Fostering Global Initiatives Across IU

By Eli Konwest, Elisheva Cohen, and Dawn Lipperd

This year, the Center for the Study of Global Change was able to assist IU faculty, staff, and students with their global learning and internationalization goals through professional development opportunities, supporting events at IU, and more. Read on to learn more about specific programs. 

Global Community Engaged Learning Institute

The Indiana University Center for the Study of Global Change and the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning Service-Learning Program collaborated on the second biennial Global Community Engaged Learning Course Development Institute (CDI) for full-time IU faculty (tenure and non-tenure track) from all IU campuses. The purpose of the institute is to promote the creation of new, high-quality community-engaged learning courses with a global learning focus, in support of the IU 2030 Strategic Plan, with an emphasis on plan goals of Student Success and Opportunity and Service to the State and Beyond. Faculty participants met in-person with workshop leaders to draft course elements and meet with relevant community and campus partners. This year, seven faculty participated from almost as many disciplines and three IU campuses. Eli Konwest, Global Center Director, and Michael Valliant, Service-Learning Program Director, presented the institute during a session at the American Association of Colleges and Universities Global Learning Conference in Washington D.C.

Hosting the Gilman Foreign Policy in Focus: Refugees and Migration Virtual Seminar Series

Over the summer, the Global Center collaborated with the Hamilton Lugar School to run the Gilman Foreign Policy in Focus: Refugees and Migration. This five-part, virtual seminar series included five sessions over the month of June. The series introduced participants to the foundational elements of global migration and international refugee policy. Through case studies and discussions with experts—including from refugee communities—participants learned how each refugee experience is unique, shaped by particular social, political, and economic conditions.  The seminar series was open to the public and each seminar had approximately 100 attendees. 

A selection of 50 Gilman Scholars and alumni who participated in all five virtual seminars on refugees and migration attended one of two in-person workshops, one in Amman, Jordan and the other in Thessaloniki, Greece. With support from the Global Center, Dr Elisheva Cohen advised on the design of both workshops and attended the Greece workshop as an additional faculty member. Through this experience, she worked with participants to take the theories they learned in the virtual seminars and understand their application to the particular context of Greece.

Peace Corp Prep

This year, the Peace Corps Prep Program had its bi-annual information session hosted by Dawn Lipperd. Vicki Runion also shared her valuable experience with students interested in the Peace Corps Prep Program. The info session had the biggest turnout in 2 years with 20 students in attendance. In the succeeding months, several students from the info session joined the Prep Program. Due to the transition of the Global Center into IU Global , the Global Service and Peace Corps Prep Program was transitioned to the coordination of the Hamilton Lugar School and the very capable hands of Benjamin Brass, Assistant Director of Recruitment at Hamilton Lugar. Benjamin is a Peace Corp alum and we look forward to supporting the program in a different capacity moving forward. 

You can also learn more about how the Global Center collaborated with our fellow U.S. Department of Education funded resource centers for area studies here.