Virtual Exchange to Develop More Humanity-Driven STEM Pre-Professional Undergraduate Students by DA Global | May 8, 2025 | Global Impact Exchange, Spring 2023 Authors: Diba Mani, PhD, University of Florida ABSTRACT: This article explores the use of virtual exchange (VE) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses to develop more humanity-driven pre-professional undergraduate students. It emphasizes the importance of incorporating arts and humanities-based aspects into STEM education to enhance students’ interpersonal skills and global perspectives. VE allows students to connect with diverse individuals from different cultural contexts and fields, promoting awareness of diversity and perspective. The article presents a case study of a Neuromuscular Aspects of Exercise course that used VE, resulting in students reporting higher levels of compassion, adaptability, and respect for cultural values. Integrating virtual exchange into STEM courses can humanize researchers, encourage intercultural skills, and foster a more conscientious approach to future healthcare professions. Incorporating art and humanities-based aspects for pre-professional undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses is necessary for developing more humanity-driven pre-professional students. Pre-professional programs are tracks in undergraduate programs that prepare students for advanced professional training like medical and dental school after earning their bachelor’s degree. A student may major in any degree program but still enroll in a pre-professional program, although most select a major that is related to their future career aspiration, such as biology or physiology for a pre-medical track. Although this results in reasonable overlap between requirements for graduation and graduate/professional school requirements, most students must still take courses outside the degree program they’re pursuing at their four-year institution, such as an organic chemistry sequence for a physiology student or anatomy and physiology for a chemistry student interested in applying for medical school. Any “free” time these students have is often directed toward prerequisite classes, volunteering hours in research labs and/or clinics, and/or part-time jobs, families, or athletics. These students may not have the time to travel abroad, whether for academics or not, during their undergraduate career and thus may lack experiencing the global dimension that is the basis of STEM fields. In fact, unpublished data collected by Mani & DeVita (in revision) found that “too busy” was selected as a reason for not traveling abroad by 40% of respondents (a close second most popular explanation: “too expensive” [74%]). Work such as that published by Costa et al. (2020) revealed that coordinating the undergraduate curriculum with the pre-professional programs like health professions education is vital for enhancing the development of student capabilities associated with arts and humanities, which includes the study of history, philosophy and religion, languages and literatures, art, and cultural studies. While programs can be designed and implemented to target small groups of pre-health professional students to develop interpersonal skills through humanities (Poirier et al., 2017), most students are not afforded these opportunities: they may not have the ability to take additional courses, are not enrolled in small groups like honors programs, and may not even have these types of classes offered at their institutions. Internationalization (O’Dowd, 2018) and virtual exchange (De Wit & Leask, 2015) in courses already within the curriculum of student degrees and pre-professional programs may be the key to developing more humanity-driven future healthcare providers. Internationalization involves curriculum development and change to integrate an international/global dimension into content and/or form (Leask, 2015), while virtual exchange is one method by which courses may be internationalized. As defined by O’Dowd (2018), virtual exchange is the engagement of students in intercultural interactions in a virtual setting, comprising a connection with some partner(s) from other cultural contexts and/or geographical locations as an aspect of the classroom curricula. Knight (2012) points out that competencies related to effective development of international knowledge and intercultural skills inspire students to create superior understanding of collegiality between nations, sustainable world economies, holistic leadership, and lifelong learning, which can be interpreted as “humanity-driven.” By connecting students with diverse people of differing backgrounds and perspectives but in relevant fields, often across the globe, students may become more aware of the diversity and perspective of others, as exemplified in a Neuromuscular Aspects of Exercise course taught in the Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology at the University of Florida. In this class students interviewed scientists from across the globe to gain awareness of cultural and even ethnic impacts on science across four semesters in one of three formats: (1) fully in-person, (2) hybrid (partially in-person and online), or (3) fully online. Summed across the four semesters, 183 students self-reported a higher level of compassion and understanding about the individual they were connected with via video-conferencing technologies like Zoom or Skype: 91-95% of the students noted that they felt more positive about their ability to “communicate with someone from another culture,” self-“adaptability,” “respect for culture, political, and/or economic systems,” and “personal cultural values and biases.” One student (Fall 2019) shared the following at the end of the term: “I loved the experience. It really changed my perspective on presenting research papers and on scientists. I was scared for the interview but realized that they are regular people. It made me see that I could see myself