Laurier learning trip to Haiti May 2015: The importance of learning about and with

Each May, I co-lead a learning trip to Haiti. I used to call these service-learning trips - and we certainly engage in service - but I want to put an increased focus on learning. We have a number of projects that we will be working on while in Haiti but we emphasize that these projects are really just avenues to learning about Haiti and with our colleagues there.

This year's trip will have four focus areas for our team. Central to these four areas will be a social media and video project that we will be doing for the first time.


1. ESL - our Laurier Bachelor of Education students will be supporting English as a Second Language classes in universities and secondary schools.

2. Micro-credit - a group from Laurier's School of Business and Economics will be meeting with a Haitian NGO that they have been working with to support a micro-credit initiative.

3. Teacher and Leadership Training - some of our participants are involved with teacher education in Ontario and will be engaging partners at schools in continued professional learning, specifically in Science and Mathematics.

4. Special Education - we have supported a special education needs assessment and training in Haiti for the past year and will be continuing our support of that project on this trip.

One of the things I am really excited about is the participation of two people who will serve as our videographers and social media leads for this trip. We are working with Haitian university students to use videos and social media as a way to support inter-cultural learning of Canadian and Haitian students.

We will be in Cap-Haitien (northern Haiti) from May 10-17. Regular posts will be made on this blog and you can also follow along in "real-time" on Twitter:

@drstevesider or @Laurier_haiti
#LaurierHaiti2015