Faculty-Staff Travel Seminar

The Rollins International Grant Faculty-Staff Travel Seminar is a group learning experience grounded in the ethos of Liberal Arts and lifelong learning. Travel Seminars are intentionally designed to expand faculty and staff knowledge and skills related to Global Goals and Global Diversity, and to build capacity for teaching, learning, and scholarship related to these areas across the Rollins community. Travel Seminar participants are also required to report on specific impacts on their personal and professional development in relation to their work at Rollins College.

• Applicants are expected to articulate connections between the seminar theme and learning outcomes and their own personal and professional development.
• For the proposal, applicants are asked to imagine one potential outcome; however, the committee expects that impact and outcomes will emerge through participation in the Seminar itself.
• Participants who fail to submit the two post-travel reports will be ineligible to receive funding for seven years after their date of travel.
• Seminar leaders and participants will engage in a semester-long program of group study prior to travel: content for this program of study should be focused on the seminar theme and its learning outcomes, though broader context and understanding of the global issues, country, region, etc. may also be required. Seminar participants are expected to lead/teach components of the group study.
• Seminar leaders and participants are required to share the Travel Seminar experience with the broader Rollins community within one academic year of the travel dates. This may take different forms (poster fair, photo display, panel, workshop, etc.) but should be designed to help build capacity for teaching, learning and scholarship related to Global Goals and Global Diversity and would normally be part of an existing event such as International Education Week, Faculty Day of Scholarship, the Global Diversity Symposium, the LACS Symposium, etc.
• Priority will be given to those who have not traveled using funding from this program during the last five years. Applicants who have traveled using funding from this program during the last five years may apply, but their applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis and funded only if there is a particularly compelling reason why their travel must take place within the five-year time frame.

Eligibility:

• Tenured faculty and full-time tenure-track faculty with continuing contracts.
• Other faculty with an endorsement from the department chair, who must confirm that the faculty member has been teaching at Rollins for at least two semesters and that the individual is on the teaching schedule for the term following the grant travel.
• Full-time staff who have worked at Rollins for at least a year, with the endorsement of the supervisor.

Application and Review Process

• Applicants must submit applications by 5 P.M. on the advertised deadline: typically in mid-October for a seminar the following summer
• Applications will be reviewed by a sub-committee of the Global Initiatives Committee.
• Application Form

Grant Amount and Costs Covered

Airfare will be booked for the group based on the trip itinerary. Participants who travel outside of the trip itinerary will be responsible for booking the flight; reimbursed only for the amount of the group flight; and responsible for submitting a Travel Expense Report via Chromeriver in a timely fashion.

The grant will cover up to $4500 per participant based on double occupancy. There will be minimal additional expenses – some meals, taxis for travel outside of the group, etc. Seminar leaders will make this clear to participants prior to departure.

Grant Criteria and Details

• Travel Seminars are led by faculty or staff members with significant knowledge of or experience in a region of the world outside of the United States.
• Each group Travel Seminar must have a unifying theme related to one or more Global Goals and/or specific aspects of Global Diversity. We encourage you to use existing frameworks to help define your theme such as the UNSDGs, Grand Challenges for Engineering (http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/challenges.aspx), human rights (https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights), the UN Global Compact (https://unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles), the Social Progress Index (https://www.socialprogress.org/), and/or resources focused on climate change (https://www.climateworks.org/ and https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/).
• Seminar leaders must define learning outcomes for participants that are directly connected to the seminar theme. We also strongly encourage you to consider integrating one or more of the competencies from the Global Experience Index (https://www.rollins.edu/global-initiatives/documents/global-citizenship-global-exp-index.pdf).
• At least 70% of the seminar itinerary must be relevant to the theme and learning outcomes.
• Seminar activities should go beyond typical tourist activities and should include significant opportunities for engagement with individuals and communities on-site relevant to the seminar theme (structured dialogues, visits to organizations/institutions, educational visits to relevant sites etc.).
• Seminar leaders should structure the itinerary to include some optional cultural activities during which participants can also choose to do independent exploration relevant to their work at Rollins.
• Travel Seminars should also include opportunities during and after travel for structured and unstructured reflection.
• Preference will be given to proposals that are budget conscious.
• Seminar leaders will be required to meet with representatives from International Admissions, International Student and Scholar Services and International Programs early in the planning process to explore opportunities to connect with international alums, current international students and families, and/or international partner institutions or organizations during the seminar.
• Seminar leaders and participants will engage in a semester-long program of group study prior to travel: content for this program of study should be focused on the theme and learning outcomes though broader context and understanding of the global issues, country, region, etc. may also be required. Seminar participants are expected to lead/teach components of the group study. Seminar leaders organize these sessions and the group is expected to meet five-seven times during the spring semester to prepare for travel.
• Seminar leaders and participants are required to share the Travel Seminar experience with the broader Rollins community within one academic year of the travel dates. This may take different forms (poster fair, photo display, panel, workshop, etc.) but should be designed to help build capacity for teaching, learning, and scholarship related to Global Goals, Grand Challenges, and Global Diversity and would normally be part of an existing event such as International Education Week, Faculty Day of Scholarship, the Global Diversity Symposium, the LACS Symposium, etc.
• Seminar groups are typically between ten and fourteen, including the Seminar Leaders.
• Seminar leaders receive compensation of $4000; if there are two seminar leadersh, the compensation is divided based on roles and responsibilites.

Eligibility

• Tenured faculty and full-time tenure-track faculty with continuing contracts.
• Other faculty with an endorsement from the department chair, who must confirm that the faculty member has been teaching at Rollins for at least two semesters and that the individual is on the teaching schedule for the term following the grant travel.
• Staff leaders will be considered on a case-by-case basis, with the endorsement of the relevant supervisor.

• Applications for the 2024 seminar are due on August 21, 2023.
• Each application will be evaluated on whether or not it meets the criteria stated above.
• Applications will be reviewed by a sub-committee of the Global Initiatives Committee.
• Application Form

Following the expenditure of a grant award, all recipients are required to file a preliminary report on their experiences/ accomplishments. Initial reports are due within 60 days of returning from travel.
All recipients are then required to file a final report on the progress towards intended outcomes detailed in the grant application. Final reports are due within one year of returning home from travel.  Both reports must be submitted via a Qualtrics survey.

Typically, seminar leaders are expected to assist in the collection of reports for the participants in their seminar.

Initial Report

Final Report