Lecture to focus on service-learning

Students and faculty members will learn how to set up international service-learning programs at 5:30 p.m. today in the Indiana Memorial Union Dogwood Room.\nKate Combellick, director of service-learning at Fordham University, will give the presentation on the program, where students learn how to create fair trade between the U.S. and Third World countries, said Joelene Bergonzi, assistant director for the IU Leadership, Ethics and Social Action program.\nBergonzi said students can have a better understanding of how to relate to people who might not live in privileged areas. \nCombellick said in a press release that the language of focusing on a common task, such as selling fair trade goods, somewhat prevents the tendency of privileged people to distance themselves from those who are less privileged.\nCombellick has taken her students to Kenya and India as part of this program, said her daughter, IU graduate student Sarah Combellick-Bidney. \nCombellick-Bidney said her mother’s students have learned how to go to other countries and participate in fair trade and then come back and sell items on their college campus. \n“It’s a good way to learn about programs that are being done at other universities that might help students get involved with microfinance,” Combellick-Bidney said. \nBergonzi said she brought Combellick to IU after learning about her through her daughter. \n“We are very interested in how you set up good experiences for students with international programs,” Bergonzi said. “It is a good experience for the people they are with also.”\nBergonzi said the presentation will follow a discussion about the topic. An IU student who recently traveled to Kenya will also be there to answer questions. \nThe Hutton Honors College International Experiences Program; the Leadership, Ethics and Social Action Program; and the Department of Political Science are all sponsoring the presentation.