UVA’s strategic goal to create opportunities for every undergraduate to have an international experience before graduation – our critical mission in Global Affairs – begs a fundamental question: what exactly is an international experience? A spring semester in Florence? Conversing in Mandarin? Rooming with a Brazilian exchange student? Representing Malawi in a model United Nations conference? Having a taco for lunch?
The truth is, an international experience can be all these things (ok, maybe not the taco!) and much more. What distinguishes an international experience is not so much its place, language, or subject, but rather its impact on creating a global mindset in solving problems and experiencing the world around us in new and challenging ways. That can happen not just on a traditional study abroad program, but also in a meeting with the local refugee community in a Charlottesville community center, interacting on a Native American reservation on the northern plains, or in a globally oriented classroom or program right here on Grounds.
Wherever and whatever these experiences are, they share a few things in common in building a global state of mind:
- They’re uncomfortable. Finding your way around a foreign city without speaking its language, exploring concepts in the classroom that are completely alien to your experience, or suddenly finding yourself as a member of a minority group after a lifetime in the majority can be stressful and even frightening.
- They’re humbling. They raise questions about your and your heritage’s values, perspectives, and place in the world; leading to a realization that your way of thinking and doing things may not always be the right one.
- They’re self-revealing. Sharply contrasting your intellect, personality, and identity to those of others gives a much greater appreciation of how others see you and a deeper awareness of your impact on others.
As every athlete knows, there’s no gain without pain. So too these uncomfortable experiences grow us substantially as thinkers and doers, whether in business, engineering, health care, education, architecture, politics, community development, or any other conceivable field. They strengthen essential life skills like empathy, resilience, innovation, self-reliance, patience, tolerance, and curiosity, whether you’re planning a career in world affairs or on returning to your hometown for the rest of your life. And besides, they’re fun and a source of stories and memories to last a lifetime.
We recently reported that UVA study abroad programs are already strongly rebounding as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 600 student participants since last summer through today, and many more hundreds to come as we move into the summer. As we continue to aggressively expand those programs to be as inclusive and accessible as possible to our students, we will also launch a new effort in the coming weeks to support greater global experiences on Grounds, such as those in the extraordinarily popular Global Studies major.
Building on the success of our pilot Global Mentors program, which puts international practitioners in classes on Grounds, in the next few weeks we will invite faculty to apply for newly created Global Classroom grants to fund their most creative ideas to “globalize” their curriculum and classroom experiences. Stay tuned for details – we look forward to supporting as many ideas as we can.
And stay global!
