Hello! My name is Shannon Kaloczi…
I’m in my third year of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson. I grew up in Chatham, Ontario, but have been living in Toronto for just over two years now. I’ve taken interest in a lot of things locally and have seen that Toronto has a lot to offer. I’m interested in community & international development as well as social issues, public art and food security. I’m very excited to have an experience so related. I applied to go to New Orleans in 2010 but ran into some difficulty and was unable to go, which makes me even more excited to be going in 2011! 
Aside from school I intern with an organization called STEPS Initiative (stepsinitiative.org), and do some volunteering with festivals in Toronto, with Food Share, and with The Stop. Aside from that I guess I’m pretty into music, and always enjoy listening to some good “indie”, folk, acoustic, jazz, or electronic, and love going to shows.
I went on a field trip to the UK in October and had the experience of a lifetime. It was my first time being outside of Canada essentially (I’ve only been to about two cities in Michigan) and I learned so much, and now I can’t stop planning places I want to go. I’m really looking forward to experiencing New Orleans, to learning more about Hurricane Katrina, and seeing first-hand the impacts it had on the city. I’m happy we all get to take part in making a difference, and I cannot wait to gain some construction skills and meet a group of new people.
