CIEE Service-Learning Program in Cape Town, South Africa

  South Africa

• Cape Town: 
Cape Town (Kaapstad)

Term: Fall, Spring 
Dates: Fall 18 weeks: early-July-mid-November; Spring 18 weeks: late January-early June

Description: The CIEE Service-Learning program offers an integrated approach to learning and community involvement. The program enables students to be active in service, while giving them opportunities to reflect upon the complexities and challenges facing Cape Town specifically and South Africa in general. The program is conducted in, and intends to meet the needs of, local communities, helping foster civic responsibility while engaging students in a rigorous academic program of social research methodology, language study, and African studies.

Academic Program
Since 1947, CIEE has engaged in fulfilling its mission to help people gain understanding, acquire knowledge, and develop skills for living in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world. The Service-Learning program serves this mission by providing a framework for students to fulfill their educational and personal goals, while bridging relationships in the communities in which their learning takes place. In this sense, service-learning closes the circle on an experiential learning cycle, while providing benefits to all those who are touched by the program.

The American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) defines service-learning as, A method under which students learn and develop through thoughtfully organized service that is conducted in and meets the needs of a community and is coordinated with an institution of higher education, and with the community; helps foster civic responsibility; is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of the students enrolled; and includes structured time for students to reflect on the service experience.

This program is built upon the four core principles of service-learning, with each component of the program addressing one or more of the principles:

1) Engagement
2) Reflection
3) Reciprocity
4) Public Dissemination

Academic Culture
The program runs during the fall and spring semesters and consists of 16 semester credits based upon five main components:

1) A Social Research Methods Course
2) A course focusing on poverty and development issues in South Africa
3) A community-development project in a local NGO, school, or other service organization
4) An academic service-learning capstone project, which draws upon all of the other elements of the program
5) Language training that is appropriate to the communities where service is performed.

Highlights:

• Fully integrated holistic service program that combines a strong academic program and service to the local community with integrated activities designed to support the academic service-learning goals, both in and out of the classroom
  
• Cultural activities, including visits to local theater, music, and dance productions, as well as visits to museums, rural cooperatives, and cricket and rugby matches; excursions to sites of cultural importance in Cape Town and in the Western Cape
  
• Students design and implement capstone project based on community needs
  and personal interest

The comprehensive cultural program developed by CIEE consists of visits to local theater, music, and dance productions; museum tours; and visits to rural cooperatives. Events and activities are chosen to provide students with a good overview of the diversity in South Africa. A weekend homestay with a local family is also included in the cultural program.

Immersion
CIEE SOLmates
SOLmates (Student Orientation Leaders) are a dedicated group of UCT students who assist CIEE students during orientation and throughout the semester. Through ongoing interaction with these local students, CIEE participants are able to meet local South African and international students, as well as learn firsthand about student life in Cape Town. These local students, recruited and trained by CIEE, are an important part of the CIEE student experience. SOLmates assist with cultural excursions and live with CIEE students in the residence, providing a reliable local peer network and helping CIEE students become integrated into the local student community.

Habitat for Humanity
CIEE has entered into a partnership with Habitat for Humanity, which allows students to participate in building a CIEE-sponsored house in a previously disadvantaged community on the Cape Peninsula.

Degree Level: Bachelors Degree (Undergraduate)

Cost in US$: Please check the CIEE website for current program pricing

Experience Required: no

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants.

Participants Travel to South Africa Independently

Scholarships are Available. We have several scholarships that students can apply for. Contact CIEE for details.

Application Process Involves:

• Letters of Reference
• Other
• Transcript
• Written Application

CIEE's Mission Statement: Since 1947, the Council on International Educational Exchange, known as CIEE, has been in pursuit of its mission, "to help people gain understanding, acquire knowledge, and develop skills for living in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world." Our services to young people studying, working, teaching, and traveling abroad are more important than ever. As we look ahead, we reaffirm our commitment to the principles and values that guide this mission statement.

Year Founded: 1947