Blum / Living Peace Global Service Scholars
Compassion. Altruism. Impact.
Compassion. Altruism. Impact. “I learned a lot about what it means to be compassionate and that even small, kind actions can make a big difference.� Asal Yunusova, 2017 Global Service Scholar in Thailand
Who We Are
Compassion. Altruism. Impact. Quick Facts > Launched in 2017
> Country and cultural immersion training
> One-year program
> Four-week international summer service learning project with their peers
> Online course on the science and practice of compassion, open to all UC students > Advanced seminar on compassion, altruism and service
> Cohorts of 10 students per site participate each year > International service sites include Paraguay, Nepal, South Africa, Cambodia, Peru, Thailand, Ghana, and Washington, DC
Washington, D.C. Cambodia
Nepal Thailand
Ghana Peru Paraguay South Africa
A transformative program cultivating compassion and global citizenship. UCI’s School of Social Ecology is preparing aspiring leaders across the University of California system to solve the problems of tomorrow by offering them an experiential education through the school’s flagship Global Service Scholars program. The program is a partnership between the School of Social Ecology, the UCI Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation and the Living Peace Foundation. It is rooted in compassion, and pairs rigorous academic preparation with an international service-learning trip during which scholars learn to put that compassion to practical use. Scholars, including many minority and first generation college students, first learn about the science and practice of compassion from world-renowned experts, including how to cultivate compassion for others and how to effectively leverage that compassion to make a difference. Then, they apply those lessons during international summer service-learning trips, partnering with local organizations that work in numerous areas such as sustainability, poverty alleviation and justice.
Students emerge from the program changed, and are now ready to change the world.
Partners
In Their Words
Why I Became a Global Service Scholar
Kimberly Haagenson (Peru, 2017)
While preparing to be a Global Service Scholar in Peru, I nearly decided to stay home. I was skeptical as to whether my volunteer service would benefit the local people at all. Of course, I wanted to make a difference, but I worried that my “outsider” perspective would be more harmful than helpful. Some of the other volunteers also had these concerns. Over the course of the trip, my classmates became my coworkers and close friends, and together we asked ourselves, “Are we doing all that we can to make a difference?” A few of us were assigned to work with a community organization that hosted a soup kitchen and after-school center. There, we helped children with their homework, taught English, and facilitated group games and art activities, while sometimes assisting fellow volunteers at the boy’s orphanage nextdoor. I found my job to be fairly easy — except for the occasional issues caused by my limited Spanish proficiency — because I arrived in Peru with plenty of past experience working with children. While a child from Southern California may have very different concerns than a child from Ayacucho, there are many more similarities in behavior, interests and emotions. They both want to play, laugh and learn more about the world around them, and I felt confident that I could play, laugh and learn along with them.
We made a difference because we worked as a team: myself, the other volunteers, the directors of the center, the GoFundMe donors, and the Blum Center. While working at the afters-chool center, my classmates and I noticed that the students needed new school supplies to do their daily homework — pencils, markers, paper — and games for when they didn’t have homework. We asked the directors what they thought could best improve the center and they told us they had needs of a projector for parent presentations and student workshops. When we arrived home, we created a GoFundMe campaign and applied to the Small Change, Better World initiative, a small grant program developed by the UCI Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation. After months of communicating, planning, researching and fundraising, we finally raised enough money for the soup kitchen to buy a projector, a microwave and other necessary supplies. It was incredibly fulfilling to help in such a tangible way and to complete the fundraising project we had dreamed about while working in Peru. We made a difference because we worked as a team: myself, the other volunteers, the directors of the center, the GoFundMe donors, and the Blum Center. In the end, I learned that the purpose of service isn’t to build up my own reputation. Rather, service is for the sake of those I’m aiming to serve. By participating in the Global Service Scholars program and going to Peru, I have gained the emotional and technical skills to serve in a unique and personal way. And though I almost decided not to go, I am so grateful I did.
Students want to make a difference. They seek — and need — to know how. The Global Service Scholars program empowers them through classroom education and international field work. From leading experts, they learn the science and practice of compassion. Then, they experience it during 4-week international service learning service trips.
Because empathy nurtures compassion. Because compassion inspires action. Because the world needs young people to stand up and lead.
