From the beginning, the founders of this international proj- ect intended to create a course and experience that could suc- cessfully run for multiple years and advance both the service and
global citizen mission of the CMU University Honors Program. The planning began with a formal year-long needs assessment that involved meetings with the study abroad office staff, faculty from across campus departments, and university administrators and focus-group discussions with students in both honors and regular departmental classes. Although other countries were considered, Mexico was chosen as the destination for the development of the program because of the faculty leader’s familiarity with the coun- try, the percentage of honors students who had taken at least some Spanish-language training in high school, and the relative low cost of both transportation and in-country expenses.
The summer after the on-campus needs assessment work was completed, a faculty member and three honors students made an exploratory trip to Central and Southern Mexico to visit a variety of sites and potential partner institutions. They selected exploration sites with the assistance of campus staff and faculty who already had established relationships with colleagues in Mexico and had been alerted to the goals of the program. Onsite visits gave the team the opportunity to assess the potential for meaningful service activities, access to significant cultural experiences outside of the service work, practical issues including the cost of housing and safety of the com- munity, and the availability of a strong onsite advocate. The lessons from both the early assessments and the site visits led to the formal- ization of a first-year plan for the study abroad experience in Oaxaca, Mexico. Although the program has been substantially enhanced in the ten years that have followed, a core set of identifying features has contributed to the long-term success of the program.
Curricular Mapping
Comments from all of the CMU stakeholders immediately confirmed that the ability to recruit students to a faculty-led study abroad course was largely dependent on how the course would map onto students’ academic requirements and fit within their aca- demic schedules. Therefore, the course was developed to run the first three weeks immediately after the end of the spring term so that students could return from the excursion and still be available
for summer jobs and other on-campus academic experiences such as summer classes or research positions. To maximize the useful- ness of the credits, the class was structured with variable credit (3–6 credits) and approved through both the general education com- mittee and honors advisory council to ensure that credits earned could be used in multiple ways to fulfill students’ academic require- ments. The class can now be used to meet at least four separate sets of requirements, including the General Education Global Cul- tures requirement, major/minor diversity requirements, advanced honors credits, and honors international credits that replace the foreign language requirement.
Departmental Collaboration
Although the course was developed with a specific focus on the curricular needs of honors students, concerns about recruiting an adequate pool of students each year led to a formal collabora- tion between an academic department and the CMU University Honors Program. In addition to numerical strength, this strategy also enhanced the recruitment of students with a wide range of skill sets to make the project a success. For example, many honors stu- dents have stronger Spanish-language skills than students from the Human Development and Family Studies Program, but relatively few honors students have taken coursework in child behavior man- agement or activity planning. Records verify that honors student participants have come from every college in the university and are as likely to be from business and science as education and human services. Relatively few honors students have come from the co- sponsoring department although some honors students have added a major or minor from that department after their time in Oaxaca.
If this class had been proposed for honors students alone, it would have been approved because of its emphasis on promoting global citizenship and service for the greater good, which are core values of the honors program. The partnership, however, ensures that the enrollment is always adequate so that students can count on the program running each summer. To ensure that the class meets the standards for honors offerings, however, the honors
program lists a separate honors section of the class in the schedule. Consistent with expectations for honors sections, although honors students meet all of the core requirements of the regular class, they also take on some additional responsibility for the learning experi- ence and typically work more closely with faculty members in both preparation and follow-up after the summer program. The nature of these activities is modified each year, depending on the faculty leaders and number of honors students, but they have included leading a special renovation project at a site, developing recruit- ment materials for the following year, identifying readings for the group, and leading discussions about how ideas in the readings are reflected in the experiences of students. Because honors students may have different needs and reasons for participating in the pro- gram, faculty members are generally willing and able to develop a special project for honors students. These projects have included special excursions to the hospital for pre-med students and visits to local preschools and elementary schools for students preparing for teacher certification. In the end, as honors students return, com- plete final reflections, and present to their peers back on campus, faculty also encourage them to connect their learning experience to the service and global citizenship goals of the honors program.
A Service Emphasis
A service focus was an explicit goal of the program from the beginning because it matched the values and objectives of both the academic department and the honors program. The value of this emphasis was clearly reaffirmed in the focus-group discussions with honors students who reported that the ability to directly serve and work with children would be a deciding factor in choosing this class over other options. Students also noted that this empha- sis would elicit greater parental support. The challenge, therefore, became finding a service opportunity that would allow a group of students with inconsistent or limited language skills to meet the needs of the site and the children. The strategy developed during the first visit was to ensure that at least some of the children in shelters or centers were so young that language skills became less
essential for basic care and enrichment. In the first two years, it became clear that if students worked in teams and had at least one moderately proficient Spanish-language speaker, the team could be effective in leading activities and interacting with the children. Most of the students have at least two years of high school Spanish, and many of the older youth at the centers are also learning English. Thus rich interactions were possible. Although part of the service students provided in each site included some manual labor, such as painting or cleaning, all students are promised during recruitment that they will spend at least some time during most days working directly with children.
