3.00 Credits
This is a community engaged learning abroad course (CELA) to explore the power of community engagement in an international context. We will utilize the history, culture, and civic issues affecting London, England, as a living laboratory. The course is composed of weekly class meetings and community engagement in the City of London. The course is the result of collaborative efforts between the Lowell Bennion Community Service Center and Eccles Global Learning Abroad. Central to Global Community Engagement is the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of community-based experiential learning. We will consider and discuss civic leadership, community health, systems ecology, and collective impact to better understand how the activities and impacts of traveling and tourism affect quality of life, culture, and community in a country outside students' home country. A main objective of community engaged learning abroad is to provide students a forum for deeply engaged community experiences, critical reflection on community-driven service, intercultural experiences, reflections on power and privilege, and the interrelationships of these components to anchor course content. The course will progress through a framework that explicitly links personal experience and readings with regular writing assignments and class discussions. Journal assignments begin prior to intercultural immersion and then cover the following broad themes while in the host community: personal values & ethics, service in a cross-cultural context, global community engagement, and communicating and activating the experience post-cultural immersion.