Professor Jennifer Clapp and her students travelled halfway across the world to learn about problems surrounding the environment, food security, and the global economy.
By Michelle Pressé. Waterloo is celebrating International Education Week with a variety of on-campus activities, as well as a series of stories showcasing some of the international experiences of our students, faculty, and staff.
Every year, millions of people travel to Italy to enjoy Neapolitan pizza and authentic gelato. Jennifer Clapp also travelled to Italy for the food, but she didn’t go to eat it – she went to educate her students about it.
As the Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability at Waterloo, Jennifer is an expert on global governance of problems surrounding the environment, food security, and the global economy.
She travelled to Italy last summer with 16 students for a field course that examined governance frameworks and institutions’ focuses on issues of sustainability, food security, and food policy.
“The experience was life changing,” says Jennifer. “University should be about that. We can do lots of textbook learning, but the experiential stuff is what you remember forever.”
For some students, the course allowed them to travel abroad for the first time, and for one, it meant travelling by plane for the first time. One of the most memorable parts of the trip included a visit to the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome and other international food policy institutions.
According to the UN, agriculture is the largest employer in the world – 40 per cent of today’s global population depends on it for work, while 45 per cent of deaths in children are caused by poor nutrition every year.
“The opportunity for these students was incredible – truly a vibrant student experience. Within the Strategic Plan, one of the goals is to ensure that students have an engaging, purposeful, and relevant experience,” says Ian Rowlands, Interim Associate Vice-President, International. “Learning from one of the world’s leading researchers about global food security and sustainability in a country where policies are developed and implemented is exactly the kind of experience we want to offer to our students as part of their education at Waterloo.”
The group had the opportunity to meet with policy makers who introduced themselves and answered questions before the students participated in meetings. However, the conversations grew so meaningful that the policy makers stayed longer than planned.
“They were very generous with their time,” says Jennifer. “Both the policy makers and the students were curious about each other’s ideas, and a lot of meaningful conversations came from that.”
This allowed students to not only learn more about the policies they study in their textbooks, but to pick the brains of the people who created them. Jennifer believes gaining a new perspective is the key to collaborating with international partners.
“We live in a global society,” says Jennifer. “Stepping outside of our own culture and learning about different perspectives is invaluable if we want to co-operate on big issues like food security and climate change. If we can’t understand other people’s perspectives, we will never make progress.”