Jeff Kroeker is one of those faculty members at Sauder that makes the place truly great. He is an accounting guy (we won’t hold that against him) who is a star teacher and innovator (along with Paul Cubbon) in the COMM 101 course which sensibly and energetically introduces “business” to first year Commerce students.
But this story is about one of Jeff’s other projects …ARC. http://arcinitiative.com/
All the info is on the web site but I just wanted to highlight ARC as a learning platform — one of several Africa projects at Sauder (the other is Nancy Langton’s Sauder Africa Initiative: http://africa.sauder.ubc.ca/) .
ARC uses a different thinking and doing model that creates programs that build local business management and leadership capacity. It is a partnership among Canadian business people, students, alumni and faculty at UBC.
Current programs focus on Phalaborwa, South Africa and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — the connection being that members from ARC are from these cities and have relationships at the deepest community levels which is critical for success.
ARC strikes me as a fabulous vehicle for learning. The internships provide students with hands-on experience working with business people in what is often a new culture. This is version of community-service learning on a global scale.
For more info, here is an overview ARC video,
And an ARC Student Internship video
Am not sure what ARC stands for (in terms of the acronym) but I sure like its philosophy and approach.