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Our objective is to develop, implement, and evaluate a model collaborative international internship program in nutrition, food safety and agriculture that is sustainable, replicable, transformative for students, and mutually rewarding to Cornell and its partner institutions. <P> In the 3-year project period we will: <OL> <LI> Provide experiential learning internships in Tanzania for 25 Cornell students; <LI> Provide reading and writing assignments and collaborative problem-based learning experiences in nutrition, food safety and agriculture for these 25 Cornell students + 25 Tanzanian students; <LI>Foster collaborative relationships between Cornell faculty and Tanzanian faculty at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College and Sokoine University of Agriculture; <LI> Evaluate outcomes of student learning and faculty collaboration, and use the findings to improve the model; <LI> Create a sustainable financial plan for the program; <LI> Disseminate the model so that its successful elements can be replicated. </OL> The internship program will comprise a sequence of three related parts: 1) a non-credit spring seminar, 2) an 8-credit, 8-week summer internship, and 3) an optional fall semester policy project. Parts 1 and 3 will be designed for Cornell students only, and will take place in Ithaca. Part 2, in Tanzania at one of the two partner institutions, will include equal numbers of Tanzanian and Cornell students. The proposed program will strengthen the global competence of students and faculty in agriculture, food safety and nutrition. By increasing the global competence and policy thinking skills of Cornell graduates we will also enhance business performance in international agriculture and related sectors.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Our objective is to develop, implement and evaluate a model collaborative international internship program in nutrition, food safety and agriculture that is sustainable, replicable, transformative for students, and mutually rewarding to Cornell and its partner institutions. Two Tanzanian academic units are the proposed collaborators: The Department of Community Health, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College (KCMC) of Tumaini University, and Faculty of Agriculture, Sokoine University of Agriculture. Cornell faculty members have established linkages with faculty in these academic units, and Dr. Stoltzfus will reside in Tanzania (affiliated with KCMCs Department of Community Health) during the first 6 months of the proposed grant period. The collaborators complement Cornell's interdisciplinary strengths in nutrition, food and agriculture, and are well suited to the interests of our students which span public health, nutrition, food science and agriculture. Tanzania is a stable democracy and English is one of the official languages, allowing Cornell students to get started quickly in a professional setting while offering them immersion in Swahili, a major African language. In the 3-year project period we will: 1) Provide experiential learning internships in Tanzania for 25 Cornell students; 2) Provide reading and writing assignments and collaborative problem-based learning experiences in nutrition, food safety and agriculture for these 25 Cornell students + 25 Tanzanian students; 3) Foster collaborative relationships between Cornell faculty and Tanzanian faculty at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College and Sokoine University of Agriculture; 4) Evaluate outcomes of student learning and faculty collaboration, and use the findings to improve the model; 5) Create a sustainable financial plan for the program; 6) Disseminate the model so that its successful elements can be replicated. The internship program will comprise a sequence of three related parts: 1) a non-credit spring seminar, 2) an 8-credit, 8-week summer internship, and 3) an optional fall semester policy project. Parts 1 and 3 will be designed for Cornell students only, and will take place in Ithaca. Part 2, in Tanzania at one of the two partner institutions, will include equal numbers of Tanzanian and Cornell students. Our approach is to create an internship program that will provide a transformative educational experience for our students in international nutrition and agriculture. By transformative learning we mean education that enables students to think as autonomous agents in a collaborative context rather than to rely on uncritically assimilated explanation by an authority figure. These methods include cross-cultural immersion, experiential learning with reflective writing, reading with an interactive reading log, problem-based learning, and working in teams. The proposed program will strengthen the global competence of students and faculty in agriculture, food safety and nutrition. By increasing the global competence and policy thinking skills of Cornell graduates we will enhance business performance in international agriculture and related sectors.<P>APPROACH: Two Tanzanian academic units are the proposed collaborators: The Department of Community Health, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College (KCMC) and Tumaini University in Moshi, and Faculty of Agriculture, Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro. Cornell faculty members have established linkages with faculty in these academic units, and Dr. Stoltzfus will reside in Tanzania (affiliated with KCMCs Department of Community Health) during the first 6 months of the proposed grant period. The two collaborating units complement Cornell's interdisciplinary strengths in nutrition, food and agriculture, and are well suited to the interests of our students which span public health, nutrition, food science and agriculture. Tanzania is a stable democracy and English is one of the official languages, allowing Cornell students to get started quickly in a professional setting while offering them immersion in Swahili, a major African language. The internship program will comprise a sequence of three related parts: 1) a non-credit spring seminar, 2) an 8-credit, 8-week summer internship, and 3) an optional fall semester policy project after returning to Cornell. Parts 1 and 3 will be designed for Cornell students only, and take place in Ithaca. Part 2, in Tanzania at one of the two partner institutions, will include equal numbers of Tanzanian and Cornell students. Our approach is to create an internship program that will provide a transformative educational experience for our students in international nutrition and agriculture. By transformative learning we mean education that enables students to think as autonomous agents in a collaborative context rather than to rely on uncritically assimilated explanation by an authority figure. These methods include cross-cultural immersion, experiential learning with reflective writing, reading with an interactive reading log, problem-based learning, and working in teams.