This summer, four University of Virginia student scholars will travel to Tanzania to continue their work with post-doctoral fellows at the Kibong’oto Infectious Diseases Hospital (KIDH), at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The opportunity is the result of a 2023 National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Fogarty International Center grant awarded to Dr. Scott Heysell, director of UVA’s Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE), and Dr.

University leadership has been monitoring reports of heightened immigration enforcement activity across U.S. campuses in recent weeks, including the cancellation of student visas and the detention and threatened deportation of international students and faculty. We recognize and sympathize with the alarm and anxiety that many of you experience when witnessing the sudden detention and threatened deportation of international students, scholars, and faculty.

Samman Akbarzada is a second-year student double majoring in political philosophy, policy and law (PPL) and English literature (APPW), with a minor in urban planning. Like for many students, coming to the University of Virginia was a lonely experience for her at times before finding her community. Unlike many students, she faced that difficulty 7,000 miles from home after fleeing as a political refugee. 

Ambassador Ashley Wills (A&S ’71, International Politics and Economics) makes a gift each year that enables dozens of UVA students who are eligible for financial aid to apply for and receive a passport at no cost. The passport grant removes a common barrier to participation for education abroad and brings students one step closer to pursuing a global experience.

Ambassador Steve Mull, Vice Provost for Global Affairs, celebrates UVA’s international community of nearly 2500 students and scholars and hundreds more in our faculty and staff. This community stands as a remarkable source of strength and vibrancy in our student life, research progress, and community service.

Eight UVA students were selected this year to participate in the prestigious Oslo Scholars Program. The goal of the Oslo Scholars Program is to provide students the opportunity to work directly with an international human rights or democracy organization, providing them with direct hands-on experience in how their academic work can have real world impact.

University of Virginia alumna Michele Buster graduated in 1986 and was among one of the first cohorts of UVA students to study in Valencia. Since then, she has built on her connections to Spain and Italy to build her company Forever Cheese, an importer of fine cheeses and other specialty foods from Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Croatia. Buster chose to give back to the University community by creating the Flashrouge Round the World Global Experience Scholarship, enabling extraordinary global experiences for a new generation of students.

Beneath Ghana’s rich soils lies a treasure the world desires––gold. The rush to unearth this precious metal has led to a host of health problems from illegal mining, or galamsey. This unregulated, small-scale mining has poisoned rivers, destroyed land, and broken communities. More than 150 students from across Grounds came forward to solve this real-world health problem in the annual Global Health Case Competition held by the Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE). The case – water pollution in Ghana, is a major environmental health problem, impacting communities across the world.

Brady Sack is a second-year medical student and was the 2024 Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE) Ram Family Foundation scholar. The Ram Family Center for Global Health Scholar Award was established to honor Dr. Bellamane M. Ram and Dr. Anjan Kumari Ram who practiced medicine in India and the United States. The award supports interdisciplinary work in communities in Southern India and is open to students from all schools across Grounds.

Ambassador Steve Mull, Vice Provost for Global Affairs, affirms UVA's commitment to global experiences, despite a rapid cascade of executive orders and other policy changes from the federal government over the past several weeks.

In J-Term 2025, 40% of students who traveled abroad through a University of Virginia program were among the 7% of the UVA undergraduate student population with the most financial need. These 200 students were able to study abroad thanks to a new grant made available through Education Abroad.

The world seems increasingly attracted to authoritarian solutions for pressing political issues, such as climate change, ethnic violence, and economic turmoil. In the Philippines, however, the next generation is actively building the organizations, campaigns, and movements to rebuild a democratic civic sphere. Over the past year, UVA’s Democratic Futures Project (DFP) has enabled undergraduate students to support and document these efforts, most recently through the publication of Care at the Core: The Power of People in the Grassroots.

Rosana Glancy is a fourth year double-majoring in International Relations and Latin American studies with a minor in Spanish. During her time at UVA, she has studied abroad in both Spain and Argentina and is now an Education Abroad intern spreading the word to other students about her experiences, which she plans to use to build a career in international development consulting.

This fall, the University of Virginia welcomed 416 students from India to Grounds, a significant increase from previous years and part of a larger trend in international education in the US.

The Graduate and Professional Students of Africa (GAPSA) hosted its inaugural ball and awards ceremony this month. Founded just two years ago as part of the International Student Citizen Leader Fellowship, GAPSA began as “a small, informal gathering of African graduate students sharing food and fellowship in their apartments during the pandemic,” said Nnenna Onyima, a Nigerian PhD candidate in French and GAPSA’s founder. Today, GAPSA is a registered CIO with over 100 members and a six-member Executive Board representing diverse programs across Grounds.

Omokolade Omigbule is a third-year anthropology doctoral student and an interdisciplinary doctoral fellow in Indigenous studies at the University of Virginia. He is a budding Black Atlantic archaeologist from Osun state, southwest Nigeria. In this interview, he discusses his journey into archaeology and his hopes to empower communities through history, and the importance of open-mindedness in the pursuit of knowledge and cross-cultural connection.

The Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation (CGII) was founded in the fall of 2013 by Jeff Legro, then Vice Provost for Global Affairs, to support global, interdisciplinary, and collaborative research. The center awarded its first grants that winter. Now, over a decade later, UVA Global reflects on CGII’s impact.

In a world where democratic values are increasingly at risk, young Sudanese activists offer a powerful example of resilience and determination. Through UVA’s Democratic Futures Project (DFP), these activists are exploring pathways toward a more inclusive and just political future in Sudan.

Ten years ago, the University of Virginia launched a program designed to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Today, the Global Studies Program empowers hundreds of students to tackle the complex global issues that will shape their futures and the world around them.

With a robust lineup of over 30 events, this year’s Global Week engaged students, faculty, and staff in learning and celebrating UVA’s global connections and featured an exciting range of activities, including panels, cultural showcases, and information sessions.

Gregory Perryman is a third-year politics honors major from Cleveland, Ohio. He participated in the UVA in India: Global Internships program this summer, interning with the Jindal Global University Center for Environment, Sustainability, and Human Development, in Sonipat, India, where he conducted independent research on the political economy of climate justice for e-waste workers.

Katy Quissell, professor of public health, discusses her research project on moral social movements and policy change in Latin America. The project, co-designed with students, explores how activism in Latin America has led to policy changes in reproductive rights, contrasting with the U.S. context.

Jillian Manternach is a fourth-year undergraduate student majoring in Public Policy and Leadership with a minor in Middle Eastern Language and Culture. After studying abroad in Meknes, Morocco during Summer 2023 and again in Amman, Jordan during J-Term 2024, she decided to join the Education Abroad team as a student intern to encourage other students to have eye-opening global experiences like hers. UVA Global caught up with her to talk about her adventures abroad, the impact on her understanding of her studies, and her advice for other students interested in the global.