Program Overview

Program Selection

Students enrolled in universities partnered with Intercordia Canada submit an application and will be invited to meet with Intercordia staff and university faculty to discuss their desire to participate in the program. Upon selection, candidates are responsible to pass a medical examination and must be willing to commit to fund-raising a portion of the program costs.

Academic Component

1) Prerequisite Course: a Social Justice/International Studies related lecture course offered by the university during the fall/winter term.  Individual universities will decide which courses will qualify as a prerequisite for the Intercordia program.

2) Directed Reading Course: Intercordia students enroll in an independent reading course specifically designed to provide them with the theoretical framework for responding to global inequity. The written assignments are determined by the course instructor, but may include a focus on the history, social structure and social justice issues of the country that the student is to live in during their three month placement.

3) Seminar: Intercordia staff animate four full Seminar days on the university campus over the course of the fall and winter terms. These days are designed to introduce the students to the vision and pedagogy of Intercordia, help them to reflect personally on their academic learning and to prepare them for the challenge of living in a foreign country.

Immersion Experience

Students will spend three months living and working in an area of the world radically different from their present situation. The work placement is primarily about creating opportunities for relationships with people who are culturally, materially, or intellectually different than the student, and quite often living in distress. All participants will have a host family arranged for them in their placement country.