Honors Collegium 144
International Development: Using Your Major for Doing Well and Doing Good
Enrollment: Instructor Consent. Please contact Professor Pescador (opescado@ucla.edu) for enrollment.
Course Description: The adoption of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (2015) called for addressing extreme poverty, disease, environmental degradation, gender inequities, unemployment, and other problems afflicting people across the globe. Sustainability entails development solutions that endure and engage local people. The aim is to leverage local capacities to improve living conditions consistently. Students address questions such as: How does your major relate to one or more of the goals? Which goal speaks to your interest? What key concept or passion do you have that can contribute to addressing one or more of the goals?
Professor Octavio Pescador
Dr. Octavio Pescador is a research associate and co-founder of the UCLA Paulo Freire Institute in the School of Education and Information Studies. He is one of two founding faculty members selected by Chancellor Gene Block to serve on the Governing Council of the K-12 UCLA Community School. Dr. Pescador’s teaching and research praxis focuses on civic engagement, education, and other social sciences.
Q & A
What is your home department at UCLA?
Education
How long have you been teaching your HC seminar?
Four years
What is your favorite part about teaching this HC seminar?
The course elicits students’ resourcefulness both technically and interpersonally through multidisciplinary collaborative work.
What do you find to be the most compelling about the subject matter of this seminar?
Students produce comprehensive funding proposals advancing innovative solutions to international development problems afflicting regions/countries of their choice.
What are the learning objectives for this course?
The course aims to develop students’ technical and interpersonal skills. Participants will utilize the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals to examine distinct perspectives rationalizing the purpose of international development efforts by rich nations. They will formulate a personal framework to examine development problems through the lens of their major(s) and the frames of reference advanced by peers from different disciplines. They will learn standards required by the United States Agency for International Development from parties responding to its requests for proposals. They will produce a comprehensive procurement proposal to address extreme poverty, disease, environmental degradation, gender inequities, unemployment, and other problems afflicting people across the globe. Finally, they will create a cultural artifact (traditional and/or new media) supporting their proposal.