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ECHO is committed to providing hands-on training to missionaries and development workers preparing to work overseas. ECHO accomplishes this by maintaining at formal study program, independent study program, and partnering with other educational institutions. |
International Seminar: Sustainable Tropical Agriculture - Gordon College
During this intensive January term course students will learn about tropical plants and agricultural techniques used in the developing world. Students study and experience sustainable agriculture during a two week stay at ECHO where they participate in on-farm study and work, classroom instruction, and library research and study time. After two weeks at ECHO, students travel to Honduras where they work with long-term missionaries and observe self-sustaining tropical farms.
For an application or more information please visit: Gordon Sustainable Tropical Agriculture Information Page.
Tropical Agriculture and Missions – AuSable Institute
College Credit at ECHO—“Tropical Agriculture and Missions” Course
Administered through AuSable Institute of Environmental Studies
Located at ECHO's Campus in Southwest Florida
Introduction by
By Martin Price
If you have ever visited ECHO, you know that we may now have the largest collection of useful plants for small-farm tropical agriculture in the USA. We also have numerous demonstrations of appropriate technologies and cropping systems. No college or university that we know of in North America has equivalent resources for teaching. For years we have recognized the potential for ECHO to be the site of an incredible course in tropical agriculture, using the farm as a “laboratory,” our unique library for reference material and our experienced staff for teachers. As of three years ago, just such a course has been developed and is now offered each summer.
The three-week course is taught at ECHO under the direction of the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies (www.ausable.org). Au Sable offers a wide range of environmental courses for more than sixty Christian colleges in the USA. Courses are taught from a Christian perspective. The professor of record is Dr. David Unander, Chair of the Dept. of Biology at Eastern University in Philadelphia. He was a plant breeder with the University of Puerto Rico for several years and has been involved in missions, research and teaching in several Caribbean Basin countries. Undergraduate credit in Au Sable courses is granted through a student’s home institution. Graduate credit has also been arranged, and we hope to increase options for this.
You can see a sample syllabus, photos and an overview of past classes at http://www.eastern.edu/academic/trad_undg/sas/depts/biology/Trop%20Ag%20Missions%20Au%20Sab%20ECHO.htm.
For information contact Dr. David Unander (phone: 610-341-5860; email dunander@eastern.edu) or Dr. David Mahan, Admissions/Registrar at Au Sable (phone: 231-587-8686; email mahan@ausable.org).
Workshop on health, agriculture, and community development - HACC (Health, Agriculture, Culture and Community)
Many common health problems around the world come from unhealthy behavior. Motivating people to make behavioral changes is difficult because the roots of behavior are in culturally determined beliefs and values. The arena for promoting behavioral changes is in dialogue about the cultural values and beliefs that underlie behavior. An understanding of cultural anthropology and the practice of cross-cultural communication is essential for successful motivation of changes in community development, and behavior related to health, nutrition, and agriculture.
The biblical view of reality provides fundamental principles of health and healthy behavior and gives core cultural values important for community development. The Global Health Training Program at King College in Bristol TN in association with ECHO, offers a biannual five-day workshop to train health and community development professionals on how to help people improve their own health and nutrition. The workshop brings together biblical principles of health and agriculture, cross-cultural methods of communication, and skills in establishing relationships that facilitate behavioral changes for the improvement of health and nutrition. It is excellent preparation for an inter-cultural ministry of transformational development.
The next workshop is scheduled for November 12-16,2007 also at ECHO. Click here for more details.
For further information about this, write to: globalhealth@king.edu, or visit www.king.edu.