Overlooking one of the villages in Buea where a student will investigate development needs of the community

During the first week in Buea, Cameroon, students were welcomed by the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Buea (UB), staff of UB, the Lead Faculty Member – Dr. Agborbechem Peter Tambi, the Student Peer Counselor – Hilda Ngum Agah, and the AEA Program Advisor & Academic Cordinator – Kelly Brannan Trail. The students’ first weeks were filled with activities. They met with their service learning organizations where they will be volunteering throughout the semester. This year’s organizations include Green Cameroon – a grassroots group focusing on environmental education and capacity building in the local community, and the South West Development Authority – specifically with RUMPI, the Community Development Division. In just the first week, one student planted a tree, lent a hand in the garden, and learned basic phrases in Pidgin English, a language widely spoken in Buea.

Service learning is an integral component of the “Community Development Seminar,” co-taught by Dr. Tambi and Ms. Trail. As a part of this course, on April 3, the students, along with Dr. Tambi, Hilda, and a representative from RUMPI, took off for Mamfe, a rural village north of Buea. They will evaluate community development projects in the village, with a focus on a project to provide potable water to the community, and develop a report and proposal. This is an exciting opportunity for the students to work in the field alongside an expert from RUMPI!

The students have also selected their three additional program courses at the University of Buea. This year’s course options include Community Health Practice; Concepts of Environment; Waste Management; Women, Social Work, and Social Policy; Women, Economy, and Entrepreneurship; and Citizen Participation in Education.   In addition, students have the option of studying French at a language institute in Buea.

Arriving by canoe at the island off the coast of Limbe

A number of cultural excursions have also been built into the program schedule. During the students’ first weekend in Cameroon, we took them on a trip to Foumban, a center of traditional African art. We toured the Sultan’s Palace and museum, and walked along the Rue des Artisans where sculptors, basket makers, and weavers were hard at work. Naturally, we were compelled to make a few purchases in Foumban, widely known as one of the best places to buy wood carvings in all of Central Africa.     The following Saturday, we took students to the nearby coastal town of Limbe. We were invited by the Vice-Dean of Research and Cooperation in the Faculty of Education to visit the island village where he is the chief. After our trip in the wooden canoe to reach the island, we went across town to swim at Seme Beach.

All in all, the 2012 “Community Development in Cameroon” program is off to a great start! If you are interested in joining our 2013 program, the application deadline is October 30, 2012. Please contact Kelly Brannan Trail (ktrail@antioch.edu; (937) 769-1016) if you have any questions regarding the program.

CHECK OUT OUR RECENTLY UPLOADED PHOTOS IN THE CAMEROON PROGRAM PHOTO GALLERY

READ MORE ABOUT THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN CAMEROON PROGRAM

Antioch University Seattle’s M.A. in Psychology with Drama Therapy concentration is on track to become one of only four such programs in North America. The new program strengthens the therapeutic options that psychology students have as clinicians. AUS launched the new specialization in the fall of 2009 with nine students all working toward an M.A. degree in Psychology. The students are seeking a dual specialization either in Drama Therapy with a Mental Health Counseling (MHC) or Drama Therapy with Couple and Family Therapy (MFT). Drama Therapy, like the AUS Art Therapy concentration, is an expressive therapy that clinicians can use to help clients achieve emotional and physical integration, personal growth and symptom relief. The curriculum at AUS can include improvisation, puppetry, role-playing, mask work, theatrical production, psychodrama and even community-based theatre. Currently, there are 17 Drama Therapy students spread among three cohorts.

In 2011, Bobbi Kidder, M.A., RDT, BCT, became the new leader of the Drama Therapy program at AUS. Kidder became a Registered Drama Therapist in 1984. She has been a member of the NADT board of directors and currently serves on the board of the Drama Therapy Fund. Before coming to Seattle, Bobbi was an instructor at Rogue Community College and was founder/ Executive Director of Southern Oregon Impact Theatre where she integrated drama therapy into community outreach as well as heading several international projects, and writing ImaginAction, a collection of theatre games with a therapeutic focus. In 2011, she received the David West Seventh Generation Diversity Award for her work.

