Cambodia: From Phnom Penh to Siem Reap: A remarkable adventure in Southeast Asia - A short-term faculty-led service-learning program designed for Northfield Mount Hermon School

The CLC program design, Cambodia: From Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, A remarkable adventure in Southeast Asia: A short-term faculty-led service-learning program, is a two-week study abroad program that is being developed for Northfield Mount Hermon School (NMH). NMH is an independent co-educational college preparatory school in Northfield, Massachusetts. The current student population for the 2009-2010 school year is 650. Roughly 25% of the total student population is international students who come from thirty-one countries (NMH, 2009). The Cambodia study abroad program is aimed to enrich NMH students’ lives through cultural learning, service-learning, and intercultural communication (ICC). NMH will partner with Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself (PEPY), a Non-Government Organization (NGO) based in Siem Reap, Cambodia. PEPY started in 2005 as an educational organization that operated bike tours throughout Cambodia. Soon after its founding, PEPY evolved from a bike tours operation into providing educational, service-learning opportunities for high school students. PEPY (2009), states: Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself, is a belief rooted in the environmental education lessons of the first “PEPY Ride” trip. If you “Protect the Earth,” in effect, you also “Protect Yourself.” Our programs have expanded beyond environmental education with a focus now on Khmer literacy and broader improvements in the quality of education offered in government schools in rural Cambodia. Our basic ethos, however, is still the same: by making small changes in our lives and continually striving to educate ourselves about the problems around us, we can all take leadership roles in improving our own lives and then the world. The Cambodia program will target NMH students from freshman to seniors. The selected students will spend two-weeks studying basic Khmer, Cambodian history, and visiting historical and cultural sites. There will be a five-day Mekong River homestay where students will reside in a local island community and participate in community based service projects. Some of these service-learning projects might include: building biodigesters, enhancing fish ponds, rainwater collection, gardening, and road building. They will have an opportunity to visit a local music program, view fresh-water dolphins indigenous to the Mekong River, and tour Angkor Wat and other temples in Siem Reap. Students will also explore the Killing Fields to learn about the genocide imposed by the Khmer Rouge. The curriculum for NMH’s Cambodia program will include ideas from several ICC theorists including John Condon and Geertz Hofestede. Learning will be facilitated through the use David Kolb’s experiential learning model. Students will process and reflect on their experiences through journaling, discussion groups, and self-exploration. NMH faculty leaders and PEPY staff will deliver the program while in Cambodia