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  • "GESI is about engaging a world that is bigger, more exciting, and more complex than most people imagine. This abroad experience has allowed me to learn more about myself as a student, a partner in the work world, and as a member of humanity, and I'm looking forward to my continued growth in all these capacities."

    - Tarik Patterson

  • "GESI is not a program that teaches you how to help others. It is one that enables you to turn "others" into "us". It is real living with real people, and immerses you into a culture that is as sophisticated and complex as your own."

    - Michelle Kim

  • "GESI exposed me to the difficult but rewarding realities of community development: True impact comes from work at the grittiest level. If you're considering a career in a non-profit, NGO, social work, or anything that supports your community, an experience like this is vital."

    - Kirk Vaclavik

  • "There are two ways of learning: by keeping your nose to a book or by opening your eyes to the world. GESI provides the rare learning opportunity as it combines both forms. I know I have walked away invariably changed for the better."

    - Kalindi Shah

  • "Our project involved community members in every conceivable way. My relationships built with community members were my most proud and lasting accomplishments."

    –Sebastian Buffa

  • "I was looking for an opportunity to create lasting change--both in a community and in myself. GESI sets its participants up with the necessary tools and skills, and then gives them complete freedom to learn, fail, rework, and eventually succeed."

    - Rena Oppenheimer

  • "The program has given me a glimpse into what it is like to work internationally at the grassroots level. Having the hands on experience that the program has given me, I feel like I am one step ahead for other jobs in the development sector."

    - Ashley Fu

  • "The experience has given me a new perspective on everything from washing the dishes to how to address world hunger... I will be returning to the lessons I learned on this trip decades from now."

    - Alexis Suskin-Sperry

  • "The most unique aspect of this program is the opportunity to act on a theory that we had learned. GESI is a unique opportunity to experience how development theories, methodologies and practices actually play out in a community."

    - Lakshmi Ramachandran

  • "I will always treasure my home-stay experience. I became very close with my siblings and loved having a large family. I learned that wherever you are, a family is a family and life is lived day to day."

    - Ellen Abrams

  • "My home-stay was one of the best aspects of my summer. My sisters taught me so much about Ugandan culture as well as life in general. We have grown up on different sides of the world but we may as well as lived next door."

    - Chelsea Christman

  • "Professor Arntson's team building exercises and classes about group dynamics were invaluable. They gave our team the vocabulary and tools to mediate conflicts and make decisions while abroad and helped us understand each other's motivations."

    - Catherine Wu

  • "Our NGO let us work independently, but took co-ownership of our project, which was comforting as we were creating a proposal for them and we required input and feedback to know that our work had a purpose."

    - Elizabeth Montgomery

  • "Being at our NGO was the single best part of the trip. I loved the community, and I loved the people there. It is an amazing NGO that does amazing things. The challenges we faced taught us to overcome obstacles."

    - Alex Grubman

  • "The FSD site team was incredible. I've never worked with such capable, caring, fun people. They made me feel so at home and safe and also really supported us with our NGO."

    - Asha Toulmin

  • "I am very impressed by the commitment and intelligence of the fellow students in GESI. I definitely learned much from them."

    - XinKai Cheng

  • "The diversity of our group made us effective -- while others preferred to work on logistical, behind-the-scenes stuff; some were outspoken, others were more contemplative; some were better planners, some were better at actuating ideas on paper."

    - Abby Hannifan

  • "This program gave new meaning to hands on learning. The background at the institute on development was great, and a week later you were on site attempting to implement what you had learned, and in the process learning far more than you could imagine."

    - Rachel Suffrin

  • "The most unique thing was the amount of exposure we got to the community. I felt like I was a part of it and not just observing it."

    - Bryan Stenson

  • "This experience was absolutely applicable to my personal, professional, academic goals, especially when it comes to approaching development with a realistic perception of how it works on the ground."

    - Elizabeth Montgomery

  • "GESI has helped me mature as a team member and a prospective development worker."

    - C.A.

Academics

GESI ties together experiential, curricular, and co-curricular learning to help students develop the analytical and interpersonal tools to participate in, critique, and understand the challenges of community development at the international level.

