Think Globally, Act Globally
Why do people go abroad to volunteer for work you would have to pay them well to do at home? They build houses in Guatemala, plant trees in Senegal or teach English to little kids in Vietnam without being paid a cent. For-profit businesses even coordinate overseas volunteer placements for those who are willing to pay for the experience. And it's not just for Americans. Countries like Australia, Japan, Taiwan and the United States have thriving overseas volunteer programs. Does the popularity of this experience for college students and graduates from many different countries prove that the sense of a "Good Society" now encompasses the entire world?
In this course we will try to understand why overseas volunteering has become so popular all around the world. We will create a database of national overseas volunteer programs as a class research project. You will also choose and plan an overseas voluntary experience for yourself (either actual or imaginary) and reflect on why you want to do it, what you think you can "give back" overseas, and what you think you will gain from experience.
Our study will include critical perspectives and approaches: the national goals and purposes of governments that run programs; the educational content of the experience; classroom visits by returned Peace Corps volunteers; and the view that some of these programs are a variety of "ethical tourism."
The course thus has an experiential component and is designed to follow Pacific Seminar I consideration of issues like Nations in a global society, Work and Education.
