Service Learning and Civic Engagement

This J-term 2014, 14 MA students from the Graduate School of Professional Psychology program participated in a month-long international study  course on Diversity Issues in Counseling in Singapore.  The course, led by Professor Len Jennings, was intensely experiential and included traveling, living, and learning in the highly diverse, Southeast Asian country of Singapore as well as an excursion into Malaysia. The course consisted of joint experiential learning exercises with Singaporean MA counseling students as well as site visits illuminating the various ways mental health needs are addressed in Singapore (Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shamans, Western trained psychotherapists, etc.).  In addition, the course had a service-learning component in which UST students conducted psycho-educational presentations and group work with abused teen girls living in a residential treatment center.  The opportunity to plunge into a highly diverse cultural setting with multiple languages (Mandarin, Malay, Tamil, and English), multiple religions (Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism), and multiple ethnicities (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Euro-Asian, ex-pat) made for an unbelievable backdrop for this international service-learning course on diversity.

Organization, Learning, &Development has offered free consulting projects in Organization Development to Ukrainian organizations since 2005. This was done within the scope of international practicum (ODOC 942 - Team Practicum) , which is part of the required series of three 3-credit practica for doctoral students in OD. Up to now we provided consulting services to about 45 companies in the Ukraine.  The course was developed  and  is conducted by Dr. Alla Heorhiadi and Dr. John Conbere.

 The way the International Service Learning practicum works is as follows. The director of international practicum finds companies in need of OD and negotiates a project that would fit the requirements of practicum but also fits students' backgrounds, expertise, and interests. The students work in teams of 2 people or individually with a client. The students' work consists of 1) learning needs of a company and negotiating a contract with the scope of work (online phase of work, including emails, skype conversations, etc.-10-25 hours); 2) face-to-face work with the client on site, actual intervention (40-50 hours); 3) analysis and report writing phase, on-line, (25-50 hours); 4) sometimes follow-up work within the following 6-12 months that includes answering the client's questions, suggesting literature to read, and so forth (5-15 hours). All projects are pro-bono and help Ukrainian organization sustain and develop. Many of the doctoral students have taken the trip two and three times and have spoken about the transformative influence on their lives.

This year, 2013 we have 6 projects:

• Two non-profit organizations,  which are part of the Emmaus International, representing 310 groups in 38 countries, offering a range of charitable services. These two deal respectively with homeless people and disadvantaged groups of population.
• Two projects are with Ukrainian Catholic University, which is also a non-profit organization, private institution that does not belong to the Ministry of education and operates only on donations and tuitions
• One project is with a family-owned small business
• One project is with a theater company.