Bentley University
AC-5: Immersive Experience

Bentley Ghana Project summer internship: In 2006, Bentley began working closely with The Mmofra Trom Education Center near Somanya, Ghana, to provide services to disadvantaged children in the surrounding villages. Bentley has now developed relationships with more than 15 Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) in Ghana. The goal of Bentley is to contribute to the economic development of its "partners in learning" in exchange for rich learning experiences for students and the greater Bentley community. This began with the relationship with The Mmofra Trom Education Center whose primary purpose is to provide access to education, health care, job skills training, and employment opportunities. The goal of Bentley’s involvement with the center is to contribute to its intention of becoming self-sustaining, while furthering the education of Bentley students through service-learning projects. Global Health Challenges course: One professor brings his students to Ghana or Ethiopia to get a hands-on understanding of the difficulties facing developing nations in addressing their citizens' healthcare needs. Science of Sustainability course: travel to Ghana (similar to Global Health Challenges above) Principles of Geology in Iceland: The overall goal of this course is to introduce non-science-major undergraduate students to fundamental principles of Earth Science and to build and apply that knowledge through hands-on field-based and classroom activities. An additional goal is to increase Earth science literacy of students, citizens, and future business leaders so that they can make more informed decisions about Earth resources, natural hazards, and the relationship between humans and their geologic environment. Special emphasis for Bentley Abroad version of this course in Iceland will be volcanic activity related to plate boundaries and hot spots, glacier fluctuations and related jökulhlaups, stream flow processes, geysers, geothermal energy, and global climate change on a variety of time scales. Coastal Geology of Cape Cod: A field-oriented course investigating various ecosystems of Cape Cod, focusing on the variety and types of organisms found in each area and their interrelationships with their natural surroundings. The ecosystems to be studied in this one-week intensive course on Cape Cod include sandy beaches and dunes, salt marshes, estuaries, rocky intertidal habitats, saltwater and freshwater ponds, and a rare Atlantic White Cedar swamp. Global Climate Change in New Zealand: Examines basic concepts of weather and climate, such as structure of the atmosphere, ocean and atmospheric circulation, and latitudinal and seasonal changes in relationship to distribution of land and water bodies on Earth. Also considered are temporal changes in large-scale climatic phenomena, such as atmospheric carbon dioxide, glaciations, sea level change, monsoons, impact of volcanoes, El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Greenhouse Effect, stratospheric ozone depletion, desertification, as well as human impacts on climate. EC 3900 France nuclear power: spring break immersive experience: The trip was part of the Special Topics in Energy Economics & International Markets course, which examines economic theory, empirical perspectives and the political economy of energy supply and demand. Students will also participate in a group research project that critically examines a major energy policy issue facing New England, France or the nation.The goal is for students to acquire economic fundamentals and the institutional knowledge needed to implement sound economic decisions pertaining to various energy alternatives.