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Every year a number of Smith faculty take
their students abroad for a short period. These courses are either a continuation
of a course taught on campus or an independent course. These two or three-week courses
usually take place during January interterm or in May, immediately following the
spring term.
Smith College is collaborating with two Nicaraguan institutions
and Grand Valley State University (GVSU) in Michigan on an entrepreneurial education
project that brings together students in engineering, business, and development economics
to design products for the community of Estelí, Nicaragua.
Three Smith faculty and five Smith students representing
the fields of engineering, economics, Spanish, and Latin American studies participated
in a two-week short course in May 2007, held on the campus of Facultad Regional Multidisciplinaria
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua (FAREM), a regional comprehensive university
in Esteli, Nicaragua. As part of the course, students engaged in an import analysis
of local markets to determine what products were currently imported that might be
made more cheaply in country, learned and practiced brainstorming techniques to generate
product ideas, conducted a community needs assessment and sought community feedback
on product ideas, and further developed a handful of promising product ideas.
Supported by a grant from the college, three Smith undergraduates
spent six weeks during July and August, 2008, as volunteers in the Bolivian community
of Carmen Pampa, site of the Unidad Académica Campesina (UAC), a small institution
of higher education for young men and women of poor rural families. They tutored
English and assisted with English classes, pulled weeds in the UAC’s vegetable
gardens, ground coffee beans in its coffee-processing plant, participated in a traditional
dance during the community’s festival, conducted interviews with UAC students,
read books to preschoolers in the children’s library, and organized futsal
(court soccer) and pingpong games.
Coral Reef Ed-Ventures is an innovative,
cooperative educational venture between Smith College and the Hol Chan Marine Reserve
in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize. This school-based project began in San Pedro
in 2000, as an effort to facilitate community awareness of reef ecology and to support
and encourage reef preservation. More... |
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Smith
Study Abroad Programs Faculty-Led
Educational
Experiences Abroad
Interterm
2009
Courses
2010
Courses
Related Links
International
Experience Grants
Discretionary
Funds
for Students |
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