uVolunteer General FAQs
Hi, I was wondering if it common or complicated to receive internship credit from a university for a program through Uvolunteer? A friend of mine is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree in communications with a minor in business and would like to join the program for a term
Currently uVolunteer does not have any affiliations or relationships with US universities that allow us to reward academic credits to volunteers. But this does not necessarily mean that you will be unable to earn credit for volunteering through uVolunteer.
One possibility is earning credit from the university that you currently attend by approaching a professor in a specific department and devising an independent study. You and the professor would agree upon a syllabus and a checklist of things that you would fulfil while volunteering abroad. Every professor has different requirements so you should speak to them face-to-face and describe the project that you are interested in and come up with a creative way to add an academic element to the project.
For example, if you were to volunteer in Bolivia at the community development project with the indigenous community in the Amazon, you could study the culture and behaviour of the indigenous people and propose to write a paper on the religious practices of the people in agreement with a professor within the anthropology, religion or even the sociology department.
Or if you wanted to focus on Spanish language, you could come up with an independent study focused on the improvement of your language skills that result from partaking in the project.
Or if you wanted to focus on teaching English in public schools, you could examine the financial and bureaucratic problems that plague public schools and come up with an independent study with a professor in your history or government departments.
These are just a few of the possibilities of gaining credit through independent studies related to volunteering abroad. If you decide on a specific project that you would like to participate in, I would be more than happy to suggest an independent study that could be coupled with your volunteer project of choice.
Last update: 2006-10-02 10:29
Author: Nathaniel Manu
Revision: 1.2
