The 4th International Service-Learning Summit, hosted by Kansas State University from October 23 – 25, can not get here soon enough. Two of our plenary speakers, Noelle Sullivan and Florence Martin, are at the leading edge of issues that global engagement practitioners and community partners must address together, now.

Over the past several years, media outlets have been reporting with increasing urgency about perverse incentives and unintended outcomes related to international volunteering. These phenomena influence the study abroad sector.

ABC News recently profiled a specific case of orphanage volunteering fraud and abuse in Nepal:

The research and practice of the Better Volunteering, Better Care Network (BVBCN), chaired by plenary speaker Florence Martin, makes clear that this is not, unfortunately, an isolated issue. BVBCN and globalsl cooperated on a video that summarizes the issue in full:

In the area of global health practice, on August 1, Al Jazeera Stream dedicated a 30-minute show to dialogue with host country medical professionals, former volunteers, medical students, medical doctors, and researchers. Among the featured researchers are plenary speaker Dr. Noelle Sullivan and presenter Dr. Jessica Evert:

Most recently, on August 13, Frank Bruni of the New York Times released, To Get to Harvard, Go to Haiti? Bruni’s column pointed out the absurdities of superficial, resume-padding, short-term service immersions. The complete Summit schedule is chocked full of program models, curricular approaches, and partnership processes that advance prolonged, thoughtful, and consequential engagement with challenging global issues. The ISL Summit community has always gone to the toughest questions and worked to be on the leading edge of thoughtful, evidence-based responses to our shared challenges.

If you’re reading this post, you have a role in addressing these issues.

We look forward to seeing you at an engaging Summit, moving forward best practices and understanding at the intersection of global learning and cooperative development.

And…

Manhattan, Kansas, is beautiful in the fall.

View the program, register now and book your hotel.

The 4th ISL Summit is hosted by the Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University. Summit co-sponsors are Cornell University, Duke University, Northwestern University, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Notre Dame.