Mark your calendars! Several excellent opportunities for community-building, professional development, and expertise-sharing in respect to global and international university-community engagement are upcoming. The second two offerings do not yet have their own webpages, but they have been confirmed. These opportunities include:

1. The IARSLCE pre-conference & conference September 29 – October 1, in New Orleans.
2. The 2014 Global Service-Learning Institute, November 5 – 7, in Skaneateles, NY.
3. The International Service-Learning Summit,  March 4 – 6, at Duke University.

IARSLCE will offer two pre-conferences that relate to GSL, as well as numerous individual sessions on the theme. The morning pre-conference on the theme is:

Global Service-Learning: Accumulated Research and Practice Insights

Presenters:Eric Hartman, Kansas State University; Richard Kiely, Cornell University; Christopher Boettcher, Castleton College

The afternoon session on September 29, meanwhile, is:

Rooting Out Invasive Issues and Planting Pedagogical Seeds in International Service-Learning: Tools for Tilling, Tending, and Transforming Cross-Cultural Learning

Presenter: Christine Cress, Portland State University

Numerous sessions during the conference will feature cross-cultural service and learning.

In November, Cornell University, New York Campus Compact, and Amizade Global Service-Learning are offering: The Annual Global Service Learning Institute. It builds upon strengths in global service-learning pedagogy and program development through the integration of best practices in community-based planning, community development, and movement-building within global service-learning. The institute encourages institutional teams, opportunities to workshop global service-learning programs, and deep collaboration with peers.

This year’s institute provides opportunities for participants to further develop global service-learning programs – whether they are novice or advanced. This year’s institute will also explore the concept of Fair Trade Learning and its associated commitments to community partners and program transparency.

At Duke in March 2015, the The International Service Learning Summit will bring together those involved in global community-based, experiential or service learning efforts to examine critical issues facing the field and create an agenda for developing and measuring our success as international educators. This year, our focus will be community partnership.

Host: DukeEngage, Duke University, Durham, NC

Co-Hosts: Center for Social Development and Gephardt Institute for Public Service, Washington University in St. Louis; Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University; in collaboration with the Building Bridges Coalition (BBC)