Category Archives: ICL training opportunities

Summer Academy on Sustainability from an Intercultural Perspective

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Are you interested in learning more about the intercultural challenges that affect sustainability and connecting with like-minded people?

If you answered yes, then this training is for you: Summer Academy on Sustainability from an Intercultural Perspective in Istanbul, Turkey, from 22 July – 2 August, 2013.

Different ideas about energy politics and the sustainable use of resources can easily lead to misunderstandings and conflicts. But the fact that cultural reasons may be behind these conflicts is not often taken in consideration. This Summer Academy, cooperatively organized by InterCultur (subsidiary of AFS Germany), Karlshochschule International University, AFS Turkey and Istanbul Kültür University, approaches these topics from an intercultural perspective.

The two week Summer Academy offers courses aimed at developing solutions for intercultural challenges in international energy politics and environmental ethics, among other ecological issues. A particularly interesting aspect of the Academy is the innovative combination of university lectures and practical workshops, as well as the cultural diversity of the group (participants from 15 different countries are expected). Participants will have the opportunity to gain immediate intercultural experiences and to network with people from all over the world. This is one of the things that make this and other Summer Academies such a memorable experience!

The Summer Academy is held in English and is open to anyone aged 18–35 with a demonstrable interest in the fields of sustainability and intercultural encounters, especially undergraduate students and young professionals. Participants can earn academic credits according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). We pleased that we will be able to award several full and partial scholarships to qualified applicants for the Academy (scholarship application deadline is on May 12, 2013).

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Barbara.Langholf@intercultur.de.

AFS is dedicated to providing intercultural learning opportunities to a wide range of audiences. This Summer Academy is just one way that AFS is extending its offerings into the community and academy fields. Contact your local AFS organization today to see what is happening near you!

Distance and e-learning opportunities

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The next months offer interesting e-learning opportunities, including the new Distance Sessions that will be offered to participants of the AFS Intercultural Link Learning Program. These Distance Sessions represent an opportunity for AFSers already enrolled in a level of the program to continue developing and improving our intercultural learning from their home countries. But if you are not a participant, there are also other ways in which you can experience e-learning!

A specific e-learning opportunity for interculturalists is this webinar offered by Young SIETAR on social media: Interculturalist: From Social Media Users to Marketers. This webinar will be a synchronous session offered on 22 April, from 7 to 8 pm BST. There are also other interesting e-learning opportunities available on Coursera. We have picked some sessions in the area of education that might be appealing to you, but we recommend that you explore the site to see what matches your preferences:

Coursera is one of several educational endeavors to make higher education accessible through the web. Higher education institutions are also trying to make their courses more accessible through initiative like edX or Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s MIT OpenCourseWare. The purpose of these educational sites is to make more university-level content accessible and free of charge for people around the world.

We encourage you to sign up for at least one of these events and tell us what you think about the potential of e-learning in your educational experience and in learning from any corner of the world.

Intercultural Link News Magazine v4 i1 – Global Edition

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The newest edition of the Intercultural Link News Magazine has just been launched. Read it on-line or download it here. Enjoy!

AFS Intercultural Programs is pleased to announce the January/February/March/April 2013 issue of AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter volume 4, issue 1 – Global Edition, which can be shared with everyone interested in learning more about intercultural education.

The AFS Intercultural Link News Magazine is the quarterly magazine on intercultural learning in the AFS Network. The magazine features content shared by the Intercultural Learning Work Group as well as other AFS Partners and guest writers, including information on trends in intercultural education, interviews with experts in the field and overviews of upcoming and previous conferences.

AFS Intercultural Link Learning Program Upcoming Events

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In the first quarter of 2013 AFS has seen a number of Intercultural Link Learning Program events already as delivery of What Every AFSer Should Know About Intercultural Learning® picks up. The remainder of the year will continue to be full of intercultural learning and education opportunities in many AFS organizations and in all regions!

Especially noteworthy are the National Qualified Trainers Workshops for five AFS organizations in the Southern Cone, Malaysia and Denmark, as well as the 3rd Annual Regional Events in the Asia-Pacific and Caribbean regions.

The Learning Program will also collaborate with like-minded organizations in intercultural training around the globe at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication in Portland, Oregon, USA and the Summer Academy on Intercultural Experience in Karlsruhe, Germany.

