Samuel Elzinga, Dean of CHSS, Dr. Steven Clark, and Damon Ashcraft during their meeting.
On Friday, August 3rd, 2018, delegates from the Utah International Mountain Forum (UIMF), a coalition of clubs at Utah Valley University (UVU), met with the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Steven Clark to follow up on UIMF’s recent visit to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development. The meeting was a grand overview of the preparation for the event and a report on the event itself, which included us watching with Dr. Clark our oral statement as recorded by UN Web TV.
One of the concepts we highlighted in the meeting with Dr. Clark was the emphasis on student engaged learning. Since it is one of the core philosophies of UVU and because this visit to the HLPF on Sustainable Development was a prime example, the emphasis on student engaged learning was well received. Dr. Clark was very impressed at all our work to get this visit set up and executed properly. UIMF prides itself on its successful approach to student engaged learning, and one of the best examples of this model is shown through visits to the United Nations.
We also expressed our gratitude for all the support we received from the Dean’s office, as the College of Humanities and Social Sciences gave each student that participated in the trip 400 dollars each to use as a travel grant to pay for tickets to New York. Without these travel grants, the trip would not have been possible, so we made sure to express our appreciation for the funding. Though the meeting with the Dean was somewhat brief, it was a great way to follow up with the university to show everyone what we did over the summer. I am looking forward to the other meetings we will have in the future about this trip.
Samuel Elzinga, President, Foreign Affairs Club
