A Service Learning Collaborative to Build a Sustainable Enterprise for Underprivileged Women (SEuW)

摘要

India is a country with a rich heritage of handicrafts that operate as a labor intensive cottage industry, with little opportunity for organized operation and impact in the global marketplace. Service-learning is the systematic approach to teaching and learning where students use academic knowledge and developed class skills to address community needs. The goal of this ongoing service-learning project was to develop practices that might aid the development of a sustainable enterprise, leveraging traditional Indian handicrafts in the Western marketplace. To this end, a class assignment was developed to engage textile and fashion students in a real-world production experience while learning about the design and manufacturing process, as well as culture through their activities. The skills and knowledge that the students are developing can go far beyond the traditional manufacturing to retail outcome objectives, touching and influencing people's lives with a global sustainable perspective. At the same time, utilizing and building their own skills by learning the fundamental craft of local artists helps students develop a sense of global awareness. The products were developed to support the handicraft industry of India and are based on historically localized skills. The outcome objective is for the students, with the help of outside entities, to have creative input in the development of updated Indian handicraft products that can be sold in the United States of America with a much broader appeal to Western taste than is currently being offered.