Mellon Global Citizenship Program advisor highlights the importance of global learning and teaching in the face of growing tensions at American universities
Vice chancellor for diversity, equity and excellence at the University of California, Riverside, Yolanda T Moses has highlighted the work of Salzburg Global Seminar while discussing diversity and inclusion on campuses.
Dr Moses featured the Mellon Global Citizenship Program (M-GCP) and the Global Citizenship Alliance (GCA) in her article "Confronting the Trump Effect on our Campuses", which was published on Inside Higher Ed.
As well as being a Salzburg Global Fellow, Dr Moses is an advisory committee member for M-GCP and a GCA board member. Dr Moses is a past president of the American Anthropology Association, and was most recently a faculty member at the sixth GCA seminar in Potsdam, Germany in 2016, Colleges and Universities: The Path to Global Citizenship.
The GCA was founded as an independent organization to continue and expand the work of Salzburg Global Seminar's long-running Global Citizenship Program. It continues to work with Salzburg Global in ways that benefit the GCA's Statement of Purpose around global citizenship education and hosts many of its seminars at Schloss Leopoldskron, home of Salzburg Global Seminar.
The M-GCP supports 36 colleges and universities representing select Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and members of the Appalachian College Association (ACA) in order to develop, implement and expand global citizenship education activities on their campuses and in collaboration with other involved parties.
In her article, Dr Moses outlined four key areas which institutions and individuals should focus on over the next four years: supporting undocumented students; protecting protesters on both sides of contentious issues; preventing and enforcing policies against sexual assault; and reinforcing global learning and teaching.
With regard to the fourth area, Dr Moses suggests students have been prepared to live and work in the global community for at least 20 years.
As part of her article, Dr Moses said, "One thing we have learned from the election is that families from the Rust Belt, the Deep South and the heartland believe that they have been denied participation in a positive vision for the future of this country.
"I am involved with two very promising international programs, the Global Citizenship Alliance and the Mellon Global Citizenship Program, that aim to educate working-class and first-generation students from those regions (both historically black colleges and universities and Appalachian colleges and universities working together) about how directly they are tied from their local communities to the wider world.
"The types of on-the-ground experiences that these programs offer are producing different thinking about empowerment and the ability to chart one's future."
To read Dr Moses' article on Inside Higher Ed in full, please click here.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities and members of the Appalachian College Association further efforts at second annual Global Citizenship Summit
More than fifty faculty and administrators from select Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and members of the Appalachian College Association (ACA) convened at the second annual Global Citizenship Summit to share and receive feedback on deepening global citizenship education work, expand and enhance multi-campus partnerships, and plan for the formation of a new organization to support ongoing, and stimulate new, collaborative activities to institutionalize global citizenship education.
The Summit, led by Lindsey Wilson College and co-organized by Bennett College, Brevard College, Clark Atlanta University, and Ferrum College, was held in conjunction with the Appalachian College Association’s annual conference at the Meadowview Conference Resort & Convention Center in Kingsport, Tennessee, September 29-October 1, 2016.
“Global citizenship education is no longer a choice, it is an imperative,” Dr. Adil Najam, inaugural dean at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, told Summit participants. “There is an implied oppositeness between global and local, and part of our charge as educators is to take that implication, to confront it boldly, and to suggest it is not so. If there is a global, the global is everywhere. Too often we make global sound exotic and elsewhere, as opposed to something that is central to who we are and where we are….”
The Summit was a result of a competitive grant process organized as part of Salzburg Global Seminar's Mellon Global Citizenship Program (M-GCP) and made possible through the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. An outgrowth of the multi-year Mellon Fellow Community Initiative (MFCI), which ran from 2008 to 2013, the M-GCP was launched in 2014 to further the innovative work that moved thirty-six U.S. colleges and universities – all of which are either HBCUs or members of the ACA – toward becoming sites of global citizenship.
While ACA and HBCU institutions share many common attributes based on their long histories serving unique and diverse student bodies and the broader communities around them, their distinct communities and geographical distances have not encouraged collaboration among them. The M-GCP has helped the institutions to test and validate the multiple benefits that result from these cooperative efforts.
