By rgpederson on December 12, 2008

A recent post by Alanna Shaikh highlights a paradigm shift in development that we focus on at the Global Engagement Summer Institute. At the core of the GESI is an approach to development that affirms the dignity and value of every human being and looks at any community as a glass that is half full, not half empty. This approach, asset-based community development, is all about recognizing and harnessing the local assets that are in a community in a way that stimulates local grassroots development. During the ten day training institute, we’ll be looking at case studies from the new book, From Clients to Citizens (read Introduction), in preparation for using the ABCD approach in Argentina, India, and Uganda.

Two summer ago, three of our Engage Uganda students blogged throughout the summer about their experiences. From time to time, I will highlight some of their most poignant comments. Today, I want to step back and focus on some of the core questions that founder Nathaniel Whittemore asked in setting up Engage Uganda and that we have kept in mind in creating the Global Engagement Summer Institute:

Preparation – what are the resources provided to participants so they can prepare – culturally, personally, and professionally for a totally new context?

Local leadership – how are community hosts engaged so that we move past aid that reinforces dependency?

Utilizing existing assets – how do we effectively engage with communities to help add value to the assets and knowledge they already possess?

Reciprocity – how do we make sure that we foster ‘mutual development’ in which all parties offer one another a valuable, meaningful experience?

Sustainability – how do we maximize short term interactions for long term results?

As you can tell from the website, the Global Engagement Summer Institute is a unique study abroad program. We think we’ve developed a distinctive learning experience, and past students agree. Below, students from prequel Engage Uganda share some of their thoughts on the success of Engage Uganda:

“Engage Uganda helped increase my understanding of and connection to the non-profit sector. Living and working in a community setting gave me a chance to see how projects are initiated on a local level and in a bottom-up approach, a different framework than I had encountered in prior volunteer experiences.”

“The program was extremely successful. Best learning experience I’ve had in terms of leadership, project development, and cross-cultural communication. Hands-on practice combined with academic reflection made it substantially different.”

“I learned much more from the hands-on project development, plus teamwork skills and cross-cultural understanding.”

“This was the best possible experience I could have had with study abroad… emphasis on experiential learning made it a great experience.”

“The Engage Uganda experience allowed me to see how effective collaboration with my peers can lead to the development of creative initiatives.”

“Engage Uganda undoubtedly reignited my passion to involve fellow students at Northwestern in experiential and service-learning opportunities.”