4th Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Service-Learning in Hong Kong, China

[Announcement from he-sl listserv]

Dear All,

Greeting from the Office Of Service-Learning, Lingnan University, Hong Kong!

We are excited to announce that the 4th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Service-Learning, which will be held , on 4^th to 7^th   June 2013 (Tuesday to Friday) in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China.  

The theme for the upcoming conference is “Service-Learning as a Bridge from Local to Global: Connected World, Connected Future”.With globalization, the world gets more and more connected. Barriers to movement are being decomposed and local demographics are dramatically changing. The connected world calls for all parties to collaborate and work together for a connected future. The need for bilingual and culturally sensitive professionals and service providers urges the universities to prepare graduates with the ability to act in the world and for the world. However, social problems may need to be addressed through an interdisciplinary approach from local to global.

This conference provides a platform to connect knowledge from different academic disciplines and different social sectors, to learn from each others’ best practices and to apply knowledge in different settings to achieve a better world. We would like to invite YOU all to attend this conference and jointly work with people from different backgrounds to address the social issues above. We are pleased to have Prof. Andrew Furco, Associate Vice President for Public Engagement, Associate Professor of Education, Director of the International Center for Research on Community Engagement, University of Minnesota; Dr. Mabel Erasmus, Head of Service Learning, University of the Free State; and Mr. Chung Po Yang, Founder of DHL International, Chairman Emeritus of DHL Express (HK) Ltd, Chairman of The Hong Kong Institute of Service Leadership & Management and The Good Life Initiative Limited, as our keynote speakers. They will share with you about what they have been doing and what we can do it together. More speakers from other countries will be announced very soon as well.

If you are interested to join us, please do send us a proposal that echo this conference theme around the world.

Conference presenters will have a variety of formats from which to choose; the Conference committee will make the final decisions on which format best suits each proposed presentation. The possible presentation formats are: Paper Presentation, Panel Presentation, Poster Presentation, Student Forum, and Interactive Workshop. Through these different topics and modes of presentations, we aim to achieve the following conference goals:

(1) Provide a platform for Service-Learning Coordinators/Practitioners/Researchers, Professors/Course Instructors, Community Partners, Administrators, and Educational Policy Makers to share their ideas and practices on Service-Learning

(2) Share best practices for Service-Learning and the wise use of knowledge for the improvement of the world, i.e. to see how Service-Learning can address social issues, e.g. Ageing, Health care, Social Enterprises, etc  

(3) Review Service-Learning theories and practices from an international perspective

Interested scholars are invited to submit paper abstracts of maximum 350 words, to be sent to the Conference Secretariat on or before 31^st January 2013. Presenting authors will be notified via e-mail, the status of their abstracts, and prior to 1st March 2013. All presenters must register for the conference. The deadline of Early Bird registration is before 15^th March, 2013

For enquiry, you can contact us by email: oslconf@ln.edu.hk. Further information about the conference will be available at http://www.ln.edu.hk/osl/conference2013. We are looking forward to seeing you at our conference.  

Yours Sincerely,

Office of Service-Learning

Lingnan University

Hong Kong