China Working Group - Summer 2007

The China Working Group is an informal association of Middlebury students with an interest in promoting sustainable development projects in China. They work with ECOLOGIA President and Middlebury College Research Scholar Randy Kritkausky, to assist in the implementation of ECOLOGIA programs in China, and with student and faculty service learning initiatives with a China focus. The China Working Group provides language translation support, cultural background, and partnering opportunities as well as direct project implementation assistance on-the-ground through internships and volunteer experiences.

The China Working Group is designed to take service learning to a new level by creating a seamless divide between classroom learning and community involvement on a global scale. It is also designed to provide students with an opportunity to be involved in an inter-related set of projects over the entire duration of their undergraduate education. This will allow them to see the long-term impacts of their community service and provide them with a well of real-world experiences that they may draw upon for research papers and classroom enrichment.

The China Working Group emerged from student interest in more, and more continual, international engagement. This interest manifested itself in two Winter-Term workshops (2006 and 2007) on promoting student involvement internationally and a course on “Models of Global Change” initiated by Randy Kritkausky and ACE (Middlebury College Alliance for Civic Engagement) in Winter Term 2007. ACE mini-grants provided support for China Working Group 2007 summer internships in China.

Summer 2007: Six undergraduate students, seeking international involvement and on-the-ground opportunities, and fluent in Chinese, contributed to ECOLOGIA's programs in China. They located and and documented socially responsible local business activities, and surveyed village families as part of a micro-finance project.