Inspiring Students to Become Global Citizens Through Engaged Learning

Thanks to ILR alumnus Richard “Dick” Fincher ’73, ILR students have been learning about alternative dispute resolution both on the Cornell campus and on-location in Vietnam and at the Hopi and Navajo nations in Arizona. Fincher, who has been instrumental in creating and teaching the Vietnam Engaged Learning Program and the Hopi & Navajo Engaged Learning Program, has announced his intention to slow down and gradually retire from teaching, but the legacy he has created will continue.  

“The most obvious impact is enhancing ILR’s reputation in Southeast Asia and China,” Fincher said. 

To develop these Engaged Learning opportunities, Fincher braided his connection with the Scheinman Institute and his interest in dispute resolution with his belief in the importance of learning outside of a traditional classroom, a belief shaped by his own experiences as an ILR student. 

“I am dedicated to enhancing undergraduate education beyond the standard curriculum. I appreciate the importance of students learning from alumni and outside practitioners,” said Fincher. 

Ariel Avgar, outgoing ILR senior associate dean for research, outreach, and external relations, said “a real strength of the ILR School is our engaged learning opportunities, which provide students with opportunities to put their classroom learning to use. Dick not only envisioned and developed these two programs, he has put his own time, energy and efforts behind them.” 

“Dick contributes to the school in countless ways. He gives his time, he develops new programs, supports our finances generously, and works with our students. He helps us across the board,” Avgar said. 

Engaged Learning in Vietnam 

In 2015, Fincher received a Fulbright Teaching Scholarship at Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU) in Ho Chi Minh City. In connection with this work, he brought five undergraduate ILR students to TDTU for two weeks to study alternative dispute resolution and labor issues in the global supply chain for garments. The ILR students joined TDTU students to take classes from Fincher and TDTU faculty. The ILRies lodged in the dorms and made friends with the Vietnamese students. They also visited factories and United Nations agencies, and met with representatives of clothing brands, union leaders and embassy officials.  

To bring this about, Fincher teamed up with Donna Ramil, who at that time was senior associate director of International Programs at ILR. Ramil helped with the many administrative details, publicized the opportunity to ILR students, led pre-departure classes, and joined the trip to help ensure that all went well. Lisa Nishi, ILR professor and vice provost for undergraduate education, originally approved the class for credit. 

“Vietnam is huge in the supply chain, and it’s unique due to being a Communist country and because of the U.S. legacy in Vietnam. The Engaged Learning program is not only beneficial to ILR students, but it’s incredibly beneficial to our partners in Vietnam,” Ramil said. 

After this first instance of the Vietnam Engaged Learning Program, Fincher partnered with Ramil and the International Programs office to offer the experience each year during winter break. In addition, Fincher’s family has endowed a gift to both the International Programs office and the Scheinman Institute to provide annual income for international student programs. (Watch a 2024 video about the Vietnam program.) 

“The program has encouraged the international education and careers of many ILR students: one of our original ILR students is now a Foreign Service Officer in South Korea. Others have completed international MBAs,” Fincher said. 

Ivor Mills ’27 participated in the Vietnam Engaged Learning Program earlier this year.  

“The Vietnam program allowed me to take what I’m learning in ILR and continue to build my cultural competency, and being able to apply what I’ve learned to a different context was really valuable,” Mills said. “Professor Fincher knows so much on Southeast Asian labor policies. So, his expertise was really useful.” 

Rebecca Baines, program coordinator of ILR’s Engaged and Experiential Programs, accompanied the trip in 2025 and observed Fincher in action. She noted, “He utilizes the Socratic teaching method. This really fosters active participation – there’s no slacking in his lectures because he will call you by name and ask what you think.”  

“He authentically cares about the students academically, professionally and on a human level,” Baines said. “He’s also funny and energetic. In Vietnam, he got up every morning and went for a run around campus.” 

Engaged Learning in the Hopi and Navajo Nations 

In 2020, Fincher worked with Ramil to launch the Hopi & Navajo Engaged Learning Program. “As a citizen of Arizona, I had been a tourist in the Hopi and Navajo nations many times,” Fincher said.“I had become aware that both nations have a culturally specific dispute resolution method for community and family disputes.”He explained that the Navajo nation uses peacemaking (a form of restorative justice), while the Hopi nation uses transformative mediation. 

The Hopi & Navajo Engaged Learning Program began as a virtual class due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but was offered as an in-person trip in 2024.  

“Dick has Indigenous mediator contacts whom he knows through his work as a mediator and as an arbitrator, and he is very respected in that community, which is incredibly hard to break into as a non-Indigenous person,” Ramil said. 

Evan Dolan ’26 compared Fincher to a “Wikipedia” page for the trip, adding that due to the relationships Fincher has built with the Indigenous people, “it felt like we were meeting his friends, and we were learning at the same time.” 

According to Dolan, a focus of the trip was the peacemaking space, built adjacent to the judicial center in Tuba City and designed with cultural understandings. “The peacemaking space functions in a different way. It views relationships differently from tribal law or U.S. law, and it works to resolve disputes in a productive manner,” Dolan said.  

The trip ended with a visit to Grand Canyon National Park, where the students met the Park Superintendent and discussed forms of conflict that come up when managing a huge federal national park. 

“Being on the reservation gave me deeper understanding and deeper learning. Seeing how other people in the world interact with each other, and being able to talk to them and see what their life is like, and seeing how they work through the same things that you deal with in your own life, but in a different way and a different context – that provided me with a lot of new perspective,” Dolan said.  

A Legacy of Global Citizens 

“Our students are incredibly interested in unique fields,” Ramil said. “But it’s hard to break into these fields, and Fincher has mentored and guided them and been incredibly generous with his time to help them.” 

Reflecting on his legacy in engaged learning at ILR, Fincher said, “the fundamental legacy is to inspire students to become global citizens. I hope to encourage critical thinking in international affairs, including human rights and labor law in the global supply chain.” He continued, “another legacy is to reduce the historical xenophobia – fear of foreigners and other cultures causing prejudice – of many Americans.”