GLAA Conference on Humanitarian Innovation & Entrepreneurship: SDG Impact through Service-Learning

Date: 16 - 17 December 2019    

Location: The Cityview, Hong Kong

A Program Rundown can be found here

“The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. The Goals interconnect and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve each Goal and target by 2030.”    ---United Nations

Background

Universities and colleges are striving to create positive impacts and serve the needs of society. One way of achieving this goal is through service-learning and knowledge transfer. By integrating service-learning and knowledge transfer into a university’s curriculum, it allows students to:

• make connections between their formal education and the real needs of the society,
• train and develop themselves as problem solvers to global challenges, and
• become socially responsible citizens who can look beyond their own needs.

 

The Joint-Humanitarian Summer Academy organized by Lingnan University, Oberlin College, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and Rutgers University, offered an extraordinary interdisciplinary learning experience, bringing impactful service-learning projects to 5 global locations. Students were able to work on pressing issues with what they’ve learnt under faculty supervision. Feedback from students is uplifting.

 

As members of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance (GLAA), Lingnan University and Hope College see tremendous benefits in connecting more GLAA universities to the programme. Higher involvement of GLAA faculty and students from around the world would greatly amplify the learning and service impact of the programme. Collectively, the service impact of the programme would promote and strengthen joint research and teaching among GLAA members. This conference is designed to share programme experience, framework and results among GLAA members to garner support for furthering programme impact through a GLAA partnership.

About the Conference

This conference will bring together about 40 GLAA university members to Lingnan University to develop a long-term project partnership for contributing to SDGs through global service-learning programmes. GLAA faculty will co-design a GLAA Summer Academy based on the Joint-Humanitarian Summer Academy model. The conference will also showcase Lingnan’s approach in bringing technology, innovation and entrepreneurship into service-learning to generate greater global impact. Lingnan’s service-learning programme is partnering with the world’s most engineering-heavy schools (e.g. MIT, CMU and Lehigh) to apply technology to advance the well-being of citizens in less developed regions of the world.

 

This conference is first of its kind in GLAA history. It will make GLAA the leader in bringing impact to global locations through service-learning. By connecting GLAA members to a joint global programme through this (annual) conference, GLAA will become the recognized leaders in Global Service-Learning. Through a concerted effort, GLAA will jointly make a measurable contribution to selected SDGs in the next 3-5 years. 

Objectives

In this conference, members of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance (GLAA) will:

• Develop strategies and models to make targeted contributions to SDGs via partnerships,
• Explore opportunities for creating Summer Academy among GLAA members in 2020,
• Facilitate more service-learning project collaborations among members of GLAA in Asia and around the world,
• Create an inventory of SDG contributions by GLAA members, and
• Identify opportunities to create undergraduate research and course connection.

Key Topics

The conference will use seminars, discussions and workshops to focus on:

1. Making impacts on SDGs via partnerships
2. Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Service-Learning
3. Humanitarian Technology
4. Design and Innovation
5. Inclusive Entrepreneurship

Scope of Discussion

The conference will aim to develop new learning opportunities, such as:

1. Undergraduate research opportunities and potential course connections
2. The strength of Liberal Arts Education in meeting social needs,
3. Education of Humanitarian Innovation and Entrepreneurship through Service-Learning
4. Development of long-term collaboration among GLAA members

When and where will it happen?

Date: 16-17 December 2019

Location: The Cityview, Hong Kong

Registration Fee: Free

Registration: http://tiny.cc/ih1jbz

Organizer: Office of Service-Learning, Lingnan University

Co-organizer in alphabetical order: Bonner Center for Community-Engaged Learning, Teaching, and Research & Office of the Associate Dean of Global Education, Hope College

 

Contact: Dr Taihua Hu (+852 26168077 / taihuahu@LN.edu.hk)

Programs

17 December 2019 Tuesday Venue: Exhibition Hall, the CityView
Time	Event
9:30 - 10:30 Plenary Session	Insights from IEEE SIGHT SDG-impact Projects Speaker: Khanjan Mehta, Lehigh University The IEEE Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (SIGHT) is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) program, instituted by the IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee (HAC). This global network of groups consists of IEEE members and volunteers who identify and address local problems by applying their technical skills and partnering with their local communities. Khanjan will share with us how IEEE SIGHT conceptualize, start and run SDG-impactful projects.
10:30 - 11:00	Tea Break
11:00 - 12:00 Plenary Session	Sharing the Experience of Using Social Entrepreneurial Education Towards SDGs Speaker: Duncan Rinehart, Al Akhawayn University Duncan will share his experience from his entrepreneurship course and the Service-Learning component of his leadership courses. In the courses, he aids students to start and run businesses, addressing at least one SDG, that also benefits the poor and illiterate of the Ifrane area, Morocco. Most businesses simply resell something to AUI students and donate the proceeds to local associations who then provide the benefit/SDG impact.
12:00 - 13:00	Lunch
13:00 - 14:30 Parallel Session	Faculty Engagement and Course Connection: Applying Service-Learning For SDG-Impact to Local Communities Catalyst: Abdelghani El Asli, Al Akhawayn University Faiza Rafique, Forman Christian College Julie Flowerday, Forman Christian College Kenji Ishihara, International Christian University Facilitator: Zoe XIAO, Lingnan University Discussions on how to bring local voices to academia to enrich teaching, learning and research. Service-Learning being an important part of the pedagogy in Liberal Arts Education, this session will discuss how faculty members can use this global network to enhance interdisciplinary learning and nurture future generations of humanitarian innovators and inclusive entrepreneurs.	Software Support for UN SDG Projects Catalyst: Michael Jipping, Hope College Facilitator: Nicholas OOI, Lingnan University Every project specified to attain UN Sustainable Development Goals will likely need some form of software support, whether that be in data gathering or databases or mobile app development.  This project will establish guidelines and recommendations pertaining to ways computer science and software engineering students and faculty organize and efficiently receive project requests and work together to produce viable software products.
14:30 - 14:45	Tea Break
14:45 - 16:15 Parallel Session	How GLAA and other Liberal Arts universities can contribute to SDGs as a group? Facilitators: Albert Ko, Lingnan University Simon Gray, Global Liberal Arts Alliance To build on the momentum, what actions we will take as a group after this conference is crucial. This thematic discussion will be held in two separate groups facilitated by Albert and Simon. The two groups will later come together for a Report-back Session for future actions.
16:15 - 16:20	Break
16:20 - 17:00 Plenary Session	Report-back Session Facilitator: Albert Ko, Lingnan University Curating action items as a group to take the conversation forward