“It is essential that we make sure all students get to the point where they can engage with the world,” Dr. Dawn Michelle Whitehead, senior director for global learning and curricular change at the Association of American Colleges and Universities said. “If all students need global learning, we need to start looking at it from an integrated perspective across disciplines. Global learning cannot be achieved in a single course or a single experience, but is acquired cumulatively across students’ entire college career through an institution’s curricular and co-curricular planning.”
Focusing on the theme Strength Through Diversity: Partnering for Effective Global Citizenship Education, participants in the Summit heard from leading experts on global citizenship education and outlined concrete next steps for the creation of the Global Citizenship Consortium, an organization to be embedded within the Global Citizenship Alliance (GCA) that will support activities and partnerships developed through the M-GCP. The GCA was established in the Fall of 2015 to continue, strengthen and expand the work of Salzburg Global’s successful Global Citizenship Program, which in its 12 years had become one of the largest, most systematic, and most comprehensive programs on global citizenship education in the United States.
Dr. John Burkhardt, director of the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good and director of the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan, told Summit participants that higher education institutions must transform themselves if they are to provide leadership in a more interdependent world. “Higher education in our country is a system built on the assumption that differences are variations from the norm, to be explained and accommodated by exclusion, duplication, or exception,” Burkhardt said. “It is within your power to re-think this. We need to have a conversation about who we are and what we want with people we don’t even know and aren’t even sure we can trust. Without discourse, like that which is happening at this summit, we have no means for determining who we are and what we want in any reasonable, peaceful way.”
The Summit offered 2015 and 2016 M-GCP grantees the opportunity to discuss the process and results of recent multi-campus programmatic activities, including the partnership between Florida Memorial University and Berea College, the global education visiting specialist series Global Citizenship Revisited: New Approaches to Achieve Global Competencies between Ferrum College, Bennett College, and King University, and the study away incentive program Trading Spaces, a collaboration between Lindsey Wilson College and Clark Atlanta University, which faculty members from both institutions described as an opportunity for urban and rural students to not only gain new experiences and perspectives that may otherwise not be available to them, but to also find commonalities.
An undergraduate research conference focusing on the theme Global Citizenship: Exploring Problems, Finding Solutions was held concurrent to the Summit in Kingsport and was an opportunity for students to present their own innovations and ideas. In addition, student participants from Global African (Diaspora) Citizenship, a study away incentive program between Florida Memorial University and Berea College, made possible through a 2016 M-GCP grant, presented their findings from the recently completed program along with a musical performance for attendees.
Students benefiting from the activities of the M-GCP also had the opportunity to address the value and impact of global citizenship on their educational experiences. “Global citizenship is about trying to understand how other people live their lives,” said Kayla Brubaker, a senior English major and Russian minor at Ferrum College. “It is about interacting with people and cultures you are not familiar with. I would like to think I am a global citizen, but there is much more to be learned.”
“Global citizenship is no longer just an idealized rhetorical term used in textbooks,” said Betty Overton-Adkins, M-GCP Advisory Council member and director of the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good at the University of Michigan. “It is the reality that today's students will live as part of their future. Those of us who are college educators will fail to provide future-focused preparation if we overlook this aspect of our students' educational experience.”
More information about the M-GCP can be found at the M-GCP website (http://m-gcp.salzburgglobal.org). Please contact David Goldman at DGoldman@SalzburgGlobal.org for enquires related to the M-GCP.
About Salzburg Global Seminar
Since 1947, Salzburg Global Seminar has brought together more than 30,000 change-makers from across the world to fulfill its mission: to challenge present and future leaders to solve issues of global concern.
We focus on complex problems confronting the global community, covering topics as diverse as health care and education, culture and economics, geopolitics and human rights. Our sessions are designed to stimulate open dialogue and transformative thinking across national, cultural, generational and institutional boundaries. Working with the world’s leading public and private organizations and philanthropic investors, we engage our global network to accelerate positive global change. Salzburg Global’s programs are primarily convened at Schloss Leopoldskron, Austria, with additional offices in Washington, DC, USA and London, UK. This 300-year-old palace, now also an award-winning hotel, provides an inspiring retreat and intimate space for international convening.
A full program listing can be found online: www.salzburgglobal.org/calendar
Report of the inaugural Global Citizenship Summit is now online
The report from the inaugural Global Citizenship Summit is now available to read, download and share. The summit that took place from October 29-31 2015 at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, GA was held as part of the Salzburg Global Seminar Mellon-Global Citizenship Program (M-GCP).