doing research.” Even without acknowledging the global dimension, the student is humanizing the researchers that establish material taught in the STEM field is recognized. All feedback was collected anonymously and with no impact on student grades in the course. The virtual exchange experience may be the closest the students get to communicating about science and/or healthcare during their entire academic career, which is quite limiting. However, it is predicted that experiential learning opportunities like the one afforded the students in the undergraduate Neuromuscular Aspects of Exercise course will resonate with them throughout at least the remainder of their undergraduate career, if not through their professional school. For example, a student with a pre-health track during the course may retain the intercultural skills augmented in their virtual exchange experience through medical school, thus engaging in similar activities during their professional education as they develop into a more conscientious and humanity-driven physician. Integrating diverse perspectives and humanities-based activities, with or without virtual exchange, is not lost on our students. For instance, observations presented by Adkins and colleagues (2018) reveal that the integration of life science and visual arts can augment even undergraduate biology classrooms. No doubt, educators can and should consider the integration of relevant global issues in courses that target pre-professional students and incorporate artistic and humanistic dimensions in their STEM courses. Colleagues interested in incorporating virtual exchange to internationalize their STEM course(s) may consider partnering with a colleague’s classroom in a different country to simply have students read and evaluate a selected research paper over videoconferencing. This experience may last no more than half a class session but can result in the development and appreciation of intercultural skills within relevant academic topics that will hopefully be held through post-graduate experiences such as graduate programs. References Adkins, S. J., Rock, R. K., & Morris, J. J. (2018). Interdisciplinary STEM education reform: Dishing out art in a microbiology laboratory. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 365(1). Costa, M., Kangasjarvi, E., & Charise, A. (2020). Beyond empathy: A qualitative exploration of arts and humanities in pre-professional (baccalaureate) health education. Advances in Health Science Education, 25(5), 1203–1226. De Wit. H., & Leask, B. (2015). Internationalization, the curriculum and the disciplines. International Higher Education, (83), 10–12. Knight, J. (2012). Concepts, rationales, and interpretive frameworks in the internationalization of higher education. The SAGE Handbook of International Higher Education. 27–42. Leask, B. (2015). Internationalising the curriculum. Routledge. Mani, D., & DeVita, P. (In revision). Virtual exchange integration in upper-division undergraduate neuromuscular physiology course demonstrates successful STEM internationalization. Advances in Physiology Education. O’Dowd, R. (2018). From telecollaboration to virtual exchange: State-of-the-art and the role of UNICollaboration in moving forward. Journal of Virtual Exchange, 1, 1–23. Poirier, T.I., Stamper-Carr, C., & Newman, K. (2017). A course for developing interprofessional skills in pre-professional honor students using humanities and media. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning. 9(5), 874–880.
Meeting in a Third Space: Possibilities for Equity and Inclusion in Virtual Classrooms* by DA Global | May 8, 2025 | Global Impact Exchange, Spring 2023 Authors: Susana M. Company, Assistant Professor, Universidad Católica de Salta Marina Figueredo, UNTREF, Red Interdisciplinaria de Estudios de Género Carolina V. Flores, UNTREF, Red Interdisciplinaria de Estudios de Género, PhD student, IDAES – Universidad Nacional de San Martín Sabrina González, Assistant Professor, Washington State University Cara K. Snyder, Assistant Professor, The University of Louisville ABSTRACT: This opinion piece explores the potential of virtual exchanges (VE) to foster equity and inclusion in virtual classrooms. It emphasizes the need to challenge power asymmetries, including imperialism and linguistic domination, within initiatives promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Drawing on experiences from co-taught courses between universities in Argentina and the United States, the authors highlight two key aspects of VE for promoting equity and inclusion: centering voices from the Global South in course materials and encouraging transnational collaborations through project-based assignments and co-teaching teams. VE creates a third space for intercultural encounters, fostering dialogue among students from diverse backgrounds. It allows for collective knowledge-making and challenges students to consider nationality and language as categories of power, enhancing diversity and emancipatory practices in higher education. *We would like to acknowledge professor Merle Collins and the Global Learning Initiatives – Office of International Affairs at the University of Maryland for their support and mentorship, and the Red Interdisciplinaria de Género at Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero for a fruitful and respectful collaboration over the years. The language of diversity, equity, and inclusion has largely been promoted by and within United States-based institutions. As a result, these initiatives have not always focused on challenging power asymmetries related to the category of nation, including imperialism and linguistic domination. Virtual exchanges (VE), while far from perfect, can offer a chance for students and professors of various nationalities to work collaboratively towards more expansive visions of transnational solidarity. Drawing on our experiences facilitating two multi-sited, co-taught courses between universities in Argentina and