From the pedagogical and practical to the overall impact of global learning beyond the classroom, the Global Learning Symposium brought more than 120 participants from across central Indiana together earlier this fall. The gathering, which took place September 27 in the IU Indianapolis Campus Center, was an opportunity for highlighting—and sharing!—the existing expertise within Indiana University and beyond.
Across 11 sessions participants explored every aspect of global learning: experiences abroad, virtual exchange, language learning, and why graduates need these skills and experiences to succeed in an international workforce.
In addition to presenters and attendees from five universities outside of IU including Howard University, panels included leaders from five local businesses. Amy Owens, senior director of global talent and succession management at Eli Lilly and Co., shared her reason for presenting as a part of the session Why Students Need Global Career Skills. “At Lilly, we’re looking for people who value diverse perspectives, who create inclusive environments, who are able to work through difficult situations,” she said. “Study abroad is almost a direct complement to what we do at Lilly to develop leaders.”
While being able to study abroad is recognized as not only a transformative, high-impact practice, but as one of the best ways to develop those global skills, the Symposium also aimed to highlight the support for virtual global learning in the classroom. Virtual collaborations like those done by presenter and professor of anthropology Audrey Ricke go a long way towards making critical cultural competency experiences accessible to all Indiana University students across all disciplines. The benefits are not limited to students: as a part of her presentation, Ricke shared the best practices she had developed to conduct research and further her own field of study while leading students through a virtual exchange.
The increased need for global experiences, regardless of area of study, was a theme across the day. As IU graduate and current International Center International Visitor Program Manager Neelam Patel said, “A mistake that students often make is that if they don’t have “international” in their degree, they won’t need it in their career. Every field is a global field.” Retired engineer and small business owner Joerg Schreiber echoed that sentiment, saying “People who want to make a career in a company that is global need to be global because companies will draw talent from wherever they find it. Your project teams will be global from day one, no matter what area you’re going into.”
A companion of the Symposium is the Global Learning Toolkit, an online resource for faculty and staff anywhere in the world to incorporate that global perspective into every classroom. Hosted by the Office of International Affairs, the toolkit includes content developed across ten contributing IU schools, the Multicultural Center, and Office of International Affairs staff. The project was made possible in part by the UISFL grant, a Department of Education fund designed strengthen and improve undergraduate instruction in international studies and foreign languages.
While the toolkit is available as a resource for any interested instructor, its impact will be felt much closer to home. As President and CEO of The International Center Martin Baier said, “Indiana is extensively global, and we need students to be globally ready.”
The Symposium also offered the opportunity to honor key faculty and staff leaders in global engagement: Izumi Harris was awarded the Susan Buck Sutton Study Abroad Faculty Award; Kelly Smith-Weller, associate campus bursar, was awarded the Staff Award. Current Virtual Global Learning Fellow Cheryl L.H. Armstrong won the Global Learning at Home Award, and Carrie Hall was honored with the International Student Champion Award.
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