By Aly Callahan
Issue date: 12/4/09
(Posted by CAAI News Media)
A group of Lehigh students and professors traveled to Cambodia, from Oct. 30 to Nov.8, as part of an effort to forge a partnership between Lehigh and non-profit organization Caring for Cambodia.
CFC was established in 2003 by Bill Amelio, the 2008 Lehigh graduation speaker and former CEO of Lenova Group, and his wife, Jamie Amelio. The organization is geared toward improving the education system in Cambodia, one school at a time.
There are currently five CFC schools in Cambodia, comprising four primary schools and one secondary school. These schools are run by the Cambodian government, so the national curriculum is still followed. The difference is in the delivery of the education and the school environment.
The CFC schools are designed to be "child-friendly," including clean classrooms and desks arranged into circular formations in rows, said Will Brehm, a graduate student who went on the trip.
The schools also have a program called "Food for Thought." The program provides porridge for the children in the morning as an incentive to come to school.
"You should see these schools during the holidays," said Brehm, "They are seen as the centers of the communities. They are the nicest places in the community."
"The CFC schools really do help, it really is amazing and powerful to see," said Brehm.
Although CFC has been experiencing great success with its efforts in the four primary schools, it is in a stage of transition. Volunteers are currently working on the new secondary school and figuring out how to make it "child-friendly," said Brehm.
At the same time, Lehigh is in the midst of a globalization effort.
"It is the perfect opportunity for Lehigh and CFC to come together in a way that will further both their missions," said Brehm.
It is just a matter of figuring out how exactly this will be done in the most mutually beneficial way.
When Bill Amelio suggested the partnership to Lehigh, the result was the formation of two classes, one graduate course and one undergraduate course, which are based upon the CFC partnership project.
The graduate course, taught by Iveta Silova, is called Issues and Institutions in International Educational Development, and focuses on formulating a needs assessment of how CFC and Lehigh can work together and benefit from one another.
Throughout this semester, the 15 students in the class worked in three groups. One group worked on figuring out what needed to be accomplished during the trip to Cambodia. A second group worked on a capacity assessment of what the College of Education has to offer CFC and the third group looked into the financial resources Lehigh could have to offer CFC in terms of funding.
The CFC needs assessment and analyses of the areas in which Lehigh and CFC can best form a partnership will be detailed by the students in a final report, which will be completed in December.
"The most exciting part of the class was that students had an opportunity to engage in a real needs assessment and proposal writing. In other words, they learned by doing," said Silova.
The undergraduate course, Social Entrepreneurship 398, is taught by professors Bruce Moon and Todd Walkins.
"We did intensive research on all aspects of Cambodian life, history, culture, demographics, etc. in order to get a picture of what people in the country suffer from and what they need in order to improve their lives," said Lisa Boyd, '10.
The students also made an effort to contact other NGOs in the area of the CFC schools and meet with them during the trip to assess the ways in which they are currently successful and unsuccessful.
Despite all their preparation for the trip, students were still in awe of what they found when they arrived in Cambodia.
"We were all struck by the differences in development level between one area and the next, even one building and the next," said Boyd. "You would see an extremely nice hotel surrounded on both sides by huts made of palm leaves and by local markets."
The divide between the rich and the poor is huge, said Boyd. "Also, the lack of social structure and people's unwillingness to work in groups was very surprising to our team."
This is due to a lack of trust as a result of the past genocide in Cambodia, said Boyd.
"Throughout the years Cambodia has suffered from many educational hardships, so to see it in 2009 with children smiling is really powerful," said Brehm.
The success of CFC thus far is clear; however, the organization is still working on achieving their ultimate goal, which is one K-12 school that will lead to job opportunities for graduating students. Once this model has been created, more can be replicated from there.
"The goal of the trip was to come out with a greater understanding of the issues at hand and to understand fully the ambitions of CFC, our partner organization on this project," said Boyd.
"By combining these two factors, we hope to come up with a few promising projects on which Lehigh may be able to partner with CFC in the future," said Boyd.
Their one hope for the future is that Cambodia students and professors will spend time at Lehigh and Lehigh students in Cambodia, said Brehm.
"International educations are some of the most profound moments in undergraduates' lives," said Brehm.
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