Teaching younger generations is an incredible opportunity for exchange. If the students come from a different country, it also provides an opportunity for cultural exchange. This is the scenario for our contribution to Ithaca’s London, People and Planet course for American undergrads taking a semester in London.

The challenge is how to make the course interesting and make the learning last. To address this challenge, we built the course around field trips to diverse locations around London.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Doughnut Economics are the frameworks for the module. While the Ikigai concept is used as a tool for personal development to connect the learning from the course to action in practice.

We have taught American students before in a similar setting at Birkbeck College. There is a huge gap between American and British education systems. While the first focused on examining hard data, the second focused on analytical thinking. To bridge this gap, we use United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework. Although it seems overwhelming at first, the key message that we are facing complex issues that cannot be solved with a silver bullet is pretty clear.

We apply the Whole Person Approach (WPA) and the interactive style of the classes, combined site visits make the class enjoyable and keep students awake and away from their phones. We also apply the “check-in” and “check-out” methods, at the start and the end of each class. At the beginning of the class, they say how they were feeling and at the end, they share their take away from the day. It was amazing to see the student’s development throughout the weeks.