University of Miami
AC-5: Immersive Experience

Puerto Rico Farming: Hands-On Approach
In Puerto Rico, students will work on two different coffee plantations, depending on the progress of the harvest in each. Students will be assigned as “work-study partners” with full-time coffee workers, and will undertake jobs with the employees in the plant nursery, in harvesting, processing, packaging, and shipping for export and for local consumption. Students will also investigate other farms specializing in bananas, citrus, root crops, and livestock.

Spaces of Hope: South Africa and Namibia
https://goabroad.miami.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10191

The course is deliberately titled “Spaces of Hope” in order to highlight some of the innovative community projects that are shaping a new South Africa and Namibia, one full of hope and opportunity. The aim is to move beyond negative, staid and dated representations of Africa and, in particular, the Southern African region, focusing instead on the in-between spaces that already provides a glimmer of a very different and exciting future.
We will assess projects and initiatives that are making a large difference in local communities. We will look at the process of transformation and the emergence of hopeful spaces that have arisen out of the deep historical legacies. Post-apartheid South Africa and Namibia are very different contexts. Urbanization has accelerated and South African cities have become hubs for South African rural migrants and well as international migrants while Namibia has remained relatively rural in character but its urban centers have thrived economically. Many groups have not shared in the new wealth generation in the region so both countries are among the most unequal in the world. This course explores interwoven themes of: community and nation building;
urban community engagement; social networks and place; xenophobia, ethnicity and place; tourism; and environmental, urban and social sustainability


U Cape Town
https://goabroad.miami.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10217

Participants will take a 6 credit course titled "'Emerging South Africa in the African Context.” This course provides an introduction to South Africa and contextualizes South Africa within the African region. The course integrates the classroom experience with service learning at a local community organization. This course provides the only common course that UM students will take at UCT so its major objective is also to build a UM student community experience and to provide a bridge between a UM experience and an individual student experience at UCT. An important component of the U Cape Town program is service learning with organizations involved in community social change. A few examples of the many opportunities for service learning include: nature conservation, water scarcity, youth development, healthcare, women's issues, disability services and entrepreneurship.

U Galapagos
https://goabroad.miami.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10207

U Galapagos takes students to the famed Galapagos Islands for a field-oriented semester of study. In collaboration with Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), UM offers a 17-credit Fall semester program tailored to the needs and interests of students majoring in biology. Courses are taught sequentially as immersive three-week experiences by both USFQ and UM faculty experts. In addition to classroom instruction, students also participate in incomparable, hands-on learning through a series of island excursions and field-study assignments. The program is open to qualified UM and non-UM students.