Moza Al Balushi participates in the Citizen Science project with Rural Action for a biodiversity fair.
By Dawn Bikowski
Ask students what motivates them to attend class, do their work, and learn, and for many having the opportunity to apply their academic skills to a real-world experience is on the top of their list.
International Ohio University students got to do just that in their freshmen comp requirement Business & Professional English class overseen by the English Language Improvement Program (ENG 1610: Business section).
Fifteen international students this Spring 2016 got an opportunity to work on environmental projects with local organization Rural Action. Coming from countries across the world, students worked in groups and brought their own expertise and experiences to the project. One group also had to bring their gloves and workboots, as their project had them out in the surrounding forests collecting frogs and lizards for a biodiversity fair for the Rural Action Citizen Science project.
Working with a real organization on real projects is something unique for many writing classes and certainly not common in many other countries. Zamzam Al-Bulushi, majoring in Communication Studies and from Oman, loves that in the class students can “connect what we have learned in other classes to the organization we are working with in this class” and that a real client is reading their recommendations.
Joe Brehm, Rural Action Environmental Education Program Director, talks with students Kento Matsuoka, Illona Hartman, Khulood Al Harthi, and Yifu Zhang after group presentations
Rural Action Environmental Education Program Director Joe Brehm is excited about the collaboration.
“I felt respected, inspired, and renewed by the curiosity of the students, and refreshed by their perspective. And, we came away with a number of feasible action items that we can apply to our projects,” Brehm said.
The appreciation goes both ways. “It’s a great organization from my perspective,” said Moza Al Balushi, a Health Services Administrator major from Oman. “And we get all these new experiences and new perspectives—engaging in their activities helps us to know more about the environment and write better papers.”
Other Rural Action programs that student groups worked with were the Youth Environmental Stewardship Program and the Appalachian Green Teachers Program, which is a support system for teachers to help them take advantage of the natural resources we have around us. For all their projects, students wrote up various memos and analyses, collected primary data, and produced a group recommendation report that they presented to Rural Action staff.
Besides learning about our local area, students also appreciate the professional communication component of the class. Al Balushi is already thinking about finding a job when she graduates.
“This class and the project we have will help us in the future. It has helped me to connect what I learned about business with my writing,” Al Balushi said.
“The group work helped me appreciate what you can learn from others and helped me get different views and ideas. In my career I will need to organize groups and participate in groups as a member,” said Kento Matsuoka, majoring in Aviation Management and from Japan, who valued the collaborative aspect of the class.
Both the students and Rural Action staff have enjoyed the conversations they’ve been able to have in and out of class. By working with Rural Action, students are able to gain different perspectives, build relationships, and think outside of the box, for example, with how they go about collecting their data. Course instructor J. Elliott Casal believes in the power of project-based learning and notes that “by creating a purpose for the work our students are doing beyond the classroom, we’ve developed an engaging and authentic space for learning.”
The American cultural component in this class is important as well. As Al Balushi points out, in many countries they don’t have activities like Citizen Science and Environmental Education.
“I got to know more about summer camp,” she said, and that’s exciting because it’s “something we don’t have back home.”
Matsuoka agreed, adding that “education is the most important thing, and in this class I had the chance to learn directly and see how things work in real life here.”
Past partners with this course have included Donkey Coffee, Jackie O’s, and Bagel Street Deli. ELIP courses focus on helping all students develop the professional and academic communication skills they’ll need in their majors, disciplines, and careers.
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