“For me, working at Antioch with caring professionals and vibrant students brings a sense of creative momentum to this important work,” says Kidder. She remembers being introduced to Drama Therapy and realizing that “it holds a wide embrace. Drama Therapy is inclusive and acknowledges that in every occupation, every concern, every tragedy, there is potential grist for learning.”

After the first cohort of students graduate, AUS will begin the approval process for the program from the National Association of Drama Therapy. Drama Therapy is a three-year curriculum leading to licensing in MHC or MFT as well as registration as a drama therapist with this dual specialization. Graduates will have the skills they need to work in a variety of settings including hospitals, schools, community centers, prisons and private practice. These are also the settings in which AUS students will serve internships that will last a minimum of four quarters.

A few examples of ways that Drama Therapy students intend to apply their training include Johannys Acevdedo, an international student from Puerto Rico, who hopes to work in Uganda with “child soldiers”; Christina Berger, who is interested in working with anorexic teenagers; Maureen Sullivan, who as a volunteer at Seattle Children’s Hospital hopes to work with children who are cancer patients; Christi Proffitt intends to incorporate drama therapy into business communities to foster better communication and more openness, and Maggie Yowell continues to gain skill in the practice of Psychodrama.

Commenting on his direction in drama therapy, Wilder Nutting-Heath says, “Because of Antioch’s Drama Therapy program, I am able use my training to educate and counsel men on issues of intimacy and masculinity through the lens of drama therapy. Antioch has been very supportive in cultivating my specific interests, as well as providing me with the necessary training and skills to be competitive in the counseling field. I have now found my voice as a writer, artist, and counseling professional.”

Drama Therapy student Lashon Watson is currently involved in his MA internship. Reflecting on how his Antioch education has prepared him for a career, he said, “The M.A. in Psychology – Drama Therapy with Mental Health Counseling at Antioch University awakened my aspirations to integrate creative arts and psychology into my future endeavors.”

Plans are underway to utilize seed money from a Chancellor’s grant to celebrate the creative arts and share this message among the five campuses. The Drama Therapy students and faculty will be instrumental in bringing that program together this spring. “We hope this will be among the traditions we continue to offer the wider community,” says Kidder.

The Antioch University Midwest Humanities major is a unique bachelor’s degree  completion program that helps students find many answers to these questions. They  explore the religions, cultures, histories and inventions of civilizations – from Africa to Asia and from Europe to the Americas, ancient to modern times.

Careful study of the great works of literature and philosophy of these civilizations helps AUM Humanities students discover how people over time have fathomed the cosmos, organized their communities, defined their identities and developed relationships with others beyond their borders.

Students also study patterns of daily life, the work of women as well as men, the role of leadership and authority, the clash of cultures, the development of global trade, the unending wars over religions and resources and the birth of our modern intellectual movements.

Close reading and intense class discussion deepens students’ understanding of  the vast diversity of humanity and provokes new insights concerning issues that  continue to perplex nations and individuals.

AUM Humanities students come to understand why peoples across the globe think in so many different ways and why the distribution of wealth and power is so disparate. In the process of this inquiry, students sharpen their skills in critical analysis, expand their imagination, improve at public speaking and greatly enlarge their global awareness.

The AUM Humanities program well prepares students for graduate study in law,  history, literature, philosophy, journalism, religious studies, political science or  international relations.

During the time spent in the program, students prepare for environmental careers in the public and private sector including environmental regulation, environmental consulting, local and regional planning and environmental nonprofit leadership. Graduates have found professional positions in:

• Nonprofit conservation and advocacy organizations at the local, national and international level.
• Government/Intergovernmental institution departments that manage natural resources, regulate pollution or monitor environmental compliance.
• Public agencies concerned with local and regional land use planning, or which acquire and manage open space.
• Environmental consulting businesses engaged in land management and sustainable development, wetlands protection, water resource management and environmental impact assessment.
• Private industry and institutions engaged in meeting regulations for environmental compliance and developing ecologically sustainable management systems.

