Welcome to Widening Circles

 CHID Study Abroad | Early Fall 2021
 

 

Rilke Quote about Widening Circles

 

Are you ready to reach out beyond your everyday circles?

Are you looking for new modes of connection, inspiration, and outward movement? 

We know it's hard to make plans right now, and the upcoming Fall Quarter might still feel far away and uncertain. Yet CHID Study Abroad remains committed to supporting UW students with immersive global learning and internship experiences — both remotely and in-person as conditions allow. 

Widening Circles is a five-credit CHID 'Study Away' program (CHID 399) that responds to this unique moment by offering a digital ecosystem of relationships, social impact internship opportunities, curated curriculum, and multimedia storytelling. 

This program is open to all UW students.  It can support your existing commitments and / or point you towards new opportunities.  The program is structured enough to give you a sense of direction, yet expansive and adaptable. 

Read more on the CHID website, or scroll down for more details!

 

 

What Is This?

Omprakash is a Seattle-based global non-profit that has partnered with UW and CHID to help students connect with social impact organizations around the world and engage in critical dialogue and reflection about the complexities of striving for justice while crossing differences of culture and power.

During Early Fall 2021, we are offering Widening Circles as a unique web-based 'Study Away' program to support UW students who seek global pathways for learning, sharing, connecting, creating, and engaging across differences and distances — even without leaving home. 

Widening Circles combines the following elements:

  • Self-directed community-based exploration of a pressing social issue within your home context

  • Online internships with Omprakash Partners — grassroots social impact organizations in over 45 countries around the world, working in fields including education, health, human rights, migration, sustainability, and social enterprise

  • Peer-to-peer learning and personalized mentorship within our Omprakash EdGE online learning ecosystem

  • Curriculum 'concentrations' in thematic areas including Education & Social Change, Global Health, Environmental Justice, Disabilities in Global Context, Human Rights, Migration & Borders, and Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation

  • Periodic webinars and group calls to support community-building and critical reflection

  • Digital storytelling to document your ongoing engagement; eventual creation of a digital portfolio to share with loved ones as well as future employers or admissions officers

  • Ongoing dialogue and contemplation about your own location within global flows of power and resources — and the implications of this positionality within the context of COVID-19 and your current life trajectory  

 

 

 

How Does It Work?

 

 

Widening Circles is open for enrollment up until the start of Early Fall (August 23rd). We encourage students to register ahead of time to make the most of the opportunity.  

After you join, we will match you with a mentor and enroll you in the orientation classroom, where you will define your own intended timeline and goals for the program. If you join before the official beginning of Early Fall, you can get a head-start on the internship component of the program — but no stress if you can't get started until the official start date.

During the core program period, all participants will:

  • pursue and complete a social impact internship (online or in-person) with an Omprakash Partner organization* 

  • participate in an interactive multimedia online classroom (see syllabus overview below)

  • conduct an independent exploration of a local issue in their home context

  • engage in ongoing reflection, dialogue, and storytelling that culminates with the publication of a digital portfolio

*Students are welcome to join the program early if they wish to commence the internship process before the official beginning of Early Fall.

Students will earn 5 credits from CHID (CHID 399) for successfully participating in the program.

The total cost of the program is $1,160, and the program is eligible for UW financial aid as well as UW Study Abroad Scholarships (deadline is May 15).  

 

 

What is this course about?

 

The online coursework is comprised of ten 'units,' each of which is oriented around an essential question.  The essential questions are as follows:

In Units 1-2, we work to orient ourselves within the present moment and establish a shared framework for reflection, dialogue, and action.

  • Unit 1: How can we use this pandemic as an opportunity for personal growth and social transformation?

  • Unit 2: What are the risks of trying to 'help others' when crossing significant differences of culture and power — and how might 'raising consciousness' be a more radical force for social change?

In Units 3-5, we use the theme of inequality as a lens through which to understand the different contexts and relationships in which we are immersed — both at home and away.

  • Unit 3: How are you situated in relation to global structures of power and inequality, and how does COVID-19 illuminate and exacerbate these axes of difference?

  • Unit 4: How does the natural environment reflect and reproduce structural violence in human society — and, as humans, what might it mean to strive for environmental justice?

  • Unit 5: What prevailing ideologies and policies have created our current moment of extreme social and economic inequality — and what might it mean to imagine alternatives?

In Units 6-10, we shift towards the work of storytelling and raising consciousness as we deepen our engagement across differences.

  • Unit 6: In what ways, and for what reasons, do so many efforts to address social inequalities actually end up reinforcing the status quo — and how might praxis offer a viable alternative?

  • Unit 7: How can storytelling be a force for healing and transformation?

  • Unit 8: What does it mean to understand another culture?

  • Unit 9: What does it mean to engage in a community — whether as an insider, or an outsider — especially during a time of isolation and distancing?

  • Unit 10: Where will you go from here? 

 

 

Why Join This Program?

 

 

Read more testimonials about EdGE...

 

 

 

How Do I Get Started?

 

Please apply via UW Study Abroad in order to initiate your enrollment in this program. 

After you are enrolled via UW, we'll provide a cohort code so you can register in the Omprakash system via the form below.