Experiential Cross-Cultural Learning – Service Abroad: Taiwan
LING 340
Led by Dr. Ching-Hsuan Wu

This international service-learning course engages students in community service in Taiwan. Language proficiency in Taiwanese or Chinese Mandarin is not required. The course is designed for students who are interested in learning by doing in different cultural contexts. Class sessions take place first through three seminars on campus during the spring semester and then on service sites in Taiwan for ten days immediately after finals week in May. The course offers experiential education, where academic instruction is combined with civic responsibility to community-identified needs, which may include volunteering work at Animals Taiwan, Taiwan Sea Turtle Conservation Society, Hospice Foundation in Taiwan, and Taipei Orphan Welfare Foundation. 60 hours will be focused on student engagement with the community and group reflection on the service sites overseas. In addition, 50-hour cultural engagement is included in this global experience to enhance students’ cultural sensitivity and competence to help them further contextualize their community service experience and intention. Through active observations of and engagement with the local customs, history, people, and daily lives, students will apply knowledge of Asian and Taiwanese cultures to challenge and better understand their perspectives on their own cultural assumptions, traditions, and experiences.

Students will demonstrate increasing development of empathy and a sense of community responsibility through reading and discussing the required materials on campus and maintaining a daily journal in which they record their experiences and reactions abroad. Students will meet regularly with the instructor for review and feedback on their journals written in Taiwan. Through community service, critical action, reflective thinking, and cultural immersion, students will learn to interact as engaged citizens with societal responsibilities outside the university and the United States and collectively achieve community objectives and gain deeper personal understanding and skills in cross-cultural interactions and collaborations. Moreover, students will distribute educational assets, foster social good, and translate our Case education into social impact beyond our campus.

Language proficiency in Taiwanese or Chinese Mandarin is not required. The course is designed for students who are interested in learning by doing in different cultural contexts. Class sessions take place first through three seminars on campus during the spring semester and then on service sites in Taiwan for ten days immediately after finals week in May. This 3-credit hour course meets the perspective requirements of Local and Global Engagement (LGE) and Understanding Global Perspectives (UGP).

Prerequisite Requirements: Instructor consent required.  No pre-requisite requirements.

Estimated Cost: $2875

Contact: ching-hsuan.wu@case.edu for information.

Apply: http://studyabroad.case.edu/.