Abstract:
Employer demand for graduates with international and cross-cultural project management experience has been steadily increasing. To meet this need, an agricultural development service abroad course was designed. University students involved in the program came from various backgrounds with limited or no international travel experience and were placed into three separate groups according to their degree field and interest; agricultural production, nutrition and economics and bio systems engineering. The goals for this course were three-fold; first, to introduce appropriate technologies into a community to improve sustainable food security for local populations; second, to place American university students within a learning environment where they were required to use their knowledge and skills to achieve an objective with limited resources; and third, to introduce American students to the challenges and opportunities in international development. Within these groups, students designed and developed projects for a local orphanage with the overall goal of demonstrating to the community how to increase living standards in a sustainable manner using local resources. American students implemented nutrition, agricultural production and water projects and worked with children from the orphanage to determine local needs to modify projects. Each group was responsible for using the platform of their project to increase the children’s understanding of applied science, math and engineering concepts through experiential learning techniques. Upon returning from the trip, five of the students have continued and expanded their respective projects with a return service-abroad trip to Sierra Leone, creating a social venture working in Sierra Leone and being awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to research in Sierra Leone.
Key Words:
Service abroad, Sierra Leone, American universities
 15. Bell NACTA Special Issue Sept 2013.pdf | [ ] | 147 kB |
