This March, two separate group of students from Office of the Faculty Program Colombia Climate School traveled to Rwanda and Bangladesh as part of their sustainable development coursework. Their trip focused on exploring the sub-Saharan African context, and each structurally active delta, what sustainability meant.
Sustainable development of the Rwandan Class (SDEV 4400) is offered to sustainable development students to provide practical experiences to understand history and current sustainability efforts in sub-Saharan Africa. In collaboration with the University of Rwanda (UR), students are partnering with Rwandan organizations throughout the semester. During spring break, Colombia and Uru students will meet in Rwanda to collaborate on the project and develop recommendations for local partners.
This year, two projects are Coco Networkclimate technology companies that offer improved bioethanol cookstoves that operate through fully digitalized systems, and One child’s treea research project created as a means to improve psychosocial well-being among young people in local elementary schools.
Gabriel Najum Splatt, a senior majoring in anthropology, prepared meals for the task using Charcoal Cookstove. This experience also gave him a real-world context for the issues his team was working on in his class.
“This course was a necessary change from a global climate change and sustainability to a smaller, more impactful environment. Being able to directly contribute to a practical solution to a serious sustainable development crisis has cultivated a great sense of self-efficacy for me,” he said.
The course meets the capstone requirements for sustainable development students and combines preliminary literature reviews, field research, presentations to clients on the UR campus, and Columbia’s final deliverables.
Helen Ibra, a junior majoring in sustainable development, said the course will help her organization hone her organization, public speaking, communication skills and encourage important perspectives on sustainability for a high-level final presentation.
“We feel we can further understand how climate change action and sustainability initiatives can be implemented without any significant economic trade-offs,” she said.
The class is intended to help students understand Rwanda’s unique history and current development challenges. The aim is to complicate sustainable development in the global South, engage in cultural exchanges and gain insights from the local community.
Lisa Dalecourse instructors and directors Climate and society Climate School said gathering students from Colombia and Uru is just as important to her as the projects these teams do. “Understanding cross-culturally is essential for sustainable development, and this class can contribute to practical solutions on earth while also building friendships around the world,” she said.
Ashley Young, a junior majoring in sustainable development, shared that on this course she and her peers can witness firsthand the profound impact of a seemingly “small” project. By promoting connections with Rwandan students, working with companies like GreenStarts and impacting children’s lives, she hopes that their efforts will feel locally and one day globally.
“This course brings sustainability to life through real people, real projects and real impact. It proves that no matter how small they may seem, they can really ripple out outside in an infinite way.
At the same time, 3,600 miles away, 10 Colombian students and 10 Dhaka University students learned about geoscience, environmental issues and the intersection with Bangladesh’s population as part of the SDEV 3350: Bangladesh Workshop.
This course allows students to work in groups to study the extremes of climate and migration in the Bangladesh Delta and the impact of heat stress adaptation in the country. Mike Stecklerinstructors studied for over 20 years and traveled to Bangladesh. This trip was particularly meaningful to him, marking his 25th visit with his daughter.
“It is exciting to share my knowledge with a new group of students. Bangladesh is a place where the landscape is not just in its climate, but its landscape is in flux. The land is uplifting and calming. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
Michel Werzki, a senior studying sustainable development, said the course helped us see real-life applications of concepts learned in the classroom and added a new layer of understanding of sustainable development by showing people being directly influenced. “We cannot replace the earthly experience of meeting people who are most affected by the environment in real time with people who change in real time,” she said.
The students began their journey in Dhaka and later traveled to various villages for interviews. During the forest of Sundalbans, they observed wild boars, birds and monkeys, and heard the tiger’s groans from the riverbank. “This time was definitely a highlight for me,” Wertzki said. Personal blog.
For students like Jinhao Bai, a junior in sustainable development, the class provided customized knowledge on the broad and complex subjects of sustainability.
“I usually find it difficult to grasp knowledge simply by reciting bullet points from lecture slides. This course really showed that climate change is not a paper slogan, but a phenomenon that shapes the landscape of the earth and people’s lives,” he said.
After a fierce and challenging spring break in Rwanda and Bangladesh, students from both courses return to Colombia for immediate final presentations and deepen their understanding of sustainable development.
“It cannot be compared to the depth of understanding that comes from substantive and living experiences,” Young said.