the United States, this piece asserts that VE can promote equity and inclusion for instructors and students by 1) centering the voices of the Global South in the course material and 2) creating transnational collaborations through project-based assignments and co-teaching teams who work together across borders and often in multiple languages. VEs create a third space for students and professors to reflect about global issues such as racism and gender violence. The networks born of VE act inside and outside the classroom through practices of collective knowledge making, like this piece written by scholars from South America in collaboration with scholars in the US. First, our VE promoted equity and inclusion through course syllabi that foregrounded the perspectives of scholars and activists from the Global South. The class material contextualized and recognized human diversity while the assignments and discussions encouraged students to learn from each other. For instance, in one of our classes, Online and in the Streets: Feminist Protest and Activism in Latin America, we included materials on Black, Chicana, trans, and popular feminisms to provide a critique of “mainstream” Western White feminism that fails to account for non-White and LGBTQIA++ people. Teaching-learning spaces that center marginalized experiences not only expose students to new stories, but also frame experiences in the Americas as systemic and interconnected, rather than as unconnected or individualized anecdotes. Thus, VEs can be laboratories to test plural forms of education, respecting diversity and aiming for emancipatory practices. This leads to our second point about the virtual classroom as a third, interstitial space: one in which cultures, languages, experiences, and histories converge. In this way VE can promote intercultural encounters that foster dialogue amongst students from diverse backgrounds. Transnational collaborations among students take the form of project-based assignments that encourage students to work in teams as they develop digital projects. A student from another VE course, Literature and Ideas in the Caribbean, reflected: The experience of working one-on-one with other students becomes a matter of convergence and divergence […] The magic is that once I am aware this distance exists, and once I remember that in the tension between here and there I can meet those who seem to be far away, suddenly relationships become a little less complicated, and I can finally enjoy and take advantage of both likenesses and differences to grow, to better understand others, and ultimately, to become more like myself. It is through these assignments that students like the one quoted above face the challenges of collective learning and enjoy the benefits of connecting with students from diverse backgrounds. This enables personal growth, a deeper understanding of others, and ultimately a greater sense of self. For instructors VE also promotes transnational collaborations through co-teaching teams that work together across borders and languages. Inspired by popular pedagogies from South America, co-teaching means to collectively plan (in teams of two or more) lectures and discussions, advise students, and reflect about teaching and learning practices. As another example of the transnational dialogues that VE can create, Online and In the Streets organized Conversatorios (Talks) with activists and scholars from the Global South as part of the class. These conversations featured speakers whose subjectivities and experiences are too often overlooked in higher educational settings. In sum, we conceptualize the VE as an opportunity to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education by challenging students to consider nationality and language as categories of power (among other categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality that are more commonly theorized in DEI) . In our experiences VE prompted transnational networks where scholars and students collaborated by teaching in interinstitutional teams, creating visual projects that analyze race and gender from a comparative and transnational perspective, and expanding knowledge making outside the classroom. This opinion piece is part of that network that continues weaving webs of solidarity and collaborative intellectual work across national borders and languages.
TOCA Online: Using Language Learning to Connect U.S. High School Students of Color and Refugees Worldwide by DA Global | May 8, 2025 | Global Impact Exchange, Spring 2023 Authors: Melquin Ramos, Teens of Color Abroad, Director, TOCA Online Lamar Shambley, Teens of Color Abroad, Founder/Executive Director ABSTRACT: TOCA Online, a virtual language learning and cultural exchange program, aims to bridge the racial gap in language access for U.S. high school students of color. Partnered with NaTakallam, TOCA connects students with refugee conversation partners to study Arabic, Spanish, or French, fostering global competency skills and cultural awareness. The program supplements school-based language learning, enhancing classroom participation and knowledge of global landscapes. Challenges in engaging students of color include awareness, representation, and partnership preparation. TOCA addresses these by providing mentorship programs, promoting diverse representation, and offering comprehensive training. Impact assessments show that over 300 students from 30 states have benefited from TOCA Online, with positive outcomes in students’ global perspectives, career interests, and language skill application, highlighting the significance of virtual exchange programs like TOCA Online in fostering language proficiency and cultural understanding. Overview of TOCA Online Speaking a language other than English opens up opportunities in careers and life. Nationwide, early engagement with comprehensive language learning correlates with increased overall academic achievement, cognitive development, and positive attitudes