Sustainability, Community Engagement, and Leadership in Nepal

Catalog description

This course is designed to provide a focused lens on the leadership of sustainability, community engagement, and global citizenship, with an emphasis on nonprofit management. Students utilize a systems perspective to identify and analyze the complex factors that contribute to the challenges and proposed solutions to community-based approaches for addressing the concerns and roles of diverse stakeholders, specifically in Nepal. As a case study, students learn on-site at a nonprofit organizational community in Nepal, the Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco Foundation (KRMEF), which is an innovative and replicable model for sustainable community and leadership development. KRMEF represents an ecological systems (biodynamic) model for addressing the needs of the people and communities specifically in the Kathmandu Valley region of Nepal, with relevance to shared concerns within a global context. Students are immersed in the complex development of Nepal as a developing and post-disaster country and emerging democracy, through relevant readings, structured site visits and excursions, cultural events, and community interaction. Ongoing, intentional reflection provide opportunities for participants to engage with, synthesize, communicate about and act upon what they learn from their experiences and how that relates to academic, professional, civic and leadership interests.