate realization that many people don’t have the opportunity to have such close and supportive family members in their life. These thoughts have pushed me to start thinking about teaching elementary school, giving children an opportunity to have supportive adults in their life when they do not necessarily have that at home. Giving children a place to learn freely where I can instill that confidence in them the way my parents did for me is my ultimate goal. A safe place where they can be themselves and express their creativity. 

My original goal was to take a gap year and travel more before I went back to school. I have been lucky enough to travel to some places throughout Europe but I had hoped to travel and see more when I graduated. Of course COVID-19 has put a halt on those plans and caused me to readjust slightly for the future. I now plan to continue volunteering at Brooksbank Elementary and Lynn Valley Elementary while also teaching summer camps in order to gain experience, this experience has only furthered my passion to become an elementary school teacher. In the future, I hope to take the PDP program at Simon Fraser University. I have a little way to go in terms of volunteering before I can apply, so once I graduate this semester that will be my primary goal. As a teacher you are able to help shape the students’ views on society, their future and help them create personal goals as well as how to achieve those goals.  I hope to have the opportunity to help shape the minds of the next generation. 

My first idea that can address the issue of climate change is meatless Monday. I live in a house with four other people and to be completely honest we eat meat almost every night as an aspect of our meal. Our high consumption of meat is mostly due to easy access and little creativity in the kitchen, but I think having a goal of at least one night a week not consuming meat will help us get more creative with our meals in order to slowly decrease our consumption of meat. Mass meat production has a huge impact on the environment and accelerates global warming. Although this seems like a small change, as a house that consumes high amounts of meat this change can lead to more changes down the line. I think the more people that make these small changes will help to lead to bigger changes all around.

My other idea is having more reusable items with me as much as possible when I am out and about. I always have my reusable water bottle so that is a good first step but having reusable shopping bags is something that I often forget to bring with me. I usually stop by the grocery store on my way home, so having a couple reusable bags will help minimize the plastic bags I bring home from the grocery store. Another point is that I tend to buy coffee when I am out and about when I need a caffeine fix and usually I prefer to drink with a straw. Bringing a reusable straw  will help me minimize the amount of plastic that I use. Plastic production requires a huge amount of energy and resources and it is important for each and every person to make steps in order to minimize their use of plastic and their plastic waste.

Lastly, I live about nine blocks away from the gym that I go to, usually I am running late in the morning and choose to drive to the gym. If I choose to walk to walk to the gym 4 out of 5 times throughout the week it can help me minimize my carbon footprint. This extra time can also help to give myself some time to warm up and cool down. I think this action will also help to improve my mood and give me some personal time to listen to podcasts rather than quickly rushing to the gym in the morning. Although this is not a huge distance, minimizing driving will help to lower greenhouse gas emissions and decrease my personal carbon footprint. This goal might be the most challenging for me but now that the weather is starting to improve I hope I can reach it.