toward different cultures. TOCA (Teens of Color Abroad) exists to bridge the racial gap in the United States regarding access to the most proven ways for youth to become fluent in a new language. TOCA primarily serves students of color from low-income communities and students attending Title I schools, who are highly underrepresented in global education programs and therefore underrepresented in the numerous life and career benefits associated with participating in them. TOCA founder, Lamar Shambley, noted that there were only a few Black students like him in his language learning and study abroad experiences in college. His aim in creating TOCA was to enhance students’ language learning experiences, augment their educational outcomes, and strengthen their global competency skills. In Summer 2020 TOCA partnered with NaTakallam to launch TOCA Online, a virtual language learning and cultural exchange program that allows U.S. high school students of color to study Arabic, Spanish, or French, taught by refugee conversation partners dispersed worldwide. In the TOCA Online program, students take small-group language lessons, connect with like-minded peers across the country, and participate in cultural exchange sessions where they listen and learn from refugees’ lived experiences. TOCA Online supplements students’ school-based language-learning experiences, increasing their classroom participation and knowledge of global political and cultural landscapes. Challenges of Engaging Students of Color Addressing the below challenges requires program developers, students, and families to work together to build trust, create an inclusive environment for learning to occur, and provide adequate resources and support. As a result, it’s important to work closely with the communities that one serves to better understand their needs and priorities. Awareness.Students may not be aware of the opportunities available to them because individuals in their community may have never participated in similar activities, or they may not be aware of the holistic benefits these opportunities afford. A solution to this is to create peer mentorship programs designed specifically for students of color where alumni share their experiences with students and their families. TOCA has developed Community Circles, a space for universities and international education associations to discuss global education opportunities to TOCA participants. Lack of representation.Students may not see themselves or their cultures represented in the programming, including those leading and facilitating the programs. It is critical to proactively create a diverse workforce to ensure that different perspectives are represented during program development and marketing efforts. TOCA Online receives real-time feedback from students, which helps shape the programs based on students’ needs. Organizations should hire leadership and facilitators who come from similar backgrounds as the students they are serving. Inadequate preparation and partnerships.Without adequate preparation and training, organizations may perpetuate stereotypes or biases, creating an unwelcoming environment for students. It is important when developing partnerships for stakeholders to have shared goals and priorities for the populations they are serving, and ensure that training is offered before and after programming occurs. Impact of TOCA Online Second-language acquisition is important for employability, personal and cultural enrichment, and solidarity building. In many industries speaking multiple languages is advantageous and may help individuals advance within their organizations. Additionally, our students have expressed an interest in learning languages ranging from engaging with their local communities to connecting more meaningfully with relatives outside of the US, which may lead students to identify as heritage seekers when pursuing global education opportunities in college. These types of experiences empower students to share their personal stories (e.g., What’s it like to grow up as a young Black man in America?) in another language, which creates bridges to connect with other cultures. TOCA Online has enrolled over 300 high school students of color from more than 30 states. Based on 208 responses to TOCA’s Global Identity Questionnaire, our findings indicate that our programming has impacted students’ global perspectives and identity. Findings show that students are interested in a career where they can use their language skills, they are interested in studying languages in college, they consider different cultural perspectives when evaluating global problems, and they are interested in having an international career as an adult. Our findings show that our programming is promoting the use of language skills in future academic and professional environments. Although more work needs to be done, TOCA Online is having a positive impact on our students, which demonstrates the need for these types of virtual exchange programs.
Virtual Exchange for Preservice Teachers: A Boundary Space Where DEI Can Flourish by DA Global | May 8, 2025 | Global Impact Exchange, Spring 2023 Authors: Allison Witt, Director, Teaching Associate Professor, University of Illinois ABSTRACT: This article explores the potential of virtual exchange (VE) in undergraduate teacher education to develop global competencies and foster diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). It presents the IGlobal model, an extracurricular club focusing on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, where preservice teachers collaborate virtually with international students to lead cross-cultural STEAM activities for middle school students. The IGlobal model reimagines VE as a boundary space for encountering and engaging with difference, emphasizing cultural humility and multidirectional knowledge creation. Participants learn to navigate cross-cultural collaboration while gaining global awareness and competencies. Despite