AEM 3000: Pre-Project Immersion

The Dyson School’s Grand Challenges curriculum empowers students to practice community engagement during their undergraduate experience at Cornell. While completing the three-part Grand Challenges series, students work with peers, faculty and external partners on real community challenges, making the world a better place through business and service. Sarah K. Chalmers teaches the curriculum’s Pre-Project Immersion course and, through the Engaged Faculty Fellowship, is developing a pre-course that gives students the opportunity to define the change they want to make and practice vital skills for the capstone course through engagement with the Ithaca community. Topics students may address include climate change, poverty and racial justice.

“Students will develop an increased awareness of the potential impact of their future work on those around them. This may open their minds to consider new possibilities for their business skills once they graduate, help them develop cultural competence for all of their relationships, and define their values, asking themselves, ‘what kind of human being/business partner do I want to be?’” —Sarah K. Chalmers