International, Cohort-Based Trips

1.  Welcome & Session Goals 2.  Role Reversal: How would you feel?

3.  Bonner Common Commitment:

Why International Perspective?

4.  Motives: Check.

5.  One Example:

Junior Journey to Ecuador 6. Exploring Possibilities

Session Goals

"   Honest conversation about a complex subject

"   Share and co-create ideas to strengthen these efforts and mitigate the risks of harming ourselves and others.

Role Reversal: How Would you Feel?

12 college students and a staff member from Paris arrive in your city and want to help your community. They don’t speak English, and expect you to provide a translator. They say they want to do a building/service project but it should be something that all of them can do with no training. It also has to be an important project because they have to report back to Paris the outcomes of their trip sponsors (how they made an impact in your community). They would like you to find them a group of kids they can teach French to on one or two of the days and they want to interview you on what it is like to be poor. Oh, and they will need transportation and lodging and meals for the week. They call it International Service and Poverty Studies.

Bonner Common Commitment: Why International Perspective?

"   Why is this important? What does it mean?

"   Why is it recommended in the student development model as an appropriate third-year experience?

"   What would it look like for Bonners who are committed to International Perspectives to apply their knowledge locally?

Group Answers: "   Gain broader perspective and understanding

"   Opportunity to reflect on our own values and identities

"   Consider (or re-consider) nationalism; seeing the United States in a new way

"   “We are skewed in our understanding of humanity if we do not know about the many different ways others live.”

"   Understanding the value of education

"   Humility (what we can UN-learn) by the experience and apply upon our return

"   Establish reciprocal relationships

Motives: Check

Good reasons Bad Reasons

•  Learn from each other •  Really listen •  Demonstrate caring for each other

(moving toward others in love) •  “Sweat and tears don’t lie.” When we

work alongside another and/or weep together, we can form powerful connections

•  Become less ethnocentric; understand that there are both beautiful and ugly elements of all cultures.

•  Stare at poverty •  Save the day •  Change someone (other than

yourself)

One Example: Junior Journey to Ecuador

Exploring Possibilities

"   What might we want to look for in an international partner?

"   What are some potential advantages to taking a cohort on an international trip?

"   What might be the challenges?