Summer Academy on Sustainability from an Intercultural Perspective

Aims & objectives

The two week Summer Academy offered courses aimed at developing solutions for intercultural challenges in international energy politics and environmental ethics, among other ecological issues. A particularly interesting aspect of the Academy was the innovative combination of university lectures and practical workshops, as well as the cultural diversity of the group (participants from 15 different countries are expected). Participants had the opportunity to gain immediate intercultural experiences and to network with people from all over the world.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

There were 8 trainers working in 4 groups as cotrainers. Each trainer couples had around 18-19 participants. Total number of participants were 37.

The trainers were from Germany, Turkey, Sweden, and Switzerland. Particpants came from Germany, Turkey, Australia, China, Palestine, Romania, Finnland, and Greece.

http://summeracademy-istanbul.org/

Training methods used & main activities

Together with my cotrainer, I have designed a manual for the 5-day training. The preparation started 3 months prior to the event and a week of full focus was taken right before the event.

Training was designed to complete and refer to the formal learning topics participants had during the morning. The activities included tasks, project designs, video-photo screening and reflection, field trip and games.

One example could be the Gezi Park field trip, experiencing the atmospehere and having an open disccussion forum there on urban sustainability.

Outcomes of the activity

At the end of the activity, participants preared reflection reports and academic papers. Along with that, the blog posts and press releases were published. It was very important to understand if the model of formal+nonformal approaches worked together and it is evaluated as a success and it still continues today in many countries.

Website: http://intercultural-summeracademy.org/

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was reponsible for designing and implementing the trainings and I was also responsible for the general organizational processes since we were hosting it in Istanbul.

I helped the arrangements of the social activities and outings.

I worked on this training for 5 days as a full time trainer.