the benefits, challenges to DEI persist, such as the digital divide limiting access for participants from less affluent areas. Nevertheless, VE in teacher education offers hope for addressing these challenges and preparing culturally competent teachers for diverse classrooms. A growing body of literature demonstrates the potential for virtual exchange (VE) to develop global competencies in participants (O’Dowd, 2017; Machwate et al., 2021). Such research is particularly encouraging for undergraduate teacher education, where training culturally competent preservice teachers is widely acknowledged to be paramount as a foundation for DEI in future classrooms across the spectrum of education. Currently, teacher education is developing unique models for advancing DEI in and through VE that may have possibilities for broader application in other disciplines as well. Teacher education places a high priority on developing global competence in preservice teachers in order to prepare them for the cultural diversity of their future classrooms. In fact, teacher education programs have long developed education abroad programs with the specific goals of training preservice teachers in global competencies. Yet, ongoing challenges persist in providing accessible global engagement opportunities. Education abroad programs have shown great promise, but the costs and lockstep course schedules of most education programs keep many students from participating. Moreover, lack of diversity in teacher training programs overall is compounded and more pronounced when considering the lack of diverse participation rate in programs of education abroad. By providing accessible global learning opportunities for preservice teachers, VE holds potential to overcome these barriers and develop many of the intercultural skills that teacher education demands (Jaramillo Cherrez & Gleason, 2022; Sapkota et al., 2023) One example of a VE model developed for teacher education is IGlobal, an extracurricular club focused on the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, led by education undergraduate students and international students, attended by middle school students from around the world. DEI is not only a characteristic of each group of participants, but also informs the content and focus of the program. Supported by the University of Illinois College of Education, the Illinois Global Institute, and grants from the U.S. Department of Education Title VI program, preservice teachers are partnered with international students and work in tandem with practicing teachers locally and from around the world. Modeling cross-cultural collaboration, they virtually lead groups of middle school students in extracurricular STEAM activities and projects that require cross-cultural collaboration, which we call STEAM-C. It is the multilayered, cross-cultural collaboration that distinguishes the IGlobal model from collaborative online international learning (COIL). Designed specifically for preservice and in-service teachers, IGlobal reimagines virtual exchange as an online international teaching and learning laboratory where participants gain global awareness and global competencies, as well as practice in globally collaborative online teaching and learning. In COIL, by contrast, participants are typically partnered virtually with peers from a different cultural context to study topics of mutual interest or shared language. In IGlobal, participants are partnered with both peers and mentors from multiple cultural contexts while also engaging in teaching activities with multinational, multilingual middle school students. Seeming barriers of language, culture, and technology instead all become the sites and source of collaboration, as teachers, preservice teachers, and international students all work together to educate globally based middle school participants about the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In the IGlobal project model, we conceptualize the online environment as a boundary space, where difference can be encountered and engaged. Drawing from boundary crossing theory, diversity is recognized as a vital force for change and development (Akkerman & Baker, 2011). Differences are recognized as potential learning resources that depend on multiple perspectives from multiple parties. Rather than giving simplistic calls for agreement, boundary crossing theory acknowledges the potential difficulty of action and interaction across cultural and belief systems, while at the same time emphasizing the value of communication and collaboration. Boundary crossing does not mean imposing ideas from one side of the boundary to the other. Instead, using this framing encourages participants to accept that differences will remain. All participants learn to engage with difference in a stance of cultural humility amidst multidirectional flows of knowledge creation. IGlobal works from the assumption that encountering cultural difference is challenging and disrupting. Encountering cultural difference will not automatically result in greater understanding but must be treated as a learning opportunity. Following this model in practice means recognizing that all participants have contributions to make as well as potential knowledge to gain from each other within the boundary spaces of VE. This theory undergirds practice in IGlobal, in which the virtual space shared by multiple cultures functions as a boundary ground where cultures of teaching and learning encounter each other and learn to respectfully engage to solve challenges through the medium of technology. The differences encountered here in this virtual boundary space serve as the catalysts for learning. DEI flourishes in this multinational, multicultural, multilingual VE. Serving as club chapter leaders, preservice teachers participate in cross-cultural collaboration while at the same time learning how to teach these skills in complex virtual environments. Preservice teachers practice