Int'l Local Knowledge Youth Camp Kicks Off Next Week

Around a hundred college students and faculty from around the Philippines and Indonesia arrive on campus next week for the first International Youth Camp in Local Knowledge of the Asian University Digital Resource Network (AUDRN).

The Camp, dubbed #U_SWAG (United Students’ Wisdom and Awareness on the Ground), runs from April 15 to 19. It offers a unique opportunity for delegates to learn more about the process of documenting, presenting and sharing material information about the local way of life and culture in Dumaguete City.

Lectures fill the first day of the Camp with resource persons and facilitators discussing concepts of local knowledge, multi-disciplinal and inter-disciplinal approaches to better understanding the role of culture and tradition in the community, and how local knowledge can be better viewed through the lens of 21st century learners.

Field exposures on the second day divide delegates into groups and take them to different sites in Dumaguete and the municipalities of Dauin and Valencia. These are field sites that promote practices that are either traditional or unique in the areas of food culture and literary arts, sustainable fishing, plant conservation, and tourism. Delegates then package and present their experiences to stimulate a rich discussion on how, in the midst of evolving preferences, the youth can be champions in promoting local knowledge.

A separate session is organized for faculty delegates for them to learn more about service-learning and how local knowledge can be better incorporated into classroom discussions and the academic curriculum.

The expansion of the Camp to include international students is in recognition of the partnership between AUDRN and the University Network for Digital Knowledge (UNDK), an association of universities in Indonesia advocating local knowledge. The creation of UNDK was inspired by the AUDRN. Silliman is a founding member of the AUDRN.