A Furthering Education Initiative
Service Learning and Community Engagement
Service learning is powerful tool of experiential learning that takes students beyond the “classroom” into the community, to “practise” course content by first understanding and then working on real, community-identified needs and issues. Learners can design or participate in a programme directed towards working within a community. Examples can include a reading programme, working with the elderly, maintaining gardens or fields, assisting with community projects such as setting up libraries or markets.
​
It is in this component that all our theoretical knowledge, our skills, our travel experiences, coalesce: why do we need to engage, the manner in which this engagement must be undertaken, and how will we evaluate the outcome of our intervention. This requires us to demonstrate our knowledge, to question our biases and positions, to confront local and global issues and look for viable and responsible solutions to problems.
​
Founded on the principles of interdependence and reciprocity, through these engagements we can better understand ourselves and our/other communities and create space for personal (and sometimes social) transformation.
Travel
Travelling is a way of learning through movement across a landscape.
​
The programme focuses on the group coming together in a spirit of respect towards each other as well as the geographies and cultures they are travelling through. Travel is more than tourism and entertainment: it raises questions about the impact of travel on the physical and social environments of people and “wild life”, its sustainability and its possibilities. It is our hope that learners will learn to reflect on these and find reasonable travel options that “leave footprints and take memories”.
Mentorship
Our mentorship programme draws from a pool of invested co learners who are willing to share their time, experience and expertise to guide and support learners on their journeys.
​
The mentor will be an active listener and have a collaborative relationship with the learners, providing a much needed one on one interaction that will strengthen both the regular and a personalised programme.
​
The relationship will provide a safe space for students to explore their academic choices and also share the complex narratives of several aspects of their lives: social, emotional and existential. With these insights, mentors can connect learners to the larger community outside TLC, with respect to apprenticeships, workshops, counselling and other such opportunities to further their education.