This first summit focused on the theme of Sustainability and Innovation. An Undergraduate Research Conference with the theme, Global Sustainability: Cultural and Scientific Issues and Perspectives, was organized by Lindsey Wilson College and held in concurrently at Clark Atlanta University on October 30.
Approximately fifty educators and practitioners representing around twenty of the M-GCP institutions were brought together at the summit to showcase innovative global citizenship education approaches, share information and results, align work across the various activities of the Fellows, develop new spin-off activities and plan for the activities' ongoing sustainability.
Also attending the summit were prominent experts in global citizenship education as well as members of the Advisory Council of the M-GCP.
The summit built on the rich history and legacy of civil and human rights as global engagement by partnering with Atlanta-based institutions for events at the Jimmy Cart Presidential Library and Museum and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Inc.
The M-GCP has continued its work with a second round of project activity grants being awarded earlier in the year and also by making preparations for a second Global Citizenship Summit planned for the fall of 2016.
The Mellon Global Citizenship Program builds on the Mellon Fellow Community Initiative and supports thirty-six colleges and universities representing select HBCUs and members of the Appalachian College Association in their ongoing efforts to develop, implement and expand global citizenship education activities on their campuses and in collaboration with others involved in the M-GCP.
The Mellon Global Citizenship Program is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
More information about the Mellon Global Citizen Program can be found at the M-GCP website: m-gcp.salzburgglobal.org
Historically Black Colleges and Universities and members of the Appalachian College Association further partnerships at inaugural Global Citizenship Summit
More than 40 faculty and administrators from select Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and members of the Appalachian College Association (ACA) convened at the first annual Global Citizenship Summit to share and receive feedback on deepening global citizenship education work, expand and enhance multi-campus partnerships, and establish new collaborative program activities. The Summit was hosted by Clark Atlanta University and co-organized by Morehouse and Spelman Colleges, October 29-31, 2015.
“Global citizenship education is a conscious and courageous commitment to the future,” Dr. Walter Fluker, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership at Boston University School of Theology, told Summit participants. “We are not sure how we will get to where we are going, but we are prepared to make this first step together.”
The Summit, which included programs at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum as well as the Center for Civil and Human Rights, was a result of a competitive grant process organized as part of the Mellon Global Citizenship Program (M-GCP) of Salzburg Global Seminar. The M-GCP was launched in 2014 to further the innovative work that moved 36 US colleges and universities – all of which are either HBCUs or members of the ACA – toward becoming sites of global citizenship education as part of the Mellon Fellow Community Initiative.
Focusing on the theme Sustainability and Innovation, participants in the Summit heard from world-class speakers on global citizenship education and outlined concrete next steps for the creation of the Global Education Consortium, an independent organization that will support activities and partnerships developed through the M-GCP. An undergraduate research conference organized by Lindsey Wilson College was held concurrent to the Summit at Clark Atlanta University and was an opportunity for students to engage directly in the core theme and present their own innovations and ideas.
“Global citizenship education is the umbrella that captures various projects found across university spaces,” Dr. Ronald A. Johnson, president of Clark Atlanta University, said. “One benefit of global citizenship collaboration is that we improve our understanding of each other and how we relate to the world itself. Universities must look at mechanisms for multi-campus collaboration to prepare students to move to a place in which they are more accepting and more understanding of the dynamics that make the human community who we are and how we all fit in the context of this planet. To me, that is at the heart of global citizenship education.”
The Summit offered 2015 M-GCP grantees the opportunity to discuss the process and results of recent multi-campus programmatic activities, including the global education visiting specialist series Global Citizenship Revisited: New Approaches to Achieve Global Competencies between Ferrum College, Bennett College, and King University, along with a partnership between Florida Memorial University and Berea College on Global African Diaspora Citizenship. Dr. Bettie Starr, vice president for academic affairs at Lindsey Wilson College, described the upcoming study away incentive program Trading Spaces, a collaboration between her institution and Clark Atlanta University, as an opportunity for urban and rural students to gain new experiences and perspectives that may otherwise not be available to them.
“Global citizenship education is a vibrant and integrated part of our campus,” Starr said. “We have revised our general education requirements to include the student-learning outcome ‘engaged local and global citizenship,’ and we have started a Center for Global Citizenship on campus. When the opportunity arose to collaborate with HBCUs, we jumped on it.”