facilitating cross-cultural respect and creating spaces where multiple perspectives can be heard and addressed in proposed solutions. In addition to synchronous virtual club meetings with students, all preservice teachers and international student leaders meet together weekly to discuss what they learned as co-leaders in their session. They take turns sharing video clips that illustrate successful or challenging moments. Talking through these examples as a group allows preservice teachers and international students to both teach and learn from each other. In what is commonly referred to as the multiplier effect, as future teachers, the education students will potentially continue to transmit what they have learned from their international peers, mentors, and students into their school communities for decades to come. While the benefits of providing greater access to global learning for all preservice teachers cannot be overstated, even within these new models of VE, significant challenges to DEI remain. Access to the VE is limited by the digital divide, with schools around the world lacking the technological capabilities to join. Teacher training, equipment, and internet connection all serve as major barriers to participants from the Global South, or even from less affluent areas of the Global North. VE provides an important step in providing global learning for more students who could not afford traditional mobility, or don’t have opportunity to travel, but it will not solve all the inequities that remain. VE focused on DEI for educators and young students provides hope that these challenges will continue to be addressed by the generations to come. References: Jaramillo Cherrez, N., & Gleason, B. (2022). A virtual exchange experience: Preparing pre-service teachers for cultural diversity. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 38(3), 126–138. Machwate, S., Bendaoud, R., Henze, J., Berrada, K., & Burgos, D. (2021). Virtual exchange to develop cultural, language, and digital competencies. Sustainability, 13(11), 5926. O’Dowd, R. (2017). Virtual exchange and internationalising the classroom. Training Language and Culture, 1(4), 8–24. Sapkota, B. K., Zhou, L., Mbewe, R., Newton, J., & Phillion, J. (2023). Fostering preservice teachers’ social justice awareness and intercultural competence through a virtual global community of practice. At School in the World: Developing Globally Engaged Teachers, 212.
Exploring the World Without Leaving Home: A Case Study on Using Virtual Exchange to Create Global Competence in a Diverse Population of Students by DA Global | May 8, 2025 | Global Impact Exchange, Spring 2023 Authors: Holly Djang, Director of Research and Evaluation, Global Citizen Year Jake Seltzer, Teaching and Learning Lead, Global Citizen Year ABSTRACT: Global Citizen Year faced the challenge of continuing their mission during the COVID-19 pandemic. They pivoted to launch the Global Citizen Year Academy, a virtual program that effectively built global competence in nearly 1,500 culturally and experientially diverse students. The article describes three elements of the Academy, enabled by its virtual format, contributing to success: organic exposure to diverse perspectives, local lens exploration of global communities, and creating a vulnerable virtual environment. The virtual orientation facilitated more equitable student recruitment and diverse instructor selection, expanding course content to represent global perspectives. The Academy pushed students to challenge inherited cultural lenses, promoting meaningful cross-cultural relationships. Finally, the article introduces the Take Action Lab, a new blended program, combining virtual experience with an in-person immersive component to advance students’ global citizenship skills. So… how do we achieve our mission during a pandemic? This is the question that we, at Global Citizen Year, asked ourselves when COVID-19 threw the whole world off of its axis. Prior to the pandemic, Global Citizen Year supported over 1,000 students through our international immersive fellowship program as part of our mission to help young people emerge into self-aware and culturally humble global citizens. Our Fellows developed insights and skills that shaped their character, guided their higher education, and equipped them to collaborate towards a positive social impact*. At the onset of COVID-19, we paused this fellowship program and pivoted to launch Global Citizen Year Academy—a 12-week virtual program that combined synchronous and asynchronous learning to help nearly 1,500 young people cultivate that same set of insights and skills: self-awareness, cultural humility, and global empathy. According to a study by Harvard researchers, the Academy effectively built global competence in this culturally and experientially diverse group of students. We also helped to foster a deep sense of community between these students of vastly different backgrounds. In fact, over 90% of our students connected with other students after completing the program, illustrating the strength and endurance of the cross-cultural relationships they developed. We believe that many of the positive results we achieved in our Academy were not in spite of but due to the virtual format of the program. In this article we describe three elements of the Academy that we were able to incorporate because of the virtual nature of the program and that we believe contributed to this success: students’ organic exposure to diverse and global perspectives, a focus on helping students see global communities through a local lens, and an opportunity for students to be vulnerable while in a safe and secure setting. Throughout, we provide relevant student quotes that were collected at the end of the program to illustrate these three elements. Advancing diversity and equity Being virtually oriented allowed us to ground program recruitment and design in our commitment to diversity and equity in ways we had not yet been able