Ford School IEDP 2016, Cuba

Ford School IEDP 2016, Cuba

Grant:
Instructional Development Fund (IDF)
Academic Year:
2015 - 2016 (June 1, 2015 through May 31, 2016)
Funding Requested:
$500.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
swaltz
shobita
Overview of the Project:
Funds are requested to support a one-day field trip to visit sustainable agricultural production and explore rural energy installations during this year's International Economic Development Program (IEDP), a study tour that will take place in Cuba over spring break. The Ford School's IEDP is an experiential learning program, now in its 17th year. The field trip will entail transporting 20 students and 2 professors to designated sites, with visits and host interactions arranged by CIEE, the licensed ground-travel provider with whom we are working.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:

This project was an extension of an experiential learning program focused on Cuba and intended to enable Masters in Public Policy students to travel outside the city of Havana during their one-week study tour. It was expected that the rural excursion would be particularly valuable to the student group looking into sustainable energy supply, as rural infrastructure has already been identified as one of Cuba’s main environmental challenges. Other student groups (working on issues pertaining to commerce and social welfare) were expected to gain information directly relevant to their projects, as they made direct observations about population density, economic activity, the variation in communities, and the quality of various kinds of infrastructure, including schools and medical facilities as well as roads, electricity, water, and IT, etc. But more generally, it was expected that traveling outside Havana would give everyone an opportunity to gather impressions about life in rural Cuba and compare them to what they observed in the city.

Project Achievements:

We spent a day traveling to and visiting the area around Vinales, a beautiful mountainous agricultural region outside Havana. With funds from this grant, students were able to visit a small farm and an agricultural cooperative (tobacco), and we were able to observe a number of infrastructural features along the way - including electrical infrastructure and roads. In addition, students commented on the social differences they noticed between life in Havana and the countryside. The excursion sparked a lot of comparisons and stimulated students to think critically about what they had seen. It also provided them a first-hand basis for engaging Cuban stakeholders in questions about their projects -- which related to electrical infrastructure, entrepreneurialism, education, health and foreign policy. The excursion gave every group a new angle on their inquiry. For example, conversations on the farm (about access to doctors and medicine) helped the foreign policy group engage in questions about the domestic effects of Cuba's foreign policy program focused on medical internationalism.

Continuation:
While the experiential learning program will continue next year, it will focus on Greece and will be led by a different faculty member.
Dissemination:
Students gave a public presentation of their findings on April 15.
Advice to your Colleagues:
Several students reported this excursion as one important high point of the study tour. The fact that it was an "add on" that wouldn't normally be available to a study group centered on contacts in Havana made it all the more valuable.
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