Students benefiting from the activities of the M-GCP also had the opportunity to address the value and impact of global citizenship on their educational experiences.
“Global citizenship education forces me to operate outside of my comfort zone,” Sederra Ross, a senior chemistry major at Clark Atlanta University, told Summit participants. “As an aspiring green chemist, global education has given me the tools to make myself a better citizen and a better person. It’s like I have superpowers.”
Throughout the Summit, participants met in thematic issue groups to identify opportunities for future multi-campus collaboration on global citizenship education programs. The Leadership Circle, a working group of senior administrators from M-GCP partner institutions, met with M-GCP Advisory Council members to outline specific plans for a new independent consortium to facilitate ongoing collaboration as leaders in the field of global citizenship education once the current program activities end in 2017.
In addition to deepening global citizenship work across academic institutions, the Summit also addressed the need for colleges and universities to form strategic partnerships outside of academia. M-GCP Advisory Council member Dr. Yolanda Moses moderated a panel of experts at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum that included Professor Wallace Ford, founder of Fordworks LLC, and Dr. Jennie K. Lincoln, director of The Americas Program at The Carter Center.
“The first study abroad programs at universities were a choice,” Lincoln said. “Global education is no longer a choice. The world is becoming flat, and the requirement for educators is to prepare students to be able to function in that world. Developing strategic partnerships between academia and the private sector, government, and non-profit organizations is critical.”
At The National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Inc, civil rights leader and former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young, encouraged Summit participants and students from the Undergraduate Research Conference to identify strategic opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration on solving the world’s most pressing issues. Fellow panelist Carlotta Arthur, program director of the Clare Boothe Luce Program at the Henry Luce Foundation, concurred, and reminded the participants both how unique and highly valuable the collaboration among the HBCU and ACA schools is.
“The specific constellation of ACA and HBCU institutions offers a unique opportunity, through cooperation, to make ‘globalization at home’ and ‘citizenship without borders’ a powerful and tangible learning experience,” said M-GCP manager David Goldman.
Other speakers at the Global Citizenship Summit and Undergraduate Research Conference included Dr. Maghan Keita, director of the Institute for Global Interdisciplinary Studies at Villanova University; Anne Gahongayire, former Secretary General, Supreme Court, Rwanda; Deborah J. Richardson, interim CEO of The National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Inc; and Dr. Champa Patel, director of Campaigns Programme and interim director of the South East Asia and Pacific Regional Office at Amnesty International.
More information about the Mellon Global Citizen Program can be found at the M-GCP website: m-gcp.salzburgglobal.org
Publication features essays, personal reflections and the next steps forward
A new report on The Mellon Fellow Community Initiative (MFCI) is now available to view online.
Produced by Salzburg Global, the report is entitled, ‘Creating Sites of Global Citizenship’.
The MFCI offers week-long seminars and shorter workshops for faculty and administrators to develop tailored approaches of incorporating global citizenship education into the fabric of their institutions.
In the last five years, the MFCI has brought together more than 250 people from 36 colleges and universities with world-class international faculty.
These students have been taken from either designated Historically Black Colleges and Universities or members of the Appalachian College Association.
The report includes a number of essays on Global Citizenship Education, personal experiences and reflections from MFCI participants, and information on the next steps forward.
In addition to this, Salzburg Global President and Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Salyer has penned a letter outlining the MFCI’s significance.
In an extract taken from this letter, Mr Salyer writes: “As this report demonstrates, the MFCI’s unusual constellation of partners is uniquely suited to developing and implementing innovative approaches to global citizenship education in classrooms, across campuses, and throughout communities.
“Through the MFCI, our partners have embarked on a journey to explore and reinterpret their own historical legacies for the 21st century.”
The MFCI is based on Salzburg Global’s Global Citizenship Program, created in 2004, which has brought together nearly 3,000 higher education administrators, professors and students from 80 colleges and universities.
Jochen Fried, Director of Education at Salzburg Global, and David Goldman, Associate Director of Education at Salzburg Global, have been involved in all stages of MFCI conceptualization, planning and implementation.
The initiative remains committed to strengthening educational access, success and relevance.
It holds a determination to find practical ways to advance global citizenship through rigorous teaching, research, cross-cultural exchange and community outreach.