Course Syllabus

3 main learning Goals for this course.

Goal 1: Demonstrate understanding of the living languages and cultures studied in the Spanish Department. Students identify and analyze a selection of local and international NGO's working with Latino populations in the Bay Area and in Latin America. Students volunteer locally with native speakers and research specific volunteering opportunities in Spanish speaking countries.

Goal 2: Course participants demonstrate understanding of good writing, and are able to transfer the knowledge and skills acquired in the classroom into real life situations, volunteering locally and pursuing a position to volunteer internationally. They critically analyze what is being discussed in class about volunteering by comparing it and contrasting it with the experiences at their volunteering site.

Goal 3: Demonstrate understanding of and caring for the needs of the community they are working with. Students volunteer locally teaching Latino children at Oakland International High School and assist Latino immigrants in their path to citizenship by translating, interpreting, etc, at Santuario.

Evidence that will show that students have achieved those goals are the following Assignments:   Journals, Vocabulary lists, Observations in Blogs, Work samples, E-portfolios, Final essay, Final letter.

Evidence 1: Write bi-weekly journals reflecting on what is changing/has changed in your understanding of particular aspects of a living culture studied in our Department. Keep a vocabulary list of new Spanish words learned from native speakers while volunteering or interviewing founders and returnees from NGOs abroad.

Evidence 2: You will post observations in blogs, pages, discussions and e-portfolios about what you are finding in your teamwork, at particular sites locally and interviewing NGOs. You will write a letter of application for a volunteering position or a job at one of the global NGOs we researched in this course. (You are free to send the letter or not).

Evidence 3: Write a final essay on the connections between your volunteering experience and what is being discussed in class.

Overview of experiences and instruction.

Weekly plan of activities, readings, and assignments.

Week 1: Introduction to the course and the challenges/opportunities of volunteering locally and internationally. First discussion of why volunteering and of opportunities for Service-Learning projects. Read Learning to Learn, Letter to a young learner" Millennials are volunteering more than past generations" and the pages for Lindsay, Justin and Hannah.

Week 2: Meeting the Community Partners. Presentations by directors of Oakland International High School and of East Bay Sanctuary Covenant. Projects and initial group discussion on opportunities to volunteer at these sites.

We begin to draft together of a "class constitution" to facilitate transition from being a gathering of students to becoming a community of co-learners. We will use as departing point the Mozilla manifesto, the Duke 21C Manifesto, and the draft of the Volunteering and Global Education Manifesto.

Week 3: Approaches to Volunteering. Read "Helping, Fixing and Serving" by Rachel Naomi Remen, "What Kind of Global Citizen is the Student Volunteer?" by Clare Talkwater and "Postcolonialismo and chilis.

Watch: "The Danger of a Single Story" Ted Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and connect ideas with "Are we born racists?" Q&A with UCB Prof. Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton.

Global Education. Teams are formed to begin research by country (Spain or Chile, Mexico, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico) and international NGO. Getting familiar with http://www.idealist.org, and www.omprakash.org. Optionally also with  www.transitionsabroad.com, www.goabroad.com and www.gooverseas.com.

Week 4/5: Good Writing. What makes effective writing/reflection? Why do you write and for whom? How to keep journals/write blogs/reports and letters?

Read "La exposición" paying special attention to "purpose" and "rhetorical strategies". Compare that advice to the writing we will do in this course. Begin to take notes on how to transfer and apply those skills to the writing of blogs, reports, letters, etc. Everyone will research on line how to write great blogs, and will bring to class two examples to analyze what makes them great or not so good. 

Students begin local volunteering at the site they chose (Santuario or OIHS), and keep journals of each session in which they volunteer. (20 hours minimum total during the semester).

Please answer by Monday Sept 21th the Pre-volunteering questionnaire.

Week 6: Presentations by students-teams on what they have found out so far about the country and specific NGO each team will be investigating this semester. Read "La descripción", "La narración". Students discuss and integrate those rhetorical strategies and the ones of "La exposición" in their presentations. Students begin to gather evidence of the skills they are developing in class and beyond. They will include a selection of those reflections, videos, etc in their e-portfolios, to be used by them when applying for volunteering or for a job, locally or abroad.

Week 7/8: Students write emails and set up Skype conversations with founders and returnees of international NGO's, to find out more specific details about the experience of volunteering with them. (The Skype conversations--by team--will begin on Week 7 at Dwinelle B-3 during class.) Individual and group reflections about preparing the interviews, and presentations by students on their experiences at the local sites. Begin learning to use E- portfolios. Examples and some technical help will be provided in class.

Week 7/8: Skype conversations with Founders and Returnees of International NGOs. Weekly blogs and forum discussion on experiences and reflections on volunteering locally or internationally, and related multimedia materials.

Week 9: Continue Skype conversations. Group discussion and generating further questions from what is seeing and discussed in the conversations. Weekly blogs and forum discussion on experiences and reflections on volunteering locally or internationally are posted.

Week 9: Dialogue in class with head of UCB programs overseas at the countries students are investigating. Conversations with UCB returnees from other organizations in those countries. Weekly blogs and forum discussion on experiences and reflections on volunteering locally or internationally, and related multimedia materials.

Week 10: Read "La argumentación", paying special attention to purpose and rhetorical strategies". Relate, integrate, transfer and apply those skills to a critical and well supported

argumentation comparing and contrasting the mission and actual work of two of the organizations, and which you would recommend to chose as a site for volunteering internationally, given your particular interests.

Week 11: Further reflection and honing of projects at local volunteer sites.

Week 12: Honing the preparation of E-portfolios for each student to present his/her work to potential jobs and volunteering positions overseas.

Week 13: Preparation, discussion and presentation of Final Papers reflecting on the experience of local volunteering and its relation to the readings and discussions about international volunteering.

Week 14: Presentations continue. Each student writes a letter presenting him or herself to an International NGO of their choice, reflecting on the mission and programs within that NGO and the way the student writer is particularly fit to contribute to those programs.

Week 15: Final reflections and presentation by individual students and teams of what they learned in the course, and demonstration of what skills are they ready to transfer into their work with the community. Brief presentation of e-portfolios. Closure of our work together.

Reflection pieces. These are essential for linking the course content and the volunteering experience

Students will answer specific questions in an "Observations Page" after every day of volunteering, to reflect and summarize, briefly, that day's experience at Santuario or Oakland International High School.
Write bi-weekly journals connecting what is being discuss in class with specific aspects of your learning journey in volunteering and in understanding the communities you work with. Some of those reflections, can be departing point for the bi-weekly blogs (500 words), coupled with references to secondary sources.

Local community partners

Oakland International High School

http://www.oaklandinternational.org/#!in-the-news/co10

Santuario (East Bay Sanctuary Covenant)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHB8oqb1_v4