The Guyana Lesley Abroad Service Semester (GLASS) program is the first study abroad program in the country of Guyana and is unique in many ways. The aim of the GLASS program is to support a local initiative to increase literacy and numeracy among the Macushi people of Yupukari village and satellite villages while providing a mutually rigorous education in environmental studies and profound cultural exchange for Lesley students and villagers alike.
Through in-depth Culture and Place Immersion in authentic communal indigenous village life, students will gain a deep appreciation for human and biological diversity and the close and ineluctable ties between them. Students will learn from the Macushi's expertise in informal learning — and their strong relationship with their environment, living close to the land to sustain themselves without money. In turn, students will give the Macushi people the gift of their expertise in formal learning as they collaborate in both English language teaching and learning and Community-Based Environmental Research. Everyone will learn and innovate together through true collaboration and genuine and profound cultural exchange, and a 'marriage' of informal and formal teaching and learning expertise. Student immersion will be grounded in a rigorous course of study centered on tropical human ecology and indigenous natural resource management.
In keeping with the mission and core values of Lesley University, this program involves active learning, scholarly research, critical inquiry, and diverse forms of practice through close mentoring relationships among students, faculty, and practitioners in the field in an effort to prepare graduates with the knowledge, skill, understanding, and ethical judgment to be catalysts who shape a more just, humane, and sustainable world.
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