Transformative experiential learning with real-world impact: Engaging students and local stakeholders in project-based course collaborations
Director of the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship, Harvard College
Lecturer on Social Studies, FAS
RSVP
This session will focus on community-engaged pedagogy and methods for incorporating applied and action-oriented learning in undergraduate courses. Drawing on her urban health course at Harvard College, she will discuss curricular approaches for cultivating the development of 21st century competencies among students, including collaboration skills, the ability to work across sectors, creativity, critical and systems thinking, so students can relate education to life and the world by drawing on multiple perspectives to innovate and problem solve. Curricular strategies for integrating the social sciences and engineering will be explored in consideration of some of the socio- economic and ethical complexities at the center of imagining and planning an equitable and prosperous future.
Biography:
Flavia C. Peréa. PhD, MSEd is the inaugural Director of the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship at Harvard College and a Lecturer on Social Studies in FAS. She holds a PhD in Social Policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, and a Master’s Degree in Education from the Bank Street Graduate School of Education. As the director of the Engaged Scholarship Program, Dr. Peréa is developing a college-wide program to engage students and faculty with community beyond the Harvard context, and advance pedagogical and scholarly innovations through collaboration and community engagement that has impact within and beyond the academy. Prior to coming to Harvard, Dr. Peréa was an Assistant Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Throughout her career, Dr. Peréa has collaborated with various sectors of civic and community life, including municipal governments and city agencies; youth, community development, and environmental organizations; hospitals and community health centers; schools; neighborhood and grass roots organizations, on community-based public health and educational interventions to better understand and respond to pressing health and social challenges. A born and raised NYer, she lives in Somerville, Mass.