Building Good Neighbors: Experiential Learning Locally and Abroad
How can I have good intentions but bad manners? What do I take for granted as universal, but is actually cultural? How do I ask the right questions or give the right answers so that my Mexican friends and colleagues and I can work well together? How can I learn to "unpack" a misunderstanding and create strategies to recover from it and do better next time? This presentation will explore how experiential and community engaged learning, coupled with guided reflection, can have incredible power in advancing cultural empathy and cultural competency to make our students better scholars, collaborators, business people, and most importantly, better neighbors to our Mexican friends, neighbors and coworkers - under the Dome and around the world.
Special guest Alec Helmke, ND 2019, will talk about how experiential and community-based learning at Notre Dame, together with his study abroad in Puebla, have impacted his work as a medical student at the University of Minnesota and shaped the initiatives he has developed there.
Elena Mangione-Lora is a Teaching Professor of Spanish language and culture in Notre Dame’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, where she has taught for 23 years. She focuses on making classes a meaningful experience for students. She incorporates community-engaged learning, skills necessary for translation and interpretation, constant evaluation, and feedback for improvement - all to consolidate the grammar, vocabulary and concepts students have learned in previous courses, and to prepare them for the opportunities that await them outside the classroom: immersion experiences, service and community engaged learning, and continued study in upper-level literature and culture courses. In addition, Mangione-Lora researches and presents on alternative assessment techniques. Her interests include the intersection between technology and language pedagogy and the art of translation, as well as community engagement and the incorporation of social justice issues into language and culture studies.
Alec Helmke is a 2019 graduate of Notre Dame. While on campus, he was involved in a variety of research projects while studying for a degree in history and pre-health studies, yet his greatest passion was community service. In particular, Alec's experiences integrating in Latino communities abroad and around South Bend shaped his Notre Dame experience and inspired him to continue working towards a career in healthcare. Now, Alec is studying pharmacy at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the lessons gained from experiential learning at Notre Dame continue to motivate him towards his goal of making safe, high-quality medications accessible to marginalized communities.
PLEASE NOTE: Indicated event times are Eastern Daylight Time (11:00am - 12:30pm CDT).
The Mexico Virtual Lecture Series is a recurring online event intended to highlight the deep connections between Notre Dame and Mexico. Each lecture focuses on the current work of a Notre Dame faculty member or researcher, covering topics that vary widely from medical research to the social sciences and arts and culture.
The series is intended for a general audience and can be viewed via Zoom. Pre-registration for the session is requested and the Zoom link will be made available once registration is received.
Originally published at mexicocity.nd.edu.