Writing the Welcome letter for Mini-project 1, I was really inspired to move forward with USP 102: Problems in Urban Planning.

This was an idea for a class that I've carried for a while, but being forced to really articulate the spirit and format made the class more of a reality for me, and something I could shop around.

A few months ago, I talked with a professor in urban planning who recently got a $553,843 grant from the Ford Foundation for a project titled: “Improving Planning and Urban Management in an Era of Globalization.” The project will focus on research and training that supports urban development, management, and planning capacity building in Vietnam.

Right now, the way they do this is by sending 3 Vietnamese students to the University of Hawaii to study and then bringing professors over the month of June to teach about 25 working professionals in Vietnam for a month.

They would really like to reach more than just 28 people, but they're limited by how many people can physically go to these workshops.

I think an online format for these kinds of trainings might be ideal. This welcome letter gives me something I can show the professor as an example of what they could offer.