For the latest updates on Learning Program events, check our website regularly or get in touch with us at LearningProgram@afs.org.

 

Education & Intercultural Learning Communications Fellowship – Apply Now!

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AFS Intercultural Programs (www.afs.org) seeks an individual with excellent public relations and marketing communications skills – strategic, creative and production – and a strong interest in working across cultures for a fellowship within our Education and Intercultural Learning (ICL) Department.

AFS ICL Library

Tasks related to this fellowship include:

  • Supporting the Education team’s communications and media strategy: internal stakeholder communications as well as working on an external media plan that includes social/digital media (www.afs.org/blog/icl, our digital library, Facebook), conferences, etc.
  • Managing the AFS Intercultural Link News Magazine: coordinating article submissions with authors from around the world, writing (as appropriate), editing and proof reading articles, contributing to design and layout, finalizing production and distributing to our global readership.
  • Plus additional responsibilities related to education and intercultural learning in AFS as a part of a team comprised of fun and passionate people who work to help people improve interactions across cultures.

Skills: For this fellowship, candidates should:

  • Have strong communications skills from strategy development to content creation (especially writing) to production (digital and otherwise);
  • Have excellent planning and organizational skills with high attention to detail;
  • Be highly creative, solutions-oriented, and pro-active;
  • Have basic or better design sensibilities & layout skills;
  • Be technology-savvy and able to work in various online and digital environments;
  • Be interested in intercultural communications, global skills development and/or international relations and education;
  • Be able to work both independently and as a part of a collaborative team;
  • Have excellent spoken *and* written English skills (fluency two or more languages preferred);
  • Familiarity with AFS or intercultural exchange programs a plus, but not required.

The fellowship is full-time for a commitment of 9 to 12 months. It is based at AFS Intercultural Programs’ offices in NYC, covers some expenses and provides a stipend.

Intercultural Link Newsletter Magazine

If you meet these requirements and are interested in applying for the fellowship, please e-mail AFS International at icl@afs.org. Provide a brief description of yourself, examples of how you meet the listed requirements for this fellowship, your motivations for applying for this fellowship, and what you could bring to this fellowship. In addition, please attach a current resume and two writing samples in the form of a newsletter article and/or blog entry.

We regret we cannot reply to all inquiries.

AFS is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world.

AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter – volume 3, issue 4

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The newest edition of the Intercultural Link Newsletter has just been launched. Feel free to leave a comment after you read it. Enjoy!

AFS Intercultural Programs is pleased to announce the October/ November/ December 2012 issue of AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter volume 3, issue 4 – Global Edition, which can be shared with everyone interested in learning more about intercultural education.

The AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter is the quarterly newsletter on intercultural learning in the AFS Network. The newsletter features content shared by the Intercultural Learning Work Group as well as other AFS Partners and guest writers, including information on trends in intercultural education, interviews with experts in the field and overviews of upcoming and previous conferences.

Winter Academy on Intercultural Competence – Register Now!

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The end of 2012 doesn’t mean the end of intercultural learning opportunities! Students in many places around the world may have a break from classes, but experiential learning outside the classroom is at the heart of the AFS experience! To this end, the first Winter Academy on Intercultural Competence organized by InterCultur gGmbH (the non-profit subsidiary of AFS Germany which was founded in the beginning of this year) and Jacobs University will take place in January 2013, and hopes to encourage and develop intercultural competence, knowledge and skills! The Winter Academy will take place 14-25 January on the campus of Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany.

The Winter Academy on Intercultural Competence will not only present theoretical frameworks regarding intercultural learning, but also practical competencies and knowledge, to enable participants to work as intercultural trainers themselves in the future.

All courses will include workshop sessions with both theoretical and practical content offered by academic professors and AFS trainers. This collaboration will bridge the gap between theory and practice!

The Winter Academy addresses people who are interested in teaching intercultural competence themselves. Such as:

  • Students with an intercultural area of studies or/and their own international experiences, who would like to pass their theoretical knowledge through practical trainings.
  • Trainers, who have already gathered experience and would like to start working in an intercultural context.
  • Young professionals and/or multipliers, who are committed or devoted to intercultural learning, e.g. teachers or practitioners in the field of international youth work.