The Sustainable Development and Climate Change program at AUNE is the first Professional Science Master’s program in New Hampshire and one of only 212 in the United States. It is a non-thesis graduate degree of advanced training in science or mathematics without a PhD, that at the same time develops workplace skills in its graduates.

The student’s practicum and capstone projects provide experience and are useful in networking and expanding job opportunities. Students work with faculty on consulting projects, such as:

• The Lake Sunapee Watershed Infrastructure project, estimating impacts from climate change to support programs to adapt civil infrastructure in the Lake Sunapee watershed region of New Hampshire.
• Community Technical Assistance Project, a comprehensive growth management initiative for a region of twenty-six local communities that will be affected by the reconstruction of I-93.
• Developing micro-enterprises that address the urban collection of waste, provide clean drinking water and assist in the removal of waste water in Liberia.

In SDCC courses, students learn the scientific and social complexities of environmental studies. These include ethics, sustainability and social justice. They also learn to comprehend the dynamics of environmental change on many scales and to understand organizations and to solve complex environmental issues. They practice team problem-solving and develop a final product of a quality they would be expected to create as a professional. One of the capstone options open to SDCC students is a collaborative service initiative – a substantive research or consultation project linked to an external partner’s identified need.

The most compelling aspect of the MBA in Sustainability program at Antioch University New England is that it is integrated.   The directors seek to weave people, planet and profit throughout the curriculum. AUNE is intentional about making this an integrated degree with strong business foundations and long fingers of inclusion, social justice and social responsibility.

While the description is enticing, the real-world application of what students learn while studying is the real draw of the program. Students find themselves in complex systems that are emerging into the dynamic field of sustainability following completion of the program. Students develop communication skills for working with diverse stakeholder groups during their studies. In addition, they learn strategies for navigating adaptive challenges, technological skills and systems thinking methods. They apply what they learn to their workplaces by being leaders, champions of thoughtful change, and strategic thinkers.

Students interested in the program come because they want to use business as a lever for making social, environmental and economic change. At AUNE, they learn the skills that more traditional MBA students gain in finance, marketing, operations and strategy and they learn how to apply these skills to systems. Students learn to be leaders but also to work in a group and understand the consumer perspective of business. The most unique factor of the program is that students gain foundational knowledge on the challenges facing our planet and learn how to communicate about these topics so that organizations make operational, strategic, and financial challenges to lessen impact on the earth.

In the MBA in Sustainability program at AUNE, students are given multiple opportunities to meet leaders, interview change agents and work on projects to develop leading change skills and strategies. Graduates  leave with skills to lead change, facilitate collaborative decision making, and champion inclusive change through the lens of the triple bottom line.

Antioch University New England believes that if we want to do business differently, then we must change the skill set of MBA graduates.

(Top picture) Sam Boduch, MBA in Sustainability ’11 in the Regnskog (Rainforest) section of the Aquaria Vattenmuseum (Aquatic Museum), Stockholm, Sweden. One of many stops on the AUNE, MBA in Sustainability-hosted study abroad trip. Students learned about the importance of aquatic resources through the aquarium’s River of Life.

(Second picture)  AUNE and AULA students in Stockholm, Sweden during the AUNE, MBA in Sustainability-hosted study abroad trip.

The B.A. in Liberal Studies with Advanced Global Competency is one-of-its-kind in the nation, a B.A. completion program that combines practical, hands-on experience with exceptional studies at Antioch University Seattle (AUS) and around the globe through Antioch Education Abroad (AEA). Students in the program study abroad for two semesters on one of AEA’s unique field-based programs, ranging from Community Development in Cameroon to Brazilian Ecosystems, or may choose to enroll with one of our partner universities abroad.

At AUS, students engage in coursework in the Liberal Studies program, while gaining real work experience in a part-time internship in the Seattle area. The program creates an individualized education tailored to a student’s interests, and provides invaluable international and professional training towards their future career.