The Community Colleges for International Development, and Madison Area Technical College have teamed up with EDU Africa to offer a seminar that engages faculty and study abroad staff with best practices in intercultural competence, ethical engagement, sustainability, and health, risk, and safety in international education.

The seminar will take an African-centric approach with Kenya as the case study by covering topics such as the importance of oral history and storytelling in learning and study abroad experiences. Excitingly offered for its second iteration in Kenya in 2025 with a widened scope, the Seminar straddles Brackenhurst, a hotel and conference center in Limuru, and the world-renowned Maasai Mara; optimally utilizing the local Kenyan context to demonstrate the opportunities and challenges faculty members, their students and host communities face in the design, facilitation and implementation of study abroad programs.

Majority world countries are often portrayed as dangerous, unsanitary, and unstable by global media outlets and foreign governments, eclipsing the various avenues that exist to prevent and/ or mitigate these risks. This seminar is designed to disrupt these negative portrayals and critically explore concepts and applications of risk, health, and safety in the majority world, and Kenya in particular. Furthermore, this seminar will encourage participants to think through best practices in ethical community engagement and principles of sustainability in study abroad. These are particularly important concepts on the African continent, where the effects of climate change are being keenly felt and exploitation by the minority world continues to occur.