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Future Generations University Solving Global Problems with Local Solutions

Future.Edu Growing Sustainable Communities

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  • ADMISSIONS
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    • ACADEMICS
    • MASTER’S DEGREE
    • APPALACHIAN CONFERENCE
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    • CONTINUING EDUCATION
    • FOR STUDENTS
    • INTRO TO COMMUNITY CHANGE
    • TAKING IMPACT TO SCALE
    • SOCIAL RESEARCH FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
    • FUNDRAISING AND RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
    • ALUMNI
  • RESEARCH
    • MAPLE
    • SOCIAL CHANGE
    • SONGS OF ADAPTATION
    • MONITORING NATURE
    • SEED-SCALE
    • EDUCATION RESEARCH
    • HEALTH
    • CONSERVATION
    • PEACE
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Monitoring Nature

A Different Way to do Research

Research at Future Generations is applied—this means it benefits people and is done in partnership. Communities are neither targets of research nor free labor used by the research. Their people jointly carry out the research, and they are the context to which maturing knowledge returns.

Biomeridians

Earth’s climate is changing—this is known. But, below the global level, what is not known is understanding how life is locally changing. The university is setting up a global network of biological monitoring programs addressing these needs. These are called biomeridians and give a way to monitor change in nature’s life balances. Future Generations University has an extensive history in large environmental action through community engagement and equips local communities to advance this research.

Using biomeridians on selected mountain slopes, it is possible to measure changes in the natural world. As with climate change, established relationships of plants and animals are changing. Some species disappear, invasive species enter, and the balance of plants and animals will shift with rising temperatures. This research tracks how species are migrating to higher elevations or further from the equator with rising Earth temperatures. Read more

Birds of Bolivia Field Guide

Sebastian Herzog, Ph.D., demonstrates this as he rides his horse out of a swamp. He has been studying Bolivia’s birds, data about the 1399 species in that country, then shares this in a bird guide—the first birding manual in the country. The result is people understand Bolivia’s birds and, by extension, one of the most diverse ecologies in the world.

Birds of Bolivia (English Edition, co-published by Future Generations University Press and Asociacion Armonia. The Spanish edition is published by Asociacion Armonia alone.) Future Generations has similar research underway in other countries in maternal health, women’s empowerment, economic development, conservation, peace, the whole complexity of local life. Two dozen University faculty today engage in community-centered study. Their scholarship is used by people, and it is published in scholarly journals.

Artificial Intelligence Tools to Monitor Climate Change

Nature is talking. Using tools from Artificial Intelligence we are beginning to understand what birds, amphibians, and insects are saying. Future Generations bioacoustics research, using such tools, equips policy makers and communities to inform their decisions about a changing climate. Using hard science, Future Generations researchers look for patterns in terabytes of sound data. Recordings of birds, insects, amphibians, and mammals small and large are buttressed by photographs, plus temperature, humidity and vegetation surveys. Analyzing all this data, understanding grows of ecosystem variation—the role of sound, though, has been consciousness opening.

Listening to and recording nature, however, is one part of this Future Generations project, Songs of Adaptation (www.SongsOfAdaptation.org). A second part is listening to the people who live close to nature. In their stories are legacies of life, locally outlining what Nature has meant to them. Each community feels this multiplicity—every community our researchers work with has its narratives of how this has come to them. As Nature changes with the Anthropocene, this research is also attending to what the people closest to the change have been saying.

In Bolivia, researchers collect data adjacent to and inside Madidi National Park, the most biodiverse park in the world. Madidi spans from tropical Amazon jungle to the snow-clad Andes. The partnership crosses conservation stakeholders, communities, and bird-tourism businesses.

In Nepal, the project operates in a valley descending off the eastern massif of Mount Everest to biological tropics. This is in a national park Future Generations personnel initiated. People at the edge of this valley take care of the bioacoustic monitors. And, to benefit them, leaders of the communities are trained in SEED-SCALE to evolve life quality for their villages.

In the USA, the ends of the Potomac River are being monitored—from the highest point on the river, with a monitor outside Washington D.C., to sites on the Chesapeake Bay. Partners for this project are experiential educators.

Another project site is in the upper Nile Valley in Uganda, partnering with local communities and government.

A Parnership in Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh (India’s northeast state) is an example of Big Community with 123 sub-tribal communities. Future Generations is the only international group permitted to work there. In protecting their environment, Arunachal Pradesh has more jungle than any other state in India; 77% of the state’s area. Jungles span from lowland tropics to Himalayan snows, a habitat wealth that ranks it as one of the 25 biodiversity hotspots on Earth. Ngunu Ziro is a community organization that came out of the statewide work of Future Generations Arunachal. Their tribe, the Apatani, has century old practices of conservation and development. One example is sustainable blue pine cultivation with a two-century legacy. Rice cultivation is another example where young fish are placed in the paddies when flooded for rice germination. Fish waste fertilizes the sprouting rice, allowing rice to grow quickly at some of the highest elevations in the world.

