Title: THE FUTURE GENERATIONS MASTERS PROGRAM IN APPLIED COMMUNITY CHANGE AND CONSERVATION
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Section/SPIG: International Health
Issue Date:
Future Generations is recruiting its second global class of community leaders for its Master of Arts in Applied Community Change and Conservation. Our program provides an exciting educational opportunity for those committed to just and lasting change. If you know of any potential applicants, please feel free to pass this on to them.
Our program strengthens grassroots initiatives that integrate best practices in development, skills in monitoring and evaluation, partnerships linking communities with governments and outside experts, and behavioral change. We use a “blended learning” pedagogy of site-based instruction on three continents, interactive online instruction alongside a faculty of academics and practitioners, on-the-job practicum applications in collaboration with mentors, inter-cultural immersion, and accountability vis-à-vis sending communities and classmates.
While the program lasts two years, our candidates need only leave their communities for a total of four months. The program is part-time, but requires a good 15 hours per week of scholarly work and research. Basic requisites for class members include an undergraduate degree, TOEFL competency of 575 (or agreed-upon preparatory language work) for non-native speakers of English, and a relationship with a community in which just and lasting change and/or conservation is being promoted. Future Generations is authorized by the State of West Virginia to award a Master of Arts degree. We are in the process of securing full accreditation with the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
The next class begins January 2006, and the following class will begin in September 2007. We anticipate an exceptional class of 25 community leaders/scholars from more than a dozen countries. Many of these candidates are mid-career people. Several are mid- to high-level program officers for non-governmental organizations and missions. Others are government officials and tribal leaders. Each candidate will have every opportunity to hone useful skills to strengthen near- and long-term community goals for a brighter future. Besides joining a class of other community leaders, our candidates learn in the company of a Board of Mentors and a faculty with more than 250 years’ field experience in international development and conservation.
Please visit our Web site at <www.future.org> for more information, application materials, Viewbook, and Course Catalog. Kindly contact Dan Wessner, <wessner@future.org>, our director of academic programming, or Henry Perry, <henry@future.org>, Carl Taylor Professor for Equity and Empowerment, if you have further questions. Thank you for considering this exciting applied program and entrusting this information to prospective candidates.
--Henry Perry, E-mail: henry@future.org