to do in our immersive in-person program. First, we could recruit students who would not have engaged in an international travel program such as our fellowship program for a variety of reasons reflective of paying capacity, personality, culture, safety, and visas. As such, the virtual format facilitated more equitable and inclusive approaches to student recruitment and participation. Second, being virtually oriented allowed us to recruit an international team of instructors. Not only did this expand our talent pool, but this also allowed students to be taught by instructors with diverse and global perspectives. The increased diversity among instructors also created fertile ground for their professional growth, as they were able to learn from colleagues across the globe, each with distinct context, experience, and training. Finally, the virtual environment also led us to expand our course content to represent more global perspectives. During our in-person fellowship we were hesitant to “overload” students with too much content which could detract from the unique opportunity to become fully immersed in their new community. Conversely, the virtual Academy provided space for students to engage deeply with written and viewable content representative of diverse cultures, worldviews, and perspectives. The expansion of course content resulted in a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning framework which pushed students to extend and challenge their own perspectives beyond their inherited cultural lens. To illustrate this, one student explained, “Global Citizen Year allowed me to explore the world and challenge my beliefs. It was enlightening to hear so many people talk on the same topic and express such different points of view. I think that the program made me much more prepared for the variety of opinions and cultures.” -Student from Lviv, Ukraine Seeing global communities through a local lens The virtual nature of our program also pushed us to redefine the culminating program project. While in the in-person fellowship, students’ projects centered on the community where they were immersed, we requested that students in the virtual program explore their own local community through a new lens. As a final project, students applied the principles of asset-based community development to identify assets in their home communities which could be leveraged to inspire meaningful local change. In sharing the final projects with their global peers, students were introduced to multiple communities across the world and invited to view them through a local, asset-based lens. In this way, the virtual nature of the Academy offered students meaningful viewpoints into multiple communities across the world, a breadth of perspective that was not possible through an in-person experience alone. For example, one student said, “We’re a diverse group so we don’t know how other cities and countries are. This allowed us to see places I’d never seen and gain a more intimate perspective of that community.” -Global Citizen Year student from Tunisia A virtual invitation to vulnerability Unlike in our in-person immersive program, whereby only a few students were placed in communities together, students of our virtual program were placed in virtual learning cohorts curated to maximize diversity across students’ place of citizenship, racial identity, gender identity, and family income. Throughout the course, students developed meaningful relationships and deep connections with their global peers by synchronously interacting with a curriculum that was grounded in the exploration of self and community as a pathway to developing a global orientation. The program asked students to reflect on their identity, privilege, implicit biases, and other characteristics in an attempt to push students to engage in deep reflection and be vulnerable in ways that gave them space to be exposed to and consider the various culturally and experientially based perspectives of other students. The fact that students engaged in the program from the comfort of their own home allowed students to be in a physically safe and familiar place for reflection and contemplation. Further, students did not have the inherent social distractions of in-person classes to detract from reflection and vulnerability, and they seemed less apt to “perform” by presenting an invulnerable exterior shell in the virtual environment. To illustrate, one student said, “Students need an experience like this one because in no other program is there a safe learning space with people from all over the world willing to get to know you and grow with you and share knowledge.” -Global Citizen Year Student from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil So now what? Combining the best of both worlds We recently launched our newest program, Take Action Lab, to continue our mission to help students develop skills needed to be impactful global citizens. This program, informed by the lessons we learned about the value of virtual exchange, blends a virtual experience with an in-person immersive component. Fifty students from over 25 countries came together virtually for four weeks to participate in a synchronous curriculum designed to help the students create community and vulnerably reflect on and share their own predispositions. These students then were sent to Cape Town, South Africa to live together and work in local human rights NGOs for 12 weeks. We look forward to sharing what we learn about this blended approach with you. *Students explicitly consented to allow their quotes and their names to be presented in Global Citizen Year publications. References: (2021, January 1). Alumni Outcomes: The First Decade (2010-2020). Global Citizen Year. https://downloads.ctfassets.net/j91b9gwu8s3q/32J3zMCSMMQys86qYmwq0I/3b6474e8c8e1e301bd0121c0cc4e71a6/20-0702_GCY_Impact_Report.pdf (2022, December 12). Academy Impact Report. Global Citizen Year. https://go.globalcitizenyear.org/academy-impact/
