A new type of class is offered exclusively to the Honors Program here at ULV this semester.Â
This class is Leadership & Culture: Building Bridges Across Borders, an interdisciplinary class that focuses on subjects like sociology, communication, and more. We focus primarily on leadership: what it is and what it should be.
That’s not the most interesting part however.
The classroom is split in half across the U.S.-Mexico border, hence the title of the course. There’s one group of ULV honors students and then there’s a group of honors students from CETYS Universidad in Tiajuana. On the U.S. side, the class is taught by the president of the University of La Verne, Dr. Devorah Lieberman, as well as Professor and Vice Provost Beatriz Gonzalez, and Professor Issac Carter. At CETYS, they’re taught by their university president: Dr. Fernando LeĂłn Garcia, also by Professor and Director of Institutional Relations Carlos Garcia, and Professor Eduardo Gomez.
That is definitely a prestigious group of people.
How do we communicate?Â
Like this!
Conference calls!
Round of applause for technology.Â
In this day and age, through the wonders of technology, two universities in two different countries are able to run one class with one syllabus. The class promotes group work among students and features either a guest lecturer and/or interesting readings each Monday night. Journals and independent activity help students look at leadership (either in the world around us or what type of leaders we are) through a critical thinking lens. Though there might be communication issues from time to time such as technology glitching or cultural differences, everyone puts forth an effort to connect.Â
For anyone wondering, we communicate with each other in English.Â
At the beginning of the semester, the CETYS students visited La Verne and at the end of the semester, La Verne students will visit the CETYS team in Tiajuana.
This course is the first of its kind, and hopefully we’ll see more courses like this one in the future to promote building bridges across borders. Especially in this day and age.