Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Knowing Your Community: Fostering Biodiversity Awareness In Our Students’ Daily Existence, Tony Cummings Bs, Academic Director

Fostering Multicultural Competence and Global Justice: an SIT Symposium

There are strong arguments suggesting that developing students’ sensitivity to local biodiversity and conservation issues is as important as emphasizing an understanding of global conservation issues happening in faraway lands (Ehrenfeld, 2009). Many students arrive at a Study Abroad destination, with a good understanding of theory, but with little field experience at home. Environmental educators in Study Abroad are able to use the novelty and grandeur of our exotic destinations to systematically teach students the patterns and processes of ecological and human communities at our sites, while inspiring a sense of place in our students. By immersing students in the …

Large Mining Projects In The Amazon, Gustavo Negreiros Phd, Academic Director

Fostering Multicultural Competence and Global Justice: an SIT Symposium

In addition to my work coordinating the SIT study abroad program Amazon Resource Management and Human Ecology since 1998, I pursue personal interests in the relation of modern development projects and the social environmental conditions faced by local populations of the region. In 2005, I evaluated the environmental licensing and implementation of Alcoa´s (Aluminum Company of America) mine operation in Juruti, western Pará State, which started operation in 2009. I was invited by the communities impacted and the different actors involved to participate in the team in charge of developing methodologies to valuate the social-environmental externalities faced by the communities, …

Teaching And Learning Process On Renewable Energy And Sustainable Development, Caitlin Brotzmann Ba, Academic Director

Fostering Multicultural Competence and Global Justice: an SIT Symposium

Though the global situation is complex and daunting, education for sustainable development attempts to empower students with the knowledge, values, and ability not only to understand but also to act upon that understanding so that they might create a world in harmony with the environment. In summer 2009, 19 university students from North America came to Iceland to study renewable energy on the SIT Study Abroad (a program of World Learning) program ―Iceland: Renewable Energy, Technology, and Resource Economics.‖ The students traveled around the country, stayed with host families, underwent intensive coursework, visited power plants and policy firms, and conducted …

Environmental Sustainability: Challenges And Opportunities Of Greening Your Study Abroad Program, Sylvia M. Seger Mim, Academic Director

Fostering Multicultural Competence and Global Justice: an SIT Symposium

World Learning’s mission to “… create a more peaceful and just world” by necessity encompasses environmental dynamics, considering that the root causes of most social justice issues and violent conflicts can be traced to environmental degradation and disproportional access to shrinking natural resources. Thus our mission mandates that we employ an ethic of environmental stewardship in all our pursuits and put in place mechanisms to mitigate our environmental impacts.

“We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations, the important thing is not to achieve but …