Session 13: Panel Discussion

Creating and Sustaining Global Service-Learning Partnerships: Principles, Practices, and Lessons Learned

Panelists

Associate Professor Dr. Janice McMillan

Dr Janice McMillan is an Associate Professor based in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) in the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) at the University of Cape Town. From 2010-June 2019 she was Director of the UCT Global Citizenship: Leading for Social Justice programme. (GCP) a programme she co-found in 2010. From 2010-2014, she was also the service-learning coordinator for Stanford University's Bing overseas study programme in Cape Town. Within UCT Janice is a member of several university and faculty committees and since mid 2017, Janice has a role at the institutional level giving direction to engaged scholarship and social responsiveness. Janice is also a collaborator on several global partnerships linked to developing new and authentic forms of engagement across university-community boundaries. Janice completed her PhD in Sociology at UCT in 2008, focussing on service learning as a form of boundary work in higher education. She has received several awards for both her research and teaching. in 2008 she received an honourable mention for her PhD thesis from the International Association of Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE). In 2016, she was the recipient of 2 teaching awards at UCT: The Collaborative Educational Practice award, and a Distinguished Teacher Award, the highest teaching award at UCT. Also in 2016, Janice she was one of 10 scholars in Africa who received a University Education for Transformative Education in Africa (UETLA) grant of $1000 from a partnership between Master Card and the Talloires Network. Janice's teaching, research and development interests include deliberation as a pedagogical tool; higher education and social responsiveness - with particular emphasis on community-engaged learning; university-community partnerships more broadly, and faculty and institutional development. When not focused on work, Janice loves to explore and learn more about her home city of Cape Town, cook delicious food, swim, and spend quality time with family and friends.

Dr. Faith Valencia-Forrester

Dr Faith Valencia-Forrester has combined her media experience, degrees in Arts, Law and Business, and her PhD in inclusive university-led work-integrated learning to help students gain experience and work toward social impact. Her work focuses on social justice and actively demonstrates inclusion and equity. Her research into WIL has been instrumental in developing engaged connections between the university and the community. She strives to move education beyond the typical classroom practice divide and the advantages stretch much further than students simply gaining practical experience; their work creates real-life impacts and can address disadvantage within the community. Faith specialises in designing and delivering innovative WIL projects, creating a fourth space where students, academics and industry can come together to create change.

Associate Professor Dr. Shorna Allred

Shorna Allred is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Natural Resources and the Environment and the Dept. of Global Development at Cornell University. She also holds a core faculty appointment in Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program and is a Visiting Professor at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. A conservation social scientist, Dr. Allred teaches and conducts research in the areas of global sustainability, conservation behavior, community resilience, and environmental justice with particular interest in social dimensions of climate change mitigation and adaptation. She is passionate about engaging students in community-based work and leads a global service-learning program, Global Citizenship and Sustainability Borneo, which is focused on indigenous community resilience in Southeast Asia. Dr. Allred was the awarded the 2018 Engaged Scholar Prize and the 2019 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service.

Moderator

Richard Kiely is a Senior Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the Office of Engagement Initiatives (OEI) at Cornell University. He served as inaugural director of the Center for Community-Engaged Learning and Research (2011-2015) in support of Engaged Cornell. In 2002, Richard received his PhD from Cornell University and from 2002-2006, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Lifelong Education, Policy and Administration at the University of Georgia, where he taught graduate courses in community development, qualitative and community-based research, (global) service-learning, program planning and learning theory. In 2005, was recognized nationally as a John Glenn Scholar in Service-Learning for research that developed a transformative service-learning model. He returned to Cornell in 2006 to serve as the Faculty Director of the Cornell Urban Scholars Program. He is a co-author of Community-Based Global Learning: The Theory and Practice of Ethical Engagement at Home and Abroad (2018) and co-founder of a community-driven global service-learning (GSL) partnership in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua which will be entering its 26th year in 2020. In addition, Richard continues to be a field-builder in to support ethical approaches to community-based global learning at home and abroad is a co-founder of, The Community-based Global Learning Collaborative which is a network of educational institutions and community organizations advancing ethical, critical, and aspirationally de-colonial community-based learning and research for more just, inclusive, and sustainable communities.