Achievement

The most effective education is learning by doing and by actively participating in shaping the educational experience. IGERT trainees actively engage in the governance of the Resilience and Adaptation Program through participation in the Steering Committee that decides policy and curricular issues for the program. They organize our annual wrap-up evaluation of the program and the fall retreat where we discuss the key opportunities for program improvement. They also select our annual outside speaker, who presents a talk on a theme that is central to our program. For example, this year’s student-selected speaker was Father Michael Oleksa, who has been a central figure assisting rural communities to adapt to economic and cultural changes. Father Oleksa spoke and led a workshop on the key role of listening in cross-cultural communication and worked with students on how to listen more effectively in a cross-cultural context.