Global Service Learning


  • Our Story
  • Our Strategy
  • Our Serving Opportunities
  • GSL Grants and Applications

INGENUITY AS HISTORY

From its inception, the mission of GSL has been learning to serve the world. We seek to provide hands-on opportunities for students to learn how to serve the underserved with the academic skills they are acquiring at LETU so they become globally-minded leaders who steward their time and abilities and reach out to the least among us. At the same time, we seek to create opportunities for LETU faculty members to engage in innovative and pioneering research and scholarship that ultimately serves the world in a Christ-honoring way. We want to provide some of the resources needed for our faculty and students to dream and consider how their disciplines are uniquely poised to solve real world problems and be a part of God's redemptive plan.

Below are a few of the innovative and pioneering ways our faculty and students serve. If you want to support projects like these, consider donating to the LETU Global Service Learning fund.

WHEELS

The Wheels team is an interdisciplinary team that researches wheelchair function for people with disabilities in under resourced settings. The goal is to improve the lives of people with disabilities by providing feedback to wheelchair manufacturers. In addition to the research done here on campus, the team has done field studies during the summer in Kenya at several partnering agencies.

 

 

FRONTIER WHEELCHAIRS

A team of faculty and students from Mechanical Engineering and Mechanical Technology Engineering implement the research of the Wheels project by using their engineering skills to make improvements in wheelchair design for developing nations. The Frontier Wheelchair teams design, build, and adapt the machinery needed to test wheelchair components as well as continuing to work on more functional chair design from top to bottom.

 

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Nursing Project

Our LETU nursing students and faculty spend time in a very hands-on setting by coming alongside a local agency and local physicians to provide medical care clinics in some of the most remote places in Guatemala. The focus in on basic healthcare, adequate nutrition, clean water, and education, and the goal is to collaborate and develop sustainable programs in areas of the world where healthcare needs are significant.

 

Counseling & Psychology Project

A team of students, faculty, and staff from our Counseling & Psychology Department partner with local ministries abroad to help provide psychological services to community members.

INGENUITY AS STRATEGY

Our hope at GSL is to stimulate the incubation of new research projects and to support the continued implementation of current projects. We want to see learning inside the classroom connect with practical applications and needs outside the classroom walls. With our talented faculty, high-ability students, and the historic LeTourneau culture of ingenuity in Christian service, God has uniquely equipped us to join His call to love one another and make disciples in every nation. So how do we do this?

As faculty and students consider and develop specific projects in their chosen fields, these values are kept in mind. We desire to:

  • Honor Christ and serve others with our discipline and expertise.
  • Develop sustainable solutions that ease human suffering and encourage human flourishing.
  • Seek multidisciplinary solutions and partner with long term, gospel-centered organizations.
  • Prepare students to be the next generation of global servant-leaders.
  • Encourage faculty and students to broadly use their resources and ingenuity for the sake of the world.

WHAT MAKES A GSL PROJECT SO UNIQUE?

Each Global Service Learning project:

  • Must involve both faculty and students as a collaborative team and work alongside long-term strategic partners
  • Must confront a global problem that has ongoing sustainability and practical application
  • Must build upon an existing discipline within the university
  • Must address a need that has educational benefit for the student and professional benefit for the faculty
  • Must be fiscally sound and sustainable for both the university and host country

INGENUITY AS SERVICE

We believe that LETU is a unique piece of the puzzle in solving specific problems as part of God's plan of renewal of this fragmented world. GSL projects provide students the opportunity to apply their first world education to real world problems in a multidisciplinary, global setting. Through these projects, students become active participants alongside faculty in their host location, engaging with members of the community, and developing skills that will ultimately make them more responsible global citizens as they grow in seeing their life's work as a holy calling with eternal impact.frontierwheelsupdate1-resize.jpg

At GSL, we establish strategic partnerships with missionaries, ministries, and NGOs already on the ground doing long term, gospel-centered work. We firmly believe GSL projects are transformational for both students and faculty as well as for the communities around the world that benefit from these specific initiatives.

GSL Grant Guidelines and Application

LeTourneau University is committed to being a university of global influence. In an effort to fulfill our commitment, the Office of Global Initiatives established the Center for Global Service Learning (GSL), which seeks to empower faculty members and students to use their expertise, skills, and ingenuity in order to develop sustainable solutions in developing communities that will ease human suffering, foster human flourishing, and demonstrate God's redeeming love.

GSL seeks both to stimulate the incubation of new projects as well as to support the continued implementation of existing projects.

GSL offers the following grants:

  1. GSL Start Up Grant: The purpose of the GSL Start-Up Grant is to stimulate new GSL projects and encourage participation from new faculty members. This grant request may be submitted while the details of your trip are still in the conceptual phase. The funds from this award can be used in a variety of ways, for example: partially covering cost for a vision trip, publicity, or an informational luncheon for prospective partners. Successful single-author/lead proposals will receive $250; Successful multi-author/lead proposals will be awarded $600. If the proposal is also multi-disciplinary in its approach, it will receive a bonus award of $150.
  2. GSL Project Grant: The purpose of the GSL Project Grant is to empower faculty members to use their expertise, skills, and ingenuity in order to develop sustainable solutions in developing communities that will ease human suffering, foster human flourishing, and demonstrate God's redeeming love. This grant is available for both new and existing grants.
    • New GSL projects are eligible to receive:
      • Successful single-author/lead proposals will receive $500-$2,500
      • Successful multi-author/lead proposals will receive $700-$3,500
    • Existing projects are eligible to receive:
      • Successful single-author/lead proposals will receive $500-$2,000
      • Successful multi-author/lead proposals will receive $700-$3,000
  3. GSL Student Engagement Grants: GSL Student Engagement Grants are available for qualified students engaged in an approved GSL project in the amounts of $500 to $1,000. Applications will be accepted up to one month before the trip's departure date.
  4. GSL Non-Lead Faculty Grant: GSL Non-Lead Faculty Member Grants are available for qualified faculty or staff engaged in an approved GSL Project in the amounts of $500 to $1,000. Applications will be accepted up to one month before the trip's departure date.

GRANT PROPOSAL APPROVAL PROCESS:

All grant proposals will be evaluated by the Global Service Learning review board, which will determine whether the proposal meets the requirements and is a mission-fit with the mission and aims of GSL.

CRITERIA FOR A GLOBAL SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT:

Each GSL project must meet the following criteria:

  1. It must solve a problem through research (in keeping with your department standards), which your team has or can identify appropriate expertise.
  2. It must involve both faculty and students as a project team.
  3. It must address a need that has an educational benefit for the student and professional benefit for the faculty.
  4. It must build upon an existing academic discipline within the university.
  5. It must work in partnership with a host institution or entity that has long-term commitments with the community that you are serving. Said in another way, the project must be incorporated into the long-term mission and aims of a host institution or entity.
  6. It must be fiscally sound and sustainable for both the university and the host country.