Bolivian Global Service-Learning Political Science Course Description
Faculty Instructor: Nicholas Biddle, PhD
Amizade Student Application (pdf)
If the elimination of poverty is possible, as many people in government, academia, and business claim, then why is it growing and not diminishing? Partial answers spring to mind. General human indifference, government bureaucracy, corruption, and greed are among them. These and other gray dynamics obstruct today, as they have for decades, the good faith efforts of many thousands to alleviate sickness, improve living standards, and spread the seeds of general prosperity. Since 2000 the stakes seem to have risen. Terror, war, and category 5 hurricanes have sharpened our focus. Crisis is all around. Urgency infuses our sense of the world.
The Amizade Global Service Learning (GSL) course in Cochabamba, Bolivia provides students with a combination of academic, reflective and experiential learning uniquely conducive to navigating the challenges of today’s world. The GSL course is, rather, a full program. Its main components are extended cultural immersion, regular service learning, academic course instruction, and daily formal reflection both written and verbal.
The four major components of the GSL program act together synergistically. Each provides substance for a deeper understanding of the other. For example, service work with orphans clarifies the economic challenges and, therefore, the economic structure within which common people live in Bolivia, while learning about globalization in the classroom informs an understanding of the prevalence of U.S. sitcoms on the orphanage television. Equally, discussion around the family dining table during a meal (each student lives in a Bolivian household) provides ideas for student writing, at the same time that the writing raises new questions to ask the family at lunch tomorrow. The balance and integration of learning methods that make up the Bolivia GSL program essentially guarantee profound student learning and personal development.
Particular aspects of contemporary Bolivia render the Amizade program even more exciting. In a world thinking twice about globalization, citizens have elected a president determined to change globalization’s direction in the nation by ending the economic privatization of natural resources, infrastructure and state industry. President Evo Morales is a full-blooded Indian whose leadership of a social movement seeking to redefine the role of indigenous peoples in politics and democracy catapulted him into office in 2006. In short, the Bolivian people are realigning the contours of race, power and economy by themselves and against the flow of tradition. The moment presents students and all other participants an exceptional opportunity to engage the pressing issues of globalization, foreign aid, self-determination, and sustainability within a context of innovation. It is a golden learning moment.
Finally, the racialized backdrop to the social dynamic underway in Bolivia necessarily heightens student awareness of intercultural difference. Questions of race, equality, and human rights are confronted daily and these create a foundation for analyzing and embracing an ethics of intercultural relationship. Global citizenship is a heady term. In the Amizade GSL program in Bolivia, global citizenship is a constant point of reference, and an ever more clear and obtainable goal.