Integrative Cultural Research Project

The Integrative Cultural Research Project (ICRP) is a part of the academic program of all Kalamazoo-sponsored study abroad programs. The primary goal of the project is to encourage and allow students on these programs to involve themselves directly in the local culture in a project of significance to them and the local community.

As an experiential learning opportunity, the project consists of two major segments-the field experience and reflective essay. ICRP students select an activity (often a service or volunteer project, a cultural internship or the collecting of life histories) that will require them to interact closely with local people. Through a structured process of observation, interaction, research and reflection, students ideally undergo a change in perspective from “they do things this way... we do things that way” to “it makes sense to do things this way.” At the end of the field experience, students write a reflective essay on their experiences and begin to develop some initial hypotheses about the significance of their activity within the larger culture.

The ICRP is just one of the important ways in which the study abroad experience aims to create new generations of leaders endowed with the sort of transnational competence that will be necessary for functioning effectively in an increasingly interconnected world.