The following institutions and programs make up the ideological foundation of the EIESL Project and this guidebook.
What is Place and Promise?
Place and Promise is UBC’s new strategic plan and vision for the future, launched in 2010. It aims to create “an exceptional learning environment towards global citizenship and a civil and sustainable society”, based on the following commitments:
Core commitments:
- Student Learning
- Research Excellence
- Community Engagement
Commitments:
- Aboriginal Engagement
- Alumni Engagement
- Intercultural Understanding
- International Engagement
- Outstanding Work Environment
- Sustainability
International engagement and service learning is woven implicitly and explicitly into many of UBC’s commitments, particularly student learning, community engagement and international engagement. For example, UBC’s commitment to International Engagement aims to the capacity of UBC students, faculty, staff and alumni to engage internationally. This is done by increasing student participation in learning and service abroad. Read more about it at the Place and Promise Website: http://strategicplan.ubc.ca/
What is Go Global?
Go Global is one of the implementation partners for the EIESL project, the other being the UBC Centre for International Health.
Go Global is a department at UBC that develops and facilitates international learning opportunities through study, research and service learning. Our programs offer students transformational, experiential learning experiences that promote global awareness, meaningful engagement and cross-cultural understanding.
Go Global also administers over $1.4 million in international learning awards and is working towards managing a campus-wide Student Safety Abroad Protocol.
Go Global’s International Service Learning (ISL) program engages students in meaningful projects led by community partners around the world. By taking part in an ISL program, students can connect academic studies with real-world experience and become an aware, active, and caring citizen. Each ISL program is linked to one or more of the Millennium Development Goals.
All of our programs include a pre-departure orientation program at UBC, an international placement, and post-placement activities. Using the experiential education model, students participate in a continuous cycle of learning, action, and reflection. Service learning emphasizes an understanding of the core issues related to a community development project; participants can expect an intense immersion experience with well-defined learning goals and projects.
Ethics of international volunteering: our commitment to community partners
ISL focuses on social justice, not charity. All projects we engage in begin with communities defining their own needs, and continue with partners as co-educators throughout the project; this approach to community development produces a more sustainable outcome. We strive to support on-going initiatives within the community, rather than proposing one off projects.
What is CIH?
The UBC Centre for International Health is one of the implementation partners for the EIESL project, the other being Go Global.
The Centre for International Health (CIH) is an organizing centre for a broad network of members in the UBC community interested in international health. The centre is a unit of the College of Health Disciplines in collaboration with the Liu Institute for Global Issues.
Activities organized directly by the Centre for International Health represents a small part of the activities in international and global health embarked by students and faculty at UBC. Our goal is to provide a platform for raising awareness of these activities a stimulating interactions mutual learning and synergies that results from greater understanding and collaboration, and to contribute to better and more equitable health worldwide, through translating knowledge into action.
In undertaking this, the Centre for International Health will strive to establish UBC as a Canadian leader in this global effort, fiving meaning to UBC’s Trek commitment to global citizenship.
What is the TLEF?
“Supporting and Encouraging Innovative Teaching Across UBC Vancouver.” The Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF) was created in 1991 to enrich student learning by supporting innovative and effective educational enhancements.
The EIESL project is funded by the TLEF grant. To read more, please see here.
