Cultural Immersion and Social Justice: International Experience for Community College Students and Faculty

A two-day conference was organized for community college international program coordinators, faculty, students, and administrators that served as a venue for them to come together to discuss and plan education abroad initiatives at their institutions.

The keynote speaker, Paul Houlihan, president of The School for Field Studies and a well-known scholar/practitioner in the field of study abroad for sustainable development, spoke on the topic of "Involving U.S. Students in International Sustainable Development Efforts: Challenges and Opportunities."

Objectives

• Provide participants a chance to work together in institutional teams and to brainstorm on possible future collaborative efforts with participants from other institutions based on the conference theme "Cultural Immersion and Social Justice: International Experiences for Community College Students and Faculty."
• Generate new ideas within international programs at community colleges. Speakers were invited to discuss ways to develop international programs for students and faculty that bring them face-to-face with the people and the social issues of the host country. One of the key topics was utilizing study abroad to both teach about and work for sustainable development.

Participating Institutions/Associations

• Oakton Community College
• College of DuPage
• ICISP
• ACIIE