In their jungles lives the clouded leopard, the rarest of the world’s great cats. Future Generations partnered with Apatani hunters to photograph this elusive leopard. Camera traps were set through the jungle. After months of learning the leopard’s ways, the team captured it. The full story appeared in National Geographic Magazine (September 2000).

Following “discovering” this most elusive leopard, a local organization formed to advance conservation and community. This is Ngunu Ziro. Leopards are difficult to get close to. Barbequed rats, the tribal delicacy, are not popular outside the tribe’s special tastes. But butterflies are abundant. So, Ngunu Ziro started a butterfly festival, rediscovering the Kaiser-i-Hind (Emperor of India), a dinner-plate-sized, radiantly emerald, fast-flying giant of the tree-tops.

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          Frequently Asked Questions

          How is Future Generations University different from other universities?

          • Future Generations University is for professionals in community change. You can be an established professional or you can be newly entering. The program will fit you. Your major platform for learning will be your work, and the best of world learning is brought to your work … to help your community improve. At traditional universities, you go to school, then go to work after you get your degree. You will expand your work in learning connections throughout the world.
          • This connecting into the world begins in either specific certificate classes or the two-year Master’s degree, but once having entered Future.Edu of world-engaged learning, through the parallel organization (Future.Org), you join a world-circling professional community of applied community change. You do not “graduate” from Future Generations University, but rather you commence into world, stature, professional, practicing discourse of continuing learning.

          Are you accredited?

          Accreditation

          Future Generations University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, the largest and oldest accrediting body in the United States. This quality assurance by a federally-recognized body also meets requirements necessary for the institution to receive and manage federal financial aid funds. The accreditation process also provides a periodic opportunity and incentive for the institution to review, assess, and advance the quality of its educational and financial operations

          The Higher Learning Commission
          230 South LaSalle Street, Suite 7-500
          Chicago, IL 60604
          inquiry@hlcommission.org
          Phone: 1-800-621-7440
          Website:http://www.ncahlc.org/

          What is the purpose of the Future Generations University?

          For the last 15 years, Future Generations University has been dedicated to empowering committed development practitioners by providing a new model of applied higher education. By focusing learning in the communities where these change-makers already live and work, students immediately begin advancing social change with the skills and strategies they obtain.

          Future Generations University offers a two-year Master of Arts Degree in Applied Community Change. The program includes five specializations in different areas where communities have the opportunity to grow. Instruction is also offered through a range of focused certificates. Further, the University also conducts and applies research on the effectiveness of community-based approaches for achieving impact in a widening range of areas.

          What is Class/Enrollment Size?

          For the first fifteen years (Classes from 2003 through 2017), enrollment was exceedingly selective. Each class typically had 20+ students. The university is expanding now, but remains selective.

          To date, the Masters Degree program has prepared students from 40 countries. Since 2003, seven classes (Class 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015) have graduated. Through the 15 years an additional range of students have graduated from the certificate programs.

          Can you tell me more about your alumni?

          Our students enter as development practitioners in their own countries. The learning allows them to grow their jobs and communities. The following statistics indicate the engagement of our master’s alumni specifically.

          • Percentage of alumni Employed: 95%
          • Engaged in similar community work as during Master’s program: 83%
          • Working for the same organization as during the Master’s program: 58% (of these 40% have changed jobs within their organization, mostly promotions)
          • Working for a different organization: 42% (of these 36% have started their own organization/consultancy).
          • Working together on Future Generations Alumni Collaboration Grants: 37%
          • Continued on to obtain a PhD, are in, or applying for a doctoral/PhD program: 11%

          Am I eligible for the Masters Degree Program?

          Please check our eligibility criteria for full details. To summarize, all applicants to the master’s degree are required to: 1) work with a community throughout the two-year program; 2) have a Bachelors Degree or equivalent; 3) be proficient in the English language; and 4) have reliable internet connectivity. Applicants to the certificate programs generally are open to anyone willing to do the work.

          Do I have to quit my job to complete this Masters Degree Program?

          No. In most cases, students build their learning experience around their current position or field in order to maximize their effectiveness in these areas, using their current community as a learning platform. If participating in optional residential experiences, which require travel to a host community, the student should first obtain permission from an employer. Apart from these residential options, learning will be based in students’ home communities.

          How do donations to the university support the work of students?

          Students at Future Generations University have implemented incredible work making positive changes in their home communities and workplaces around the world (Read about some of their work).

          Most students come from admirable low-paying career paths in field like education, health services, rural development, and conservation driven by a passion to help others and secure a better future for their fellow community members.