Effective International Partnership
From the first meetings over ten years ago to the current inter- actions, the success of this program has been substantially enhanced by the efforts of an explicit partnership formed with an institu- tion and a specific contact person at that partner institution to work with the visiting class. This close connection facilitates better navigation of changes at the sites or in the political environment, like the annual teacher strikes that close down the city each year. Although the basic format of the program has remained consistent, faculty and students have completed projects in multiple sites, and adjustments have been made even after the group has arrived in Oaxaca because of political upheaval and changes in center staff- ing. Having a well-known local professional to smooth relation- ships and address the last-minute crises that arise every year is essential when traveling and housing a group of this size. A further benefit of these long-term relationships is that lessons learned one year about what works can be transferred to decisions made for the following year so that even as sites and faculty leadership of the program change, the historical memory of the project endures intact and is translated to the next group. Thus, when the annual review of sites is conducted in advance of the summer program, the international partner is able to meet with site administrators well in advance to complete a needs assessment based on a clear understanding of what is appropriate and possible for the group set
to visit. Of course, any partnership must be mutually beneficial, and this factor means that the project leaders must be sensitive to what the host needs to continue the collaboration, such as remuneration or an exchange agreement to host visitors in the U.S.
Housing and the Balance of Immersion and Retreat
Although the instructors considered home-stays on the ini- tial planning trip, the need for working time to prepare for service activities led to the decision to seek group housing that could also provide space for both formal and informal meetings between stu- dents and faculty leaders. Because of the size of the group and the desire to provide students with freedom to explore on their own, a modest hotel with a small courtyard near the historical city center was selected as the home for the group each year. Although this hotel is usually some distance from the service sites, having stu- dents learn to navigate the bus system or to hail a cab when needed quickly became part of the cultural immersion experience for stu- dents. After a first-day walking tour and orientation to life in the neighborhood surrounding the hotel, students have permission to explore the city center during their free time. What begins with ten- tative explorations around the block ends with a sense of belonging in the community as students identify favorite locations for coffee, Internet use, and salsa dancing with new friends. Students report that the combination of immersing in the culture at the work site for the day but being able to retreat to the hotel with peers and faculty leaders in the evening eases the rapid cultural adjustment required for this kind of project.
Structured Class Assignments, Activities, and Discussion
Although service is the core feature of this international pro- gram, experience over time has reaffirmed the importance of pro- viding clear academic structure and expectations through class assignments, activities, and discussions. Formulating this structure begins in the semester prior to the trip with at least one large-group
mandatory orientation meeting to ensure that everyone is clear on everything from what to pack to the academic requirements of the course. Because the majority of the students recruited for this pro- gram have little or no previous international experience, a meeting for parents addressed their concerns. Although journaling remains an important fixture of the program, faculty leaders have added additional structure to the journaling process to help identify the problems as they are emerging and to provide some guidance for students to make more effective meaning of the challenges they are facing in managing issues ranging from language deficiencies and cultural adjustments to new ideas about the nature of poverty and need in the new environment. Given the necessity of preparing for activities each day and making sure that everyone is accounted for, faculty members arrange for at least one daily group meal that also serves as a debriefing time for the entire group. There, small- group work and individual assignments can be clarified. Additional course meeting times are also clearly announced, and attendance is verified in each setting to ensure that everyone is accounted for and on task. Interestingly, although significant cultural activities are also scheduled as part of the class and are required for approval of global cultures credit, and excursions to the impressive ruins or the mountain village to meet indigenous craft workers are reported as memorable, student journals and final reflections reveal that, with- out a doubt, the daily service with children and the everyday navi- gation of the city have the largest impact on cultural understanding and appreciation.
Co-Leadership and Ownership
A unique feature of this program is that from the first year of full operation, the class has been co-taught by two faculty mem- bers with one taking primary leadership and the other serving in an assistant capacity. After the early success of the class and the positive word-of-mouth advertising from students who had participated, the architects of the program realized it could continue to succeed and be refined if they could identify new leaders. To that end, a formal process emerged; after serving for a year or two as an assistant, that
faculty member became the leader and recruited a new assistant. Often, prospective faculty assistants might visit the program to observe its operation. This experience would excite them about the potential of the project and reassure them that many of the opera- tional details had already been developed, making their role easier when their turn to take over arrives. Conversely, although many of the operational procedures can still be traced to the first trip, each leader has ownership of the project and is free to make adjustments to accommodate the needs of the group and the changing options and issues of the sites being served. In addition to providing a stable learning opportunity for students, this program has also become an international faculty development opportunity for those who would otherwise never have considered leading an international program. Finally, each of the six leaders who have taken responsi- bility for this program over the years agrees that having a colleague on the ground in the country is essential because of the potential for crisis and the need for flexibility.3