Enrolled students have the opportunity to obtain 5 European Credit Points (ECTS) for participating in the first seven course days. This is a standardization of higher education within the European Union that accumulates points which lead to the completion of a degree. One year of coursework usually counts for 60 points.

As well, after participating in the entire duration of the Winter Academy (10 course days), participants will be awarded the certificate “Intercultural Trainer” issued by Jacobs University and InterCultur gGmbH.

The Winter Academy offers a great opportunity for people who are involved in (intercultural) training activities. Through the Winter Academy, AFS will not only give students the opportunity for a diverse intercultural education experience, but will also demonstrate our competence at a university level and confirm our identity as an educational organization.

The registration deadline is 15 November 2012. If you have any questions regarding the program, please contact Barbara Langholf (Barbara.Langholf@intercultur.de).

Using Artwork to Explain ICL Concepts

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“What do you see in this picture?” 

“And what do you see in this picture?”

Helga Schepers, one of the 2012 Intercultural LINK Learning Program Qualified Trainers designed a lesson on Cultural Values and Dimensions to start with these questions and these photos by urban artist Slinkachu. The topics of the lesson revolve around some of the foundational concepts of the AFS Intercultural Link Learning Program: Hall’s Values Frameworks (High/Low Context, Territory, Personal Space) and Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions (Individualism vs. Collectivism, Power Distance, etc.).

Using artwork can be an engaging way to explain some ICL concepts. In this case, a Qualified Teacher from AFS Belgium Flanders used the pictures of Slinkachu’s Little People art project to get participants thinking about the idea of culture as something that may be perceived by the individual eye, but that is constructed in a collective way.

“Culture is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another. Culture in this sense is a system of collectively held values.” — Geert Hofstede.

 Do you know other artwork that could be useful to explain ICL concepts and could be as engaging as Slinkachu’s photos? How can we use visuals and art to convey these ideas? Please share your ideas and resources!

 

Are you a globally focused youth?

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Do you consider yourself a global citizen? Would you like to become more involved in global issues? The organization New Global Citizen (GNC) provides globally conscious youth with opportunities to make their reach go farther and their impact stronger in relation to some of the world’s greatest challenges. It’s an organization for youth– and by youth!

One youth team focused on the right to education for all children around the world.

GNC offers a wide range of global projects, such as providing sanitation and clean water, shelter, education and doing many more important works to improve vulnerable populations around the world. Their main focus is sustainable development that is not the “cookie-cutter” approach. Instead, they hope to find solutions while keeping the population and culture in mind.

For those of you in education, they also have initiatives for you to use in your classroom, including team building exercises and curriculum to develop intercultural competency.

If you are a youth interested in global causes, this is an organization you might want to explore! Learn more on their website: http://www.newglobalcitizens.org/ or their blog:  http://newglobalcitizens.wordpress.com/

 

Intercultural Dialogue Day 2012

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27 September 2012 was the 5th annual Intercultural Dialogue Day (IDD), a day of intercultural awareness and diversity promotion organized by the European Federation of Intercultural Learning (EFIL). Across Europe, AFS organizations and intercultural enthusiasts celebrated with events centered around creating a dialogue on the value of intercultural learning.

Examples include AFS Boznia and Herezgovina who offered a screening of the movie “East is East” in Banja Luca. AFS Latvia partnered with the Central Baltic INTERREG project “Youth Space”, holding a seminar in Riga about Intercultural learning, including team-building activities, discussions, and experience sharing from exchange students. These are among the many activities centered around IDD. You can also check out the map of Intercultural Dialogue Day events around Europe, or look forward to photos and comments posted on Intercultural Dialogue Day’s Facebook page.

EFIL also just opened the IDD Best Video and Best Photo contest that will extend until 14 October 2012. AFS volunteers are invited to post photos and videos of their IDD events on the Wall of the Face Book page, together with the description of the IDD event itself. It is very important that each video and picture submitted for the contest is accompanied by a description of the IDD event. For each of the two categories, the submission that receives the most votes – “Likes” – will win a free registration for one volunteer team member at the EFIL Volunteer Summer Summit 2013. Inspired by the top three finalists in each category (photo and video), EFIL will develop ‘IDD toolkits’ that will be replicable by volunteers across Europe in the next edition of the IDD. Be sure to enter with what you were doing on Intercultural Dialogue Day!