Civic Engagement and Social Action

“I have emerged from this experience with the understanding that world peace begins with the individual. Whether I end up holding a policy-making position, working for an advocacy group, mediating discussions or pursuing further international work, my decisions will be made with calculating objectivity in my head and my South African sister Nombuso’s laugh in my ear.”
        - SIT South Africa Alum

“No other creatures possess the means to create such lasting effects on our world as we do; thus we should be encouraged to play a positive role instead of the current movement towards separation from our environment”.
        - SIT Brazil Alum

For many of our alumni, returning home from studying abroad means a desire to organize activities for social change. This can take the form of starting an organization or club, seeking to deepen one’s civic engagement or developing a sense of group life.

The key to Civic Engagement and Social Action is organizing or connecting yourself to organizations and people doing the work you want to do. We suggest that you join listservs, donate to and volunteer with organizations whose work you like, talk to people in organizations doing things you are interested in, and organize groups with others who share in your beliefs. Activist work cannot be done alone.  We encourage you to start networking with others who share in your passions. You might be asking yourself, “How can I turn my ideas into action?” In this section you will find suggestions to help you become socially active and/or civically engaged.

Strategies for Civic Engagement and Social Action

• Link your experiences in the host country to political and social action in the place where you study or live.
• Volunteer or work for NGOs and local or national movements.
• Identify immigrants from the host country and try to connect with that immigrant community; explore possible opportunities for volunteering or interning.
• Determine whether community service activities you’ve carried out during the program can be applied to your home community and look into continuing these types of activities at home.
• Create a group contact list/network of students on your campus or World Learning alums. Log on to World Learning’s website to contact World Learning alums.
• If you didn’t make your own video, obtain copies of other students who produced videos during the semester to present to your home community, in your class, in your church or at a local school. Local schools are a great place to present your experience. Connect with educators from your local school district. 
• Publish stories or articles about your study abroad experience in community media sources.  Want to submit your writing? Click here
• Write an article for your local newspaper or college paper about how your experience abroad helped you gain global understanding about a particular global issue. What is your perspective about a social issue having lived abroad? Share this with others through citizen journalism.  Call your campus or local newspaper to see what you need to do to submit a letter to the editor, an op-ed or an article.  See guidelines for writing an op-ed.  
• Get involved with a student group connected to your host country or another international student group on your campus, if there is one.  If not, think about starting one!
• Stay connected to the host country/culture:

- Obtain contact information for the people you meet and stay in touch through letters, email, phone calls, etc.
- Read magazines, books, and newspapers about or from the host country.  Sign up to receive RSS feeds from host country newspapers.
- Listen to the radio or music from the host country
- Watch TV, videos or news from the host country
- Work with sister cities connected to the region.  To find out if your home community has a sister city, click here.
- Eat at restaurants with the cuisine from the host country and bring friends along with you. This way you are introducing new people to the culture.
- Find a language partner from the host country
- Once you have re-established yourself at home, make plans to go back and visit.  Or apply to become a group leader for World Learning's Experiement in International Living.  Click here to learn more.

 

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