UCBA Offers Service Learning Program

Professors Leslie Elrod and Jody Ballah have planned the first service learning Study Abroad program that will be offered Spring Term 2013 for UCBA students. The Study Abroad program will travel to Guadeloupe, an island in the Caribbean that is a part of France; however, Guadeloupe has a culture that is completely its own.

Professors Elrod and Ballah will travel to Guadeloupe this summer to check the facilities where students will stay next spring. They will also examine the possible projects that students can take part in during the program.

Some possible projects students can participate in include infrastructure-rebuilding, schools, working with local fishermen, dental hygiene clinics and medicinal gardens. Because of the new schedule of classes next year due to semester conversion, students will travel to Guadeloupe after taking seven weeks of their courses then continue to take courses for seven weeks after returning.

After the students return they will continue their service learning here. They will be able to apply the new skills they will learn in Guadeloupe.

Students participating in the study abroad program have the opportunity to enroll in Professor Elrod's Contemporary Social Problems course for three credit hours and Professor Jody Ballah's Service Learning in French course for one credit hour.

Professor Elrod's course will focus on comparing the United States to Guadeloupe and the problems that each country is facing. In addition, her course will examine the idea of what poverty is and how the definition changes from one society to another.

All students are welcome to enroll in Professor Ballah's French course as well, since there is no prerequisite for either class. Professor Ballah will be teaching the students how to speak French so they will be able to interact with the natives of Guadeloupe as much as possible.

The program's travel dates are March 15-23, 2013, during spring break of next year. The estimated cost of the program is $3,000 plus the cost of the courses' tuition. This cost covers almost everything for the trip, including the room, food, and board. There will be many scholarships, grants and fundraising opportunities available for students to help offset the cost of the trip.

Applications for this trip will be due sometime in October 2012. Professors Ballah and Elrod are planning to present a Culturelogue at UCBA next fall after they return from Guadeloupe with pictures of the island and the places where students will stay. The professors may continue to offer this service learning program every other year alternating with the Quebec Study Abroad.