1.+Class+Description

= Course Description =

// Students signing up for this class should be self-motivated, intellectually curious, and open to learning in new ways, as this class will be co-taught by teachers here at Trinity and living abroad. Its purpose is to help students understand and develop leadership and service skills within a global focus. The course is discussion based and collaborative, one semester in length, and open to juniors and seniors. It will make extensive use of technology including blogs, wikis, skype, and podcasting, as well as resources including readings, interviews, and various media. // S// tudents will be required to be involved in community service throughout the term and also to collaboratively develop a larger group service project. Students choosing to implement their project may incur additional fees. //

Course Overview
=Unit 1: Leadership=
 * This five week unit will include one week of introductions and class team building activities, followed by two weeks of leadership theory and two weeks of leadership case studies (in the forms of speeches, short biographies, etc).
 * Its purpose will be to give the students a lens through which to see and evaluate leadership.
 * The evaluation will be through a short paper.

=**Unit 2: Developing Country (Historical, Economic Overview)**=
 * This four week unit will focus on the history and current conditions of developing countries - what is daily life like, what are the challenges and opportunities, and what are the circumstances that led to this present state of affairs? The first week will be a general overview, while the last three will contain mini-unit case studies on Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
 * The objective is to help students gain perspective on how the rest of the world lives.
 * The evaluation method will be through an in-class test with short take home essays.

= = =**Unit 3: Leadership and Approaches to Development**=
 * This four week unit will look at various approaches to development and the ethics involved in these models. Both bottom-up and top-town approaches will be critiqued, using Ashoka fellows and the World Bank as main models for comparison. Students will also begin to compare the power of free markets to foreign aid, and chat with volunteers around the world to gain insight into their personal experiences with leadership and development.
 * The objective is to help students synthesize the theories and approaches to leadership from Unit 1 with the challenges presented in developing countries.
 * The evaluation will be through an in-class debate comparing various approaches to development.

=**Unit 4: Project Wrap-Up**=
 * The first two weeks of this unit will be primarily unstructured time for students to wrap up their group and individual service projects. Students will also have time to conduct research on an individual “theme” of their choosing - concepts touched on during the class but not analyzed in depth. During the third week, students will make individual presentations / lessons to the class on their chosen theme. The fourth week will be review for the final exam.
 * The objective of this unit is to finish work on the student’s two semester-long projects, and give them the opportunity to study more in depth a topic of their choosing and teach their classmates about the subject.
 * The evaluation will consist of the Theme Presentation as well as a final exam.

**Texts:**

=**Traditional Texts**=
 * Unit 1: Leadership
 * Primary text: Introduction from Daft's "Leadership Experience"
 * Secondary texts:
 * Letter from a Birmingham Jail – MLK
 * The Art of War - Sun Tzu
 * Obama speech TBD
 * Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler
 * Unit 2: Developing Countries
 * Primary Text: "Commanding Heights" PBS Series
 * http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/hi/story/index.html
 * Secondary Texts:
 * Gapminder
 * Jeffrey Sachs, End of Poverty
 * Muhammad Yunus, Creating A World Without Poverty
 * Hernando deSoto - The Mystery of Capital
 * Unit 3: Leadership and Approaches to Development
 * Primary Text: How To Change The World" by David Bornstein
 * Secondary Texts: Excerpts from:
 * White Man's Burden, William Easterly
 * Amartya Sen, Development is Freedom
 * Jeffrey Sachs, End of Poverty
 * Muhammad Yunus, Creating A World Without Poverty

=**Videos / etc.**= = =
 * TED Talks
 * Barry Schwartz: The real crisis? We stopped being wise
 * http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html
 * This talk discusses the ideas of wisdom as a guide to behavior. Do you think this would be helpful in discussing the roles of leadership and service?
 * Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen
 * []
 * Dan Ariely: Why we think it's OK to cheat and steal (sometimes)
 * []