The Global Competence Certificate Program was created to track students’ development of competencies that are critical to their success as global citizens who can contribute meaningfully to resolving global issues and ensuring a prosperous and equitable global economy.
In order to fulfill certificate requirements, students will reflect on their experiences in three key competencies:
- Global Learning
- International Engagement
- Language and Intercultural Learning
What is International Engagement?
Students will be asked to reflect on their experiences engaging with diverse cultures and communities. These reflections might be from traveling abroad, studying a language, doing service work, or engaging in international exchange. A student might also reflect on an international engagement experience here in Washington.
Ideas to get you started:
- Have you ever traveled outside the United States (even to Canada)?
- Have you ever gone to an event that involved another culture and/or language, for example, a concert, performance, festival, special dinner, religious celebration?
- Have you ever eaten in a restaurant associated with a certain ethnic group, such as Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Somali?
- Have you ever listened to a song that was not sung in English?
If you’ve done any of these things, what did you notice? What was similar and what was different? Reflect on that. Even small things are interesting to note.
“Glocal Virtual” International Engagement
Sometimes we use the word “glocal” to refer to experiences that feel international or global, but actually happen in our own local communities. For example, if you visit Chinatown in the Seattle International District, you will see street signs in Chinese and items for sale that you might not see in stores like Safeway or Walmart. Reflecting on these kinds of experiences is valuable, just like traveling to another country is.
Now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we can’t even visit out local communities in person. However, we can visit many places here and around the world virtually through technology.
Here are some examples to check out:
Uwajimaya Asian Grocery https://www.uwajimaya.com/
Read the history https://www.uwajimaya.com/about/whole-story
When and where did it start? Who opened it?
Check out what they sell: https://www.uwajimaya.com/departments.
Find at least 5 things that you would be interested in buying if you had $100. Why would you choose these?
Now, write up a couple of paragraphs about your virtual visit and what you learned.