From August to September 2022, Ms. Charinya Limprapuwiwattana from Business Chinese programme, the School of Sinology and Ms. Diana Van Wyk from the Business Administration programme, the School of Management participated in the UMAP Virtual Discovery Camp entitled: “Gonô Bong Tëkuy: Our Common Home, Our Common Humanity (Meaningful Mindanawon Encounters in Service-Learning)” via Zoom video conference.
The UMAP Virtual Discovery Camp was hosted by the Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU), through the Ateneo Internationalization for Mindanao (AIM) Office and Arrupe Office of Social Formation (AOSF) and was fully sponsored by the University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP), an association of Higher Education Institutions, government, and NGO partners in the Asia Pacific region.
This four-week service-learning programme emphasised on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) for Quality Education (4), Climate Action (13), and for Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions (16). The camp gathered collaborators and students from ADDU and UMAP international and local partnerships to encounter Mindanao through the service-learning framework and design thinking process. Moreover, the camp invited local and international resource speakers to provide the participants with meaningful inputs and stories which inspired them in the development of their project proposals dedicated to and in service of the local partner community in Mindanao. The proposals were presented to a panelist and assessed for their parameters (i.e. feasibility, viability, desirability, and replicability) in a Pitching Activity on 29 September 2022.
Altogether, throughout their participation, MFU students were not only gained an immersive intercultural experience but also showcased their ideas to develop project as a call to action for the SDGs with students from across the UMAP network.
