Global Impact Project

In this course, you will collaborate with peers from universities around the world to work on pressing community challenges in developing regions. Instead of a one-off volunteering project that will not lead to long-term impact, you will work together with community members and other students to design and implement long-term solutions that are financially sustainable and can be handed off to community members. In this way, your work will continue even after your project is finished.

CLE9027 focuses on long-term connections and collaboration with a few specific communities in regions in Uganda, Nepal, Kazakhstan, and others, so you will also help to assess and improve upon previous students’ projects. In the first half of this course, students will learn the necessary skills to conduct a successful participatory design project, such as empathy and interviewing skills, intercultural awareness, participatory design, and prototyping. In the second half of the course, students travel in relatively smaller groups to different locations to work on project in collaboration with community members and mentored by instructors experienced in sustainability and social innovation.

This course is usually run during the summer and winter breaks to maximize international collaboration and allow you to go abroad for a longer period to achieve a greater impact on the community and your personal development. It is also possible to initiate your own Global Impact Project individually or in a group by proposing a realistic plan for a meaningful and substantial community empowerment project in an overseas location, if you want to take the lead in setting up a new project outside of the existing ones. To know more about this option, please contact Dr. Aloysius Arokiaraj at aloy@ln.edu.hk