Do you want to get more out of your Master‘s program and participate in real-life experiences with pioneering communities? Do you want to be better prepared for your career after graduation? Do you want to start building a professional network and do you want to stand out from your peers? But do you also want to start contributing to societal impact before you even graduate? Do you want to cross the boundaries of your discipline and the walls of the university? Do you want to do creative and action-oriented research with an international group of students? Are you interested in doing your Master’s research, thesis or internship on any topic related to digitalization, digital inclusion or climate adaptation in the city? The Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning Course (iCSL) welcomes master students from any disciplinary background and university across the world to engage in inter-and transdisciplinary knowledge co-creation.
HOW TO JOIN?
Participating in iCSL awards you credits that can be added to your master’s diploma or you can get a separate certificate. Completion of the first course awards 3 ECTS, and the second 6 ECTS. For more information and sign-up, visit vu.nl/icsl or contact: Eduardo Urias eduardo.munizpereiraurias@vu.nl
ICSL COURSE 1: DEFINING CHALLENGES Period 2 (nov-dec): Tuesdays 17.30-19.00
The first course prepares you to identify and define complex challenges together with communities, in theory and practice. In order to integrate the perspectives of different actors, you conduct interviews and ultimately bring relevant organizations, people, and businesses together at a big event. The course builds up to this dialogue event at which you facilitate the group discussion with participants.
ICSL COURSE 2: ADDRESSING CHALLENGES Semester 2
In the second iCSL course you address identified challenges, broadly as well as in-depth. Each member of the cross-disciplinary team tackles one aspect of the larger challenge within their own research project. This allows for in-depth application and development of your own disciplinary knowledge and methods. Throughout the process, you meet periodically with your cross-disciplinary team to integrate the insights from all projects, and consider the wider implications for the broad societal issue. By the end of the project, you collectively deliver an interdisciplinary report and present the project results during a Dialogue Event.
The full schedule can be found here!
