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Preparing students as global citizens is a common goal shared by many college and universities; we see it in our mission statements, in our strategic plans, and in the goals and objectives of our various offices. But what does it mean to prepare students as global citizens?
"Fostering Global Citizenship in Higher Education" focused on how institutional offices sharing this common vision can develop mutually beneficial partnerships and programming to help reach their goal. It presented examples, and fostered action planning for activities and learning experiences that combine active citizen engagement with improved understanding of global and cross-cultural communities (two key elements of global citizenship).
Goals of the Conference:
• To help define what we mean by global citizenship as a part of our campus missions
• To provide concrete ideas and examples for partnership opportunities across campuses that can contribute to this vision
• To create institution-specific action plans that can be feasibly implemented on each campus.
Who attended?
Nearly 170 faculty, staff and administrators from more than 20 Universities and colleges throughout the United States and Canada attended the conference. Each institution brought a team including study abroad/international education offices, service-learning/ community service offices, cross-cultural offices, student services, career services, academic affairs, faculty members, and other interested parties. There was a waiting list of 75 people.
Participant reactions to the conference:
"I was particularly impressed by the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of the Global Citizenship Conference. It's unusual for a conference to bring together students, faculty, and both study abroad and service-learning professionals. This diverse intersection of attendees made for a rich conversation about our best practices and a more holistic discussion about how to cultivate deeper student global learning and action in the future."
"We live in a world that can ill-afford not to discuss the realities of globalization. This conference did an outstanding job of addressing the importance of pairing theoretical intercultural learning with real-world international experience, particularly community-based service learning experience. I think conferences like these that reflect on how students actually learn, in interdisciplinary and experiential ways, have been long needed and would be a good model for future conferences."
For a list of workshops, conference materials, and the keynote speech by Humprhey Tonkin, visit the SIT website.
Sponsored by:
The School for International Training/World Learning
Vermont Campus Compact
Co-sponsored by:
The University of Vermont
Middlebury College
Abroad View Magazine
The International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership
