Do you want to make a contribution to a world with no poverty, reduced inequalities, good working conditions and climate action?  You can be the change as a person and a professional in sustainable development. In this minor you get a broad view on sustainability and you are able to put this in practice by organizing an activity to promote sustainable behaviour for a community in Ede, Amsterdam or go for two weeks to another European city. You do this with students from different cultural and professional backgrounds, which makes this a great learning experience!

What students say:

‘I had to get out of my comfort zone. By doing that, I learned a lot in contact with people who are different from me. In the news I hear about refugees and everyone has an opinion. Now I could get in contact with them and that makes it more personal.’

‘If I think about sustainable development, I feed motivated, but also overwhelmed. It was good to be able to do something practical to make a small contribution towards a more sustainable and inclusive world.’

This minor consists of three parts:

       1. Foundations for sustainable development:

You learn more about the broad spectrum of sustainable development and how you as a professional can be part of a solution. You discuss with students from all over the world what this means for your personal and professional life. How does a student from South Korea view gender equality? How necessary is climate action according to a student from Rwanda?

      2. Healthy communities:

You work as a group to organize an activity to promote healthy or sustainable behaviour for a vulnerable community. You do this in close collaboration with this community to get to know their struggles, needs and strengths. In this way, you can organize an activity that will help to leave no one behind! You can choose to do this in Ede or Amsterdam or go for two weeks to another European city.

      3. Cultural Encounters:

Within this program you work in an intercultural project group, you describe and interpret the cultural encounters within this team and you reflect personally and professionally on these intercultural experiences.

 

1 You analyse a problem related to sustainability and come up with a solution related to your profession and your personal qualities.  

2. You develop an activity to promote healthy or sustainable behaviour in close collaboration with the target group in order to ‘leave no one behind’.  

3. You describe cultural interactions, collaborate interculturally and reflect on your experiences.  

This minor is open to students from all study-backgrounds. The course is taught in English.

Further entrance requirements:

1. You must have successfully completed the propaedeutic phase.
2. Furthermore, we expect you to possess competency level 2 (post propedeutic). This means the following:

- We assume that you can analyze complexity, design learning tasks, and collaborate both independently and interdisciplinarily.

- We encourage you to use different perspectives and engage in dialogue with other disciplines and cultures.

- Throughout the minor we also ask you to reflect critically on content, context, process, your own person, profession, and worldview.

Rimanoczy I. (2020) The sustainability mindset principles. A guide fo developing a mindset for a better world.  

September - November

1. Foundations for sustainable development:  

You follow classes, guest lectures, interdisciplinary group discussions and field trips to broaden your view on sustainable development.  

In the end you give a group presentation and you wite a personal position paper 

2. Healthy communities:  

You follow classes, do community visits and make practical arrangements to organize your activity.  In the end you give a presentation or show a movie.  

3. Cultural Encounters:  

With your group you follow classes and have lots of cultural experiences together. This can be in the classroom, but also outside in the forest.  In the end you write a portfolio of your cultural experience

Procedure after registration:

1. Download your learning agreement(s) then send a request to your own examination board with your signed learning agreement(s) attached.
2. Pending the decision of your examination board, we reserve the minor place(s);
3. Your own examination board gives approval by signing the learning agreement(s) and affixing a stamp from your college;
4. You mail this signed and stamped learning agreement(s) to kiesopmaatminors@che.nl;
5. After the learning agreement(s) are received at kiesopmaatminors@che.nl, you will receive an email detailing the steps you need to take to finalize your application for the minor(s).