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Overview
Our innovative study-abroad programs offer participants a unique opportunity to learn about theories and practices of global issues as they relate to sustainable development, the arts, and culture. It assembles students, faculty, and the civil society in order to engage in a participatory field-based learning process that will benefit a number of ecovillages under the network of the Ministry of Ecovillages. Students will totally immerse themselves within the community, while carrying out action research and implementing projects.
Ecovillages are the most important classrooms and learning laboratories, as they provide participants with the conceptual framework and hands-on activities for effective learning. The backbone of our program is the community work coupled with academic learning and research through engaging class sessions. These rigorous courses will cover fundamentals of sustainable development, research methods, program design and implementation, and language classes. This module’s courses, academic seminars, and field-study employs a people-centered approach and dialogue-based exploration of the dynamics of sustainable development in Senegal through experiencial learning.
With full support and access to SEM’s network of academics and professionals, students will learn cross cultural communication skills they will put into practice while following their passions and intellectual pursuits with a 3-week field-based project in one of our ecovillages.
Through our study-abroad programs we aim to accomplish the following:
- Instill global citizenship in today’s youth through hands-on projects with local communities.
- Prepare future leaders by developing their cross-cultural understanding.
- Promote sustainable development by addresing global issues locally in a participatory manner.
- Unlock the potential in each student to become an agent of social change.
- Bridge the gap between cultures by building and promoting mutual understanding.
Our Programs
A. SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
This program contains the following courses:
1. Intensive Wolof (3 credits)
All students participate in daily language courses in Wolof, Senegal’s lingua franca. This class follows our “give-and-take” approach whereas Senegalese students develop their English proficiency by working with their American counterparts and vice-versa American students advance their conversational Wolof. Students will be totally immersed in the Senegalese culture so their language skills and cross-cultural competency will increase whether at home or at school. Participants will have the opportunity to fully engage with a diverse population in order to build and develop communication skills to be competitive in today’s global job market.
2. Cultural Immersion & Identity (4 credits)
Senegal is known as “le pays de la téranga” which translates into “the country of hospitality.” The diversity within Senegal is ever-present from the people to the landscape. This tradition rich country offers our program participants a unique opportunity to explore the socio-cultural diversity within Senegal. Students will get an inside look at Senegal troubled history and also its contributions to Africa and the Diaspora in historical and socio-cultural terms. Through classroom sessions, site visits, guest-speakers, and cultural explorations, students will be able to gauge the impact of cultures of African ancestry on the world. This fun-filled class provides a great learning environment for students from all backgrounds as they experiment with traditional Senegalese instruments, foods, songs, and storytelling. Students will visit the infamous Gorée Island and its slave castle while they attend a lecture by the curator of the museum.
3. Foundations of Sustainable Development (4 credits)
This course will help student’s grasp fundamental concepts of sustainable development. Participants will learn from various schools of thought pertaining to the field of development. To ensure continuity and a hands-on approach to learning, students will get the opportunity to practice their learning by designing a community development project in the Project Planning and Implementation course. This way they are able to see the link between sustainability theory and practice in project design. The purpose is to establish sustainable development theory baselines, which can then be transformed into practical application of knowledge for specific areas in which students choose to specialize in. Students will incorporate research results into analytical essays or presentations addressing key sustainable development issues.
4. Project Planning and Implementation (4 credits)
Through this course students will learn in-depth theories and practices of participatory project development from planning to implementation and monitoring and evaluation. By the end of this course, students will explore the difference between a participatory project design and top-down design. They will be able to analyze and evaluate project’s outcomes. More importantly, through research and case studies, participants will develop analytical skills to inform decision-making in project design. Students will learn how to conduct a Participatory Rural Appraisal and other applied research, in addition to project cycles. At the end of course students will deliver a group project designed to address a key development issue within one of our ecovillages.
In addition to the above-required courses students have the option to take the following course for 8 weeks.
5. Applied Research Methods (2 credits)
This course will prepare students to carry out a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) of community development. The course will set the stage for working within a cross-cultural setting while providing an introductory look into sustainable development within the Senegalese context. Students will have the opportunity to learn various forms of PRA in order to set up a diverse framework of intervention to achieve the best possible results within the eco-villages or in their home communities in US upon their return. The data gathered will constitute the basis for the design of further community development projects so students can make recommendations to various stakeholders.