Before Leaving the States: Pre-Departure Learning Summit

The GESI program begins with participants meeting in Chicago to take two Northwestern courses focused on building students’ understanding of their role in international community development. This Pre-Departure Learning Summit is academically rigorous with class starting at 9:00am and ending at 9:00pm. In addition to the two Northwestern courses, students will attend country-specific sessions, learn about development topics from practitioners, and attend language classes to prepare them for immersion. Each group of three to five GESI students will be assigned to a program alumn from our team of student instructors, who will provide academic and personal support, assist in teaching activities, and prepare feedback on GESI students’ weekly reports throughout the summer. See the 2011 Pre-Departure Learning Summit Packet (below) for a glimpse at the typical schedule, range of speakers, and topics addressed.

2011 Pre-Departure Learning Summit Packet

International Studies 390:
International Community Development

Professor Brian Hanson and Professor Jody Kretzmann
This course will introduce a range of community development approaches currently being applied in the “Global South,” and will explore their social, political and economic contexts and impacts. Students will understand the relationships among “strength-based” strategies such as “asset-based community-development”, appreciative inquiry, participatory rural appraisal, resiliency organizing, and sustainable livelihoods approaches; students will then contrast these strategies with more traditional large scale development investments. Additionally, this course will explore the specific development context of the countries in which students will be working and the development issues they will be working on. Students will apply their understanding of community development strategies to their preparation for the in-country experiences.
Syllabus International Development~ Community-Based Approaches 2011 FINAL

Communications 395:
Doing Development: Theory and Practice of Global Community Consulting

Professor Paul Arntson
This course helps GESI participants support and bolster local community development efforts by focusing on, identifying, and harnessing existing community assets. The practical lessons in this course include asset mapping and frameworks for maximizing intra- and inter-team relationships. The objectives of this course are (1) to help prepare students to develop and complete community engagement projects with their host organizations or host communities, (2) to support them while they are working on their projects abroad, and (3) to help them reflect collaboratively on their learning experiences when they return from abroad. By preparing for, implementing, and evaluating community development projects, students will become more competent collaborative change-agents in their communities and institutions.
Syllabus for Theory and Practice of Community Consulting

Local Culture, History, Politics, Language & More

Throughout the Pre-Departure Learning Summit and international immersion experience, students will be treated to guest lectures and discussions with people who know the places they’re learning about best: local faculty, citizens, development professionals, and their host families.

Students will also receive six hours of language training and ample interaction with program alums who act as student instructors and mentors during the training and throughout the summer immersion.

Once Abroad: Experiential Learning

Experiential learning in international development is the core of the GESI program and the two-month field experience during which student teams work with host communities to develop small scale projects. This experience will provide students hands-on learning that no amount of classroom discussion could replace. In the spirit of reciprocal learning, students will also participate in a university exchange, a structured interaction and discussion between local university students and GESI participants.  

Once abroad students will be expected to submit the following documents to their Northwestern faculty:

  • Weekly 1 page group report (due Friday of each week)
  • Project Proposal (due no later than end of 3rd week)
  • Project Budget (due with project proposal)
  • Project Workplan (due with project proposal)
  • Final Report (completed and submitted during the Final Learning Summit)

    • For an example of a past student project, read the case study below written by members of a GESI team interning at St. Francis Health Care Services in Jinja, Uganda.
    Sample Case Study-Uganda 2009 St. Francis

    Upon Return: Final Reflection Summit

    We believe reflection is an integral–and often missing–component of study abroad programs. The GESI Final Reflection Summit, which takes place back in Chicago, is designed to help students contextualize their international community development experiences within the larger issues of international development theory and practice as well as to process, reflect, compare, and contrast their summer immersion with those of other students. Through guest speakers, students are also introduced to alternative paths to stay engaged with the issues they care about most. During the Final Reflection Summit, students will submit and present a group project poster.

    See the 2011 Final Reflection Summit Packet (below) for a sense of this component of the GESI program.
    Final Summit 2011

    ULP Option for Northwestern GESI Students

    Students who complete the GESI program can build on their learning by applying it towards the requirements of the Undergraduate Leadership Certificate. The Undergraduate Leadership Certificate is an academic certificate offered by the Undergraduate Leadership Program (ULP) and will appear on your transcript. The certificate path has 3 steps:

    Step 1: Complete LDRSHP 204 – Paradigms & Strategies of Leadership.
    Step 2: Complete a Two Credit Field Study
    Step 3: Complete a 1 Credit Elective Course

    GESI students are credited with fulfilling the field study requirement and only need to complete LDRSHP 204 and the elective course to receive the ULP certificate. Check the Center for Leadership web site at http://lead.northwestern.edu/pages/programs/certificate.html for details about these courses.