Online Learning
The Science and Practice of Compassion
Few things are as fundamental to the human experience as compassion. It is essential in our relationships to others and fosters passion for social justice. Breakdowns in compassion can be linked to many of today’s most severe problems, such as bullying, inequality and poverty. For the Global Service Scholars, learning about compassion is also the key to making their trips abroad instructive and transformational for both them and the people they are serving. Before embarking on their service learning expeditions, the scholars complete an online course on the science and practice of compassion and effective altruism. The course, which is also open to other students in the UC system, lasts 10 weeks, with each one led by a top professor from around the country. Each week involves three video lectures and an online discussion session in which all students interact with the professor via the web. Students also take virtual field trips to the lab, learning how psychology research studies are conducted.
“Cultivating and practicing compassion makes people happier, more satisfied and more filled with meaning. The students taking our course will learn that. They’ll also learn how to leverage that compassion to make the world a better place. They’ll learn to help create science-inspired solutions to the problems we care most about today, from climate change to global hunger to mounting rates of inequality.” Paul Piff
course instructor and assistant professor of psychological science at UCI’s School of Social Ecology
The course answers key questions about compassion: What is compassion? Where does it come from? Why does it play such a key role in our social lives? Students learn about the possible evolutionary origins of compassion, how compassion develops in adolescents and how social environments shape compassion. The final weeks of the course are devoted to the practice of compassion. Students learn to cultivate more compassion through mindfulness practices, breathing exercises and other methods. They nurture self-compassion, without which it’s difficult to feel compassion for others. And they gain the ability to transform the distress of witnessing suffering into a compassionate response. Lastly, they learn to implement compassion through effective altruism. By the end, students who arrived on campus wanting to make the world a better place, but unsure how to do so, have the skills they need to make a difference.
Field Site Spotlight
A Glimpse into Paraguay
At the San Francisco Agricultural School in Paraguay, young people from impoverished backgrounds learn the entrepreneurial skills they need to start rural enterprises, successfully compete in the workforce or continue their education at the university level. The self-sufficient school in Cerrito, Paraguay generates 100 percent of its revenue through student-run businesses’ and is managed by Fundación Paraguaya, a nonprofit organization that helps people lift themselves out of poverty. It is also the home of the first permanent Global Service Scholars field site, and a developing research site for UCI graduate students and faculty members. Scholars live and work at the school, supporting Fundación Paraguaya by serving as junior consultants to the staff and contributing to the education of local students – all while experiencing rural life in a developing country. During the immersive experience, they critically engage in the complex, real-world challenges of poverty alleviation and international development work. Before entering the field, scholars receive extensive training to equip them with the skills needed to leave a lasting impact. On-site, they participate in multi-year projects that help provide local students with the life skills and emotional intelligence needed for social and personal wellbeing. The projects – which include topics such as technology training, fortifying student mentorship programs, and teaching mindfulness to help improve mental health – build from one year to the next, allowing each cohort to contribute to a growing legacy.
Fundación Paraguaya > Founded in 1985 as the first sustainable development NGO in Paraguay > Spearheaded microfinance and entrepreneurship in Paraguay > Poverty Stoplight program: uses a multidimensional scorecard to assess a family’s poverty situation on over 50 indicators, then provide clear goals, mentorship and markers of progress to help motivate families to lift themselves out of poverty
“Social entrepreneurship allows you to see social and environmental problems as opportunities for ingenuity and for combining existing resources to create value. We started to see that what we needed to do wasn’t to provide them resources, but instead unleash the resources they intrinsically had and those at their immediate disposal, and empower them with knowledge to change.” Martin Burt
founder of Fundación Paraguaya
The scholars also gain firsthand experience working on a small-scale organic farm in a developing country by tending vegetable gardens, caring for farm animals and making foods such as artisanal cheeses and dulce de leche. Through these shared, diverse experiences, scholars gain a greater sense of compassion for those who come from different backgrounds, and learn to critically engage with the world around them. The four weeks of serving others and learning a new culture fulfill three goals for the scholars: to give, to receive and to explore. After, they return home motivated and equipped to make a difference.
Roadmap to the Future
You can make service and scholarship happen.
Global Service Scholars is a young program with immense growth potential. We envision a fully-endowed program with permanent field sites around the world, each leaving a lasting impact on the local community. The first permanent field site partnership in Paraguay between UCI and Fundación Paraguaya, received its first cohort of scholars in 2018. Not only do these sites host scholars, they also provide a variety of graduate student and faculty research opportunities. The heart of the Global Service Scholars program is the students, many of whom are minority and first-generation college students. Many can’t afford international travel, and rely on scholarships and the generosity of donors to realize their service opportunity. We want our Scholars to participate fully in this learning experience regardless of their financial means.
Supporting Scholars For giving options, please contact Doug Colby (949) 824-0383 or email at dccolby@uci.edu.
globalservicescholars.uci.edu