Mini Project: Part 2

As part of our mini projects Ashley assigned us, I chose to look at reasons why people choose to not go on  international study programs, and if they do, what factors influence what program they go with.

Since class was canceled because of the Inquiry Conference, we were supposed to do an hour of work on our particular projects.  Not too hard, right?  But then Ashely told us that we need to make our approach similar to what we are doing in the field.  Hmm... Now it suddenly is complicated.

My project is going to be different than the typical field study.  Yes, I am doing questions, but it is extremely informal and requires multiple encounters.  Participant observation is also something I will need in order to do a creative writing project.  However, given my mini project, I figured that participant observation is not really going to help me much.  At least, from just wandering around on campus. 

The only way I could figure out how to make this activity useful to my field experience in India was to only interview one person, and have it be someone that I could establish rapport with.  I tried doing various interviews in the WILK with just random undergraduate students waiting for their food, studying, etc, but it was awkward and did not facilitate any kind of deeper discussion. 

Rather than that approach, I chose to interview someone who I was previously introduced to.  I did not know him well, but I did know that he was envious of me for getting to go on several international study programs.  I decided to follow up with him.

Mini Project

Ashley, the coordinator of field studies, has encouraged the field facilitators to create a mini project to get practice and skills about the things we will need when we are in our own fields.  I like this idea, since role playing in the classroom can only take us so far.  Here is my idea.

I want to figure out what the level of awareness is of undergraduate students about the different international opportunities available to them, as well as what factors encourage or discourage them from applying.  I figure I will gather some informal interviews, and maybe do some participant observation (though I am not quite sure how that will work), but it is something I actually really am interested in.  Stay tuned for more information!