In the summer of 2025, six Miami Dade College (MDC) students, along with two MDC professors, went to Peru for a week to participate in engaged learning experiences. The undergraduate research experience was part of IDS 1911, a one-credit, six-week pilot course coordinated and supported by the MDC Office of International Education. MDC faculty collaborated with Emzingo|U, an international educational Benefit Corporation (B-Corp), which contributed course content and coordinated the student work in Peru. For their main research focus, students were split into two groups, working with two Peruvian social enterprises. In alignment with the best practices of engaged pedagogy, the students contributed to the respective missions of each enterprise.
One group aided Recidar, a second-hand Peruvian retail store that promotes the circular economy by providing affordable clothes while creating cooperative work opportunities for underserved communities. Students in this group assisted Recidar by doing a comparative analysis and proposing an appropriate pricing model for its second-hand items.
A second student group worked with MUSA, an e-educational social enterprise that offers education through WhatsApp, helping to overcome educational gaps in Peru and other countries in the Global South. Student goals in this group were to create a benchmark, comparing MUSA’s work with that of similar companies, thus providing MUSA with information on best practices in e-education, and to develop a list of possible grants for the social enterprise.
In trainings with MDC faculty and Emzingo|U, students learned about the circular economy, about human centered design, about the complexity of Indigenous and tribal communities within Peruvian society, and about educational realities in Peru and initiatives to overcome educational gaps. They also learned how the social enterprises operate in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). In addition, the students benefited from meetings with MDC’s Offices of Human Resources and Librarians as well as a meeting with MDC’s Office of Resource Development. This symposium and LibGuide, developed with the support of Humanities Edge and MDC Library and Learning Resources, provides students with a forum in which to share their experiences and the results of their undergraduate research.