News
UCC Participates in a Service-Learning Workshop in Bratislava April 2018
On April 11th 2018, Dr Anna Kingston from Community Academic Research Links (CARL) represented UCC at a workshop in Bratislava on Service-Learning and Community Engagement in Higher Education Institutions. It was organised by the Utrecht Network www.utrecht-network.org, a representative European-wide network of universities cooperating in the area of internationalisation. It aims to encourage exchange of good practices and implementing educational policies. It has 32 members in 27 countries and has been networking for over 30 years.
There were 15 participants from 11 universities participating in the workshop representing various faculties such as sociology, education, natural sciences, human geography, pharmacy. The facilitators were Bruna Zani, Professor of social and community psychology at University of Bologna, Henrietta Grönlund, Lecturer in Urban Theology at University of Helsinki and Seth Pollack, Founding director of the Service Learning Institute at California State University Monterey Bay CSUMB). Bruna Zani and Henrietta Grönlund shared experiences of their involvement in the ERASMUS+ programme Europe Engage and gave examples of service-learning from their institutions. For those who are interested in learning more the online course using the following link was recommended: https://europeengage.org/europe-engage-mooc-2/
Seth Pollack highlighted the importance of foster and promote social justice by cultivating reciprocal services and learning partnerships among students, faculty and staff. His Californian institute was founded in 1995 with a specific focus on having service-learning included in all disciplines. https://csumb.edu/service