          This means they often have limited funds for continuing education and their community building projects, and rely on the support of generous donors. We hope you will join! When you donate to our academic programs, you are not just funding a single development project, you are opening the door for a series of community-driven efforts led by our students and each additional community leader they train in empowerment methods.

          I'd like to support your students, how can I help?

          If you’d like to support the next generation of community leaders being trained by Future Generations, you can donate to a scholarship fund for current or future students. You could also work with our financial office to start a special fund for a program of your choice– perhaps you’d like to support students working in a designated field, from a specific country, or you’d like to fund a class focused on a certain area of community change. Visit our donate page for options on ways to contribute or contact us at (info@future.edu).

          Who is the best person to contact for more information about the university?

          Our staff will be happy to supply you with additional information ​ if you are a member of the press or simply seek answers to some more questions not addressed on this page. Please email us at graduate@future.edu and we will do our best to give you the information you would like.

          You can also contact any of our offices worldwide and meet with the team there.

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                      Our History

                      Future Generations first began tackling humanity’s toughest challenges in 1992: understanding how to create community-driven change that is both sustainable and scalable. Recognizing traditional approaches to community development were not working, UNICEF launched a task force and enlisted Future Generations to study this question around-the-world. Future Generations was founded to promote the newly synthesized method for community-based sustainable development.

                      After a decade of successful demonstrations of the methodology advancing health, peacebuilding, conservation, education, and livelihoods across India, Afghanistan, China, Peru and other nations, Future Generations formed a new global learning community to extend this method at scale. A separate graduate school was established in 2006, which today advances research, learning, and action in 42 countries as Future Generations University (Formerly Future Generations Graduate School). The original civil society organization, Future Generations Inc., continues to serve as a connector and resource hub between country programs and the university’s growing alumni in the Future Generations Global Network.

                      As this learning organization evolved into a University with new research initiatives and a wider reach, so did its innovative approach to global education. What sets all Future Generations programs apart is how they transform the community into the classroom. Life-useful learning is delivered over long distances through a combination of online coursework, peer learning, and community-based projects. The University offers a range of learning opportunities, including online resources, customized training, certificate programs, and a Master of Arts in Applied Community Development. This degree program is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, the USA’s oldest and largest higher education accrediting body.

                      Our Shared Future

                      For the first time in human history, every country of the world has signed on to the same set of goals: the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In these, governments, many corporations, and donor agencies have shared targets to address our immense global challenges. Future Generations focuses on empowering communities around the world to better engage these structures of support from the bottom-up using the SEED-SCALE method.

                      Education is the great equalizer. Communities don’t need to wait for policy or leadership change to deliver needed services; learning can open the door to new skills that help communities use what they already have to advance a shared vision for the future. Students at Future Generations steer their learning journey according to local priorities so they can advance their personal goals alongside their professional work and community well-being.

                      Future Generations University is dedicated to opening this life-changing opportunity up to more community leaders in the coming years by:

                      • Enhancing the Master’s degree, keeping costs low and increasing flexibility to grow enrollment
                      • Expanding Non-Formal Education offerings with new certificate and training programs customized for partner organizations
                      • Developing online learning resources and programs that open access to the SEED-SCALE method among new audiences around-the-world
                      • Advancing community-grounded research to promote site-specific innovations in health, education, economic development, climate change and ecosystem monitoring, and more
                      • Establishing Sustainable Development Learning Centers at sites of strength across our Global Network to extend learning and innovation for local sustainable development impact
                      • ADMISSIONS
                        ▼
                        • ADMISSIONS
                        • COVERDELL
                        • AMERICORPS MEMBERS
                        • BENDING BAMBOO
                      • ACADEMICS
                        ▼
                        • ACADEMICS
                        • MASTER’S DEGREE
                        • APPALACHIAN CONFERENCE
                        • INDIA RESIDENTIAL COURSE
                        • GRADUATE CERTIFICATES
                        • CONTINUING EDUCATION
                        • FOR STUDENTS
                        • INTRO TO COMMUNITY CHANGE
                        • TAKING IMPACT TO SCALE
                        • SOCIAL RESEARCH FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
                        • FUNDRAISING AND RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
                        • ALUMNI
                      • RESEARCH
                        ▼
                        • MAPLE
                        • SOCIAL CHANGE
                        • SONGS OF ADAPTATION
                        • MONITORING NATURE
                        • SEED-SCALE
                        • EDUCATION RESEARCH
                        • HEALTH
                        • CONSERVATION
                        • PEACE
                        • FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
                        • ALUMNI SCHOLARSHIP
                        • BOOKSTORE
                      • ABOUT US
                        ▼
                        • ABOUT
                        • FACULTY & STAFF
                        • TRUSTEES AND ADVISORY
                        • PRESIDENT
                      • PARTNERSHIP
                      • PUBLICATIONS
                      • SUPPORT
                      • BLOG