Global Institute on Experiential Education – an intense week

Global Institute on Experiential Education – an intense week

Jim Stellar

I rarely write by myself in this blog, but this last week I had a great intense experiential experience. From Monday evening to Friday afternoon last week I was a 5 day / 4 night WACE Global Institute on Experiential Education on Martha’s Vineyard.  We had 32 participants from 7 universities (or university organizations) from around the world and 8 faculty discussing experiential learning and facilitating plans to increase that learning in the 7 Universities. 

Truth be told, I was a co-founder of this institute at the College of Arts and Sciences at Northeastern University with Tim Donovan and Rick Porter (past blog co-author, twice).  It grew out of a Writing Program with a 20+ year history that we used as internal Ex Ed institute for Northeastern faculty and staff.  Then we took it external in 2005 so that other colleges and universities could send their people – from Presidents to faculty to staff – to develop an institutional plan for Ex Ed back on their campus.  The programs include study abroad, undergraduate research, service-learning, internships, and either cooperative education or work integrated learning depending on the country tradition.  Up to this year, we had 39 participating universities and colleges.

When I left Northeastern, the World Association of Cooperative Education (WACE) took over the non-profit status of the Institute.  But it was much more than that.  WACE took it out from under the umbrella of a single university.  WACE gave the institute a global as well as an experiential focus.  As a result the Institute broadened to be much more international in both its participants and its faculty.  This year, we had Australia, South Africa, Sweden, and the US among the participating countries.  Among the faculty we had representatives from Austria, Australia, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, and the US.  The Institute also picked up from WACE the able leadership of Paul Stonley, head of WACE, and Michelle Hansford the able WACE administrative assistant (and also a past blog co-author).

What started out right away and continued to evolve as a central feature of the program is the way the place and the program encourage people to really get to know each other within and between universities as they work.  It is unlike anything I have ever experienced in a seminar or conference or even a workshop.  Perhaps that is exactly the way an Ex Ed institute should be. Since Ex Ed aims to change students by experience, why shouldn’t the planning institute do the same for its participants?  The program starts with presentations by the faculty, but quickly moves into discussions.  A facilitator appears and starts working with the team to develop their plan even as the faculty team presents tools of planning – how to promote faculty engagement, Ex Ed program types, etc.  Discussions draw out the expertise of the participants.  Faculty facilitators work closely with each team to help them develop their plans.  On the last day, the participants present their plans while the faculty take a back seat and comment where they can. 

To facilitate endless discussion, everyone lives in houses close thogether just outside Vineyard Haven so that discussions within a team can run well into the night.  The teams walk to the center which is just a nearby large house with a meeting room off the back.  Teams play together, exploring the Martha’s Vineyard Island and mix work with that play.  When we faculty bump into the university teams at an ice cream shop or at dinner they are often talking about how their plan is developing or how an idea will play back on campus.  The faculty does the same and continuously fine-tunes the institute program on the fly, with often long full group or smaller discussions.  For me, the extensive discussion with new and long-time colleagues is the experience.  It is real experiential learning and results in a deep, personal learning experience.  Teams speak of bonding.  Friendships are made or strengthened within and between universities and with the faculty.  We eat, sleep, and drink Ex Ed.  Faculty facilitators constantly compare notes to try to help the institutional plans develop. We sit in their houses, if needed.  Every year I have as a faculty member at the Institute, that week is one of the best experiences of the year, indeed of my professional career.

Now the plans are in, the participants back in their far-flung institutions, another institute is over.  I am back a day at work and having trouble re-adjusting.  Gone is the dorm living style for adults.  Gone is the fellowship of all those people.  I have often stated that experiential learning taps into a kind of brain circuit different from the facts and theory of academic learning.  This circuit is of a limbic system logic, an emotional/instinctive computation that declares something of value and a judgment rendered.  We want our students to marry their academic learning to this kind of development as a person so that they will not only know they are in the right field (major), but also how to use that information wisely, humanly, powerfully with others.  Some call that maturity.  Well we faculty can do it too.  I am most proud of the Institute for being a place where this kind of thinking also comes forward.  We at the Global Institute on Experiential Education just had some Ex Ed ourselves.  And I had to write about it.

My thanks to all for a great week and all past participats for what you have taught me over the years.