Twelve projects have been awarded funding through the 2025-26 Carleton University Experiential Learning Fund (CUELF).
CUELF provides support for instructors to create and enhance experiential learning opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students across the university.
Read the summaries below to learn about the exciting projects that are being developed:
Emily Jones Joanisse (Sprott): Students will work onsite in Milan with Mission Bambini, applying business skills to help a nonprofit client address real-world challenges and generate positive social impact.
Hyounjeong Yoo (Linguistics and Language Studies): Contraflow Pedagogies: Reimagining Korean Language Learning through Critical Cultural Engagement will introduce beginner-level students to Korean language and culture through a critical and creative lens.
Zach Colbert (Architecture and Urbanism): Students will take part in required guided fieldwork and excursions in Oslo and Longyearbyen, gaining firsthand experience with architectural, urban and extractive infrastructures.
Sarah Gelbard (Sociology and Anthropology): Sociology students will collaborate with local community organizations to research social issues that these groups are working to address and then design and conduct a social action project to advocate for positive change.
Steven Pong (Industrial Design): Students will have the opportunity to curate and present their work in a public exhibition, building practical skills in communication, collaboration and professional presentation.
Mehdi Eshaghi (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering): A set of low-cost, reusable demonstration kits (“micro-labs”) and an accompanying manual will help students connect dynamics theory to hands-on measurements and decisions.
Duncan McCue (Journalism and Communication): Students in Reporting in Indigenous Communities (RIIC) will participate in a local site visit of an Indigenous organization to learn about Indigenous governance as well as reporting trips to nearby partner communities (Kitigan Zibi, Pikwàkanagàn, Akwesasne) to build productive journalistic relationships with Indigenous communities.
Trina Cooper-Bolam (Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture): In collaboration with community professionals, curatorial studies students will design and build a public storefront exhibit interpreting heritage salvage and recontextualizing it in a simulated contemporary domestic space to foster a culture of appreciation, repair/care/reuse and stewardship for Ottawa’s domestic design heritage.
Isaac Odoom (Political Science): International relations students will explore how diplomacy works in practice through visits to African embassies in Ottawa and Global Affairs Canada followed by a simulated African Union Summit to develop their negotiation, collaboration and policy communication skills.
Doris Buss (Law and Legal Studies): Student researchers will explore how people access parks and green spaces in the Ottawa area, including how park authorities govern the use of parks and seek to protect habitats, and how people using parks respond to limits or other behaviour management strategies.
Chiara Del Gaudio (Industrial Design): Students will collaborate with the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre to co-design interactive artifacts that capture and share community stories through workshops, prototyping and a final exhibition.
Liam O’Brien (Civil and Environmental Engineering): Students will connect green building design theory and practice through hands-on activities with sample materials and equipment—such as solar technologies, insulation and lighting—to directly experiencing the effects of different thermal conductivities and temperatures.