Clara Cullen
BS ’17, International Studies
For over 10 years, The Quito Project (TQP) has collaborated with communities in Ecuador to meet the ever-changing needs of Quito’s urban poor. Each summer, TQP partners with a local university to run an educational program for 60 students, and throughout the year we recruit undergraduates from U-M to serve as tutors. Despite the successes of our program, we recognize that very few of our tutors possess formal backgrounds in education and feel that our organization would benefit from the guidance of faculty with more experience in international education. For this reason, we propose a faculty-led workshop on community-engaged education to prepare U-M students to be more effective teachers and ambassadorial figures of U-M during their time abroad. We envision this workshop as an interactive learning experience open to any student traveling abroad for the purpose of community-engaged education. Ultimately, we recognize that students’ actions abroad reflect upon our university and its values, and hope this project will have a positive, far-reaching impact for both our university’s international reputation and the communities in every corner of the world where U-M students are engaged in international education.
Library Mentor: Gabriel Duque