22
October
2015
|
10:30 AM
America/New_York

Research project to look at how international travel helps develop intercultural skills

Kelly Hoyt (left) and Michelle Turan will looking Professors Kelly Hoyt (left) and Michelle Turan will looking at how intercultural skills are developed by students and faculty following service trips to Guatemala and India.

Project: An examination of intercultural skills in students and faculty following service trips to Guatemala and India

International service trips are popular for a reason: they give us the opportunity to help others, share our knowledge and experience a new way of living and doing.

But how much of an impact do they have on our lives once we’re back home?

Michelle Turan from Mohawk’s Human Services program, has been awarded funding from the Applied Research and Innovation in Education (ARIE) Fund to examine and measure the intercultural skills developed by students and faculty following service trips to Guatemala and India.

This project will document the impact of course-related travel to international destinations in a measureable way. It will measure the effects that international service has on students with respect to their intercultural skills and sensitivity, with the hope that these activities will increase students’ levels of civic activism and community engagement.

The project will be completed in partnership with Kelley Hoyt, from the Child and Youth Worker program, and the following external organizations: Global Autism Project (New York City), SOREM (Society for the Mentally Challenged- India), Cross Cultural Solutions and Fanshawe College Autism and Behaviour Science Program.

The project will support Mohawk College’s focus on research and innovation, international education and new immigrant support.

For more information about the project, contact Mohawk’s Applied Research and Innovation department, iDeaWORKS at andrea.johnson4@mohawkcollege.ca