Global Engagement
Global Engagement
Global Engagement is one of our institutional strategic objectives. Since the late nineteenth century, we have had a strong international presence throughout campus and in our classrooms. Our first international students came to Wooster in the 1880s, and today we enroll over 120 students from more than 35 countries. Our international faculty and staff hail from countries as disparate as India, The Netherlands, Senegal, and Mexico. Each semester around 180 students from a variety of disciplines choose to study abroad, and around 35% of each graduating class has had an off-campus experience.
However, true Global Engagement involves more than simply an international presence on our campus and in our classrooms.
It has become clear that we, as a community, do not yet share a common language or framework for knowing what we mean by global engagement and for recognizing evidence of globally engaged students, faculty, staff, and alumni across campus and in our communities. In order to help craft an inclusive understanding of Global Engagement, the Center for Diversity and Global Engagement initiated two projects during 2011-2012.
The first project: A series of conversations for ALL faculty and staff on campus, which forms part of the AAC&U's Shared Futures Initiative. During on-going these conversations, we will attempt to answer the following:
- What do we mean by "Global Engagement"?
- What are some great examples of global engagement across campus?
- How are students, faculty and staff globally engaged?
- What can CDGE do to support these efforts?
The second project: Two students (Mitik Zegeye '14 and Andrea Patton '14) took on a semester-long research project. The goals of this project were twofold:
- Create a list of resources on the theme of Global Engagement
- Graphically illustrate their understanding of Global Engagement and how it is currently demonstrated at Wooster.