Partnership with Liberian college continues to grow
Image Credit: Edwin Remsberg
The Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics is proud to host the first Global Classroom course offered within the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The Global Classroom Initiative is a project of UMD’s Office of International Affairs. Global Classrooms offer innovative opportunities for forward-thinking students and faculty to learn about global challenges, collaborate with international partners, and design impactful solutions from right in College Park.
The course taught by Taryn Devereux, AREC360 Global Agriculture: Developing Extension Education and Agriculture Technologies in Africa, further develops AGNR’s relationship with Liberian International Christian College (LICC) through weekly joint on-line classes. The course is offered through the department's Global Poverty minor. UMD and LICC students earn credit, but more importantly, the class opens a door to life in another country, engages students in projects that require them to understand the others’ culture and their specific set of challenges. Maryland students are learning through a blend of lectures, readings and on-line classes with their LICC peers, about cropping systems, cross-cultural collaboration, value chains, and cooperative extension.
Now entering the second year, the AREC Global Classroom has continued to further establish the course by designating the trip to Liberia as a sister class offered as a UMD Education Abroad summer class, AREC361 Liberia: Implementing Extension Education in Africa. During this summer experience, students travel to Liberia to implement agricultural extension projects developed throughout the spring through AREC360, with support from the ROOTS Africa Student Club, in collaboration with student counterparts at the Liberia International Christian College (LICC). This course is designed to replicate a global workplace and give students real-life, hands-on experience as international community service providers, by applying scholarship to practice through iterative processes. Students will work collaboratively to address challenges for farmers and stakeholders in the LICC community. Observations will be collected in reflection pieces and discussed as a group during dialogue and reflection exercises. At the end of the course, students will produce a final, cumulative trip report.
To learn more, please view the promotional flier for the class. Also, an informative article announcing the start of the AGNR Global Classroom appeared in the spring 2019 newsletter from the office of International Programs in Agriculture and Natural Resources (IPAN).
AREC 360 & 361 Flyer Education Abroad: AREC 361 IPAN Spring 2019 Newsletter
