Santa Cruz Seminar Itinerary

Regional Training itineraries are designed to provide learning through experience by paralleling a student course progression while simultaneously teaching to thematic modules. Within each module, we engage in dynamic and experiential activities that train to new models, tools and strategies for working with students on global education programming. While the exact content of each workshop may vary, the thematic and experiential flow is consistent across regions.

Day 1 - Tone-setting and Container Building How do we intentionally set a tone for depth, curiosity, safety and trust? This session begins to reveal a shared mental model for the essence of our work in global experiential education and frames the goals for the experience and training to come. We begin after lunch, with several sessions focused on tone-setting for depth of engagement, safety, curiosity and individual ownership. This afternoon will be mostly experiential as we begin to get to know who is in the room and intentionally build a collective group identity. How do we identify, assess and mitigate risks on course?
Day 2 - Group Facilitation and Risk Management How do we get the most learning from place, self and the group? Today is focused on group management, risk management, and the important balance between discomfort, challenge, safety, and transformative learning. We begin our morning with a focus on the unique skill-sets related to group forming and facilitation and transition into small-group sessions focused on skill-building and tool sharing for generating student buy-in, briefing and debriefing strategies and building in student progressions towards empowerment and leadership. In the afternoon, we shift gears to focus on skills related to risk management. Focusing briefly on pro-active risk management, we shift to skills of identifying, assessing and decision-making around specific activities and risks in-country. Through actor-based scenarios and case-studies participants build decision-making and judgment skills for responding to issues in the field. After a daily debrief we break before dinner and come back together for a communal meal and fire circle.
Day 3 - Community Engagement and Transference How do we integrate profound experiences into the rest of a student’s life? We conclude with strategies for student-community engagement and appropriate closure to the experience. Today's workshops delve more deeply into the culture concept and assuring that we as educators take a lead in drawing awareness to students notions of cultural identity, ethnocentrism, race, power and privilege. We explore best practices in setting up student homestays and take a critical approach to international service learning, focusing on strategies and tools for improving our relationships with communities.