Educating Asia's Women, One Scholarship At A Time

While students are not on campus this semester due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are pleased to have a number of initiatives in place to continue the spirit of a cohesive AUW community:

• The AUW student-led clubs are still finding creative ways to adapt to an online medium to keep their peers involved;
• Pathways plans to begin class-to-class peer learning projects whereby we connect students via informal writing projects. By sharing written letters, stories, and anecdotes with each other, we aim to let students practice using English outside their regular classroom activities and also create the feeling of being member of a larger community of learners;
• Similarly, we have begun the process of developing a partnership with an external organization, Global Nomads, with the goal of connecting Pathways students with adolescent learners from around the world. Global Nomads' mission statement is: "to envision a new generation of global citizens who are empathetic, aware and taking action to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues" by leveraging technology "to foster authentic, global youth – driven dialogue."

As always, one of the hallmarks of the Pathways for Promise program is our commitment to encouraging person-to-person mutual understanding through international, cross-cultural peer-learning.

Service Learning

Pathways is currently developing its capacity and expertise to deliver on service learning in an online context. Pathways Instructors have completed a 3-month course of Webinars on service learning in an online environment. 

Our plans for service learning this academic year include:  

a)      Pathways Students interacting with other students from a range of cultural backgrounds and discussing topics such as COVID -19 (e.g. steps to protect communities), maintaining wellbeing in an online environment, and protecting the marine environment. This global interaction will be facilitated by 'Global Nomads'.

b)      We aim to hold at least 2 online forums over the next 8 months, led by our students, with our network of local Universities and NGOs. Students will share the lessons they’ve learned through the Global Nomads initiative as well as explore and discuss the challenges of building online communities.

c)      Students will work with partner organizations in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh to organize community initiatives which promote 'mental well-being'. 

Ultimately, since Pathways is a bridge program with the inherent goal of instilling confidence in our students, our foremost goal is to make our students feel comfortable. The experience of teaching and learning online is relatively new for all of us, and we're all navigating what "the new normal" of education means together. We encourage consistent student feedback and are working to create the best educational experience possible.