Exploration Fund
The Global+ (G+) Exploration Fund program provides funding to support student engagement on campus with global issues, perspectives and language. This fund will prioritize activities that promote and enhance global competencies for students. The purpose of the program is to incentivize:
- the creation of student-focused programming that supports any of the G+ objectives; and
- individual student initiatives (e.g., internships, senior study projects) that support any of the G+ objectives (including, but not limited to strong global or language components)
Global+ Objectives:
- Integration of themes that connect international studies into disciplinary topics (a significant cross-cultural or comparative approach to understanding global issues trends)
- Integration of foreign languages into disciplinary topics (increase exposure and opportunities to engage in foreign languages) [does not have to require language fluency]
- Builds global competencies in students
Global Engagement Highlights
Explore the World @ Maryville College: This program allowed students to explore other parts of the world right here on campus. Different campus divisions and departments showcased different countries around the world throughout the month with displays that include items like photos, trivia, maps, flags, food, cultural artifacts and study abroad program information.
Around the World in 50 Minutes: Around the World in 50 minutes took FYS 110 students around the world participating in exciting and competitive challenges related to language, cultural knowledge and travel skills to build global competency and explore the world. FYS class teams competed against each other for the chance to win a class prize. Student Learning Outcomes:
- Celebrate travel & culture
- Introduce education abroad to students
- Build global competency by exploring elements of culture, cultural knowledge & travel. Expose students to intercultural experiences that are common to all who visit another culture.
Global+ Speakers Corner: Maryville College encourages open, on-going intellectual engagement and debate through civil, mutually respectful interactions that preserve the openness of public dialogue and debate. An environment that encourages diverse views and the free exchange of ideas is vital to the Maryville College mission. In the spirit of the original 1866 Hyde Park Speakers Corner in London, where the concept of an open-air public speaker’s forum was tested, the Global+ program will host it’s own faculty, staff and student speakers corner. The goal is to provide a convenient and visible location for both pre-programmed and spontaneous global and local civic engagement activities/programs on campus. The Global+ Speakers’ Corner area is designated for members of the Maryville College community, including individual students or student groups. Initial topics included: global history, global supply chain issues, cross-cultural understanding, diversity & sustainability.
Global+ Speaker – Saul Flores: Community Conversations presented Saul Flores for a virtual “Walk of the Immigrants” as our International Education month speaker. Saul Flores walked 5,328 miles through ten countries to document how grueling and dangerous the journey of immigrants to the United States can be and to raise money for an elementary school in Atencingo, Mexico. The story of his journey, accompanied by a series of photographs, capture the essence of the people, communities, and cultures he encountered along the way. After this life-changing experience, Saul now wants to inspire students to make a positive impact on the world by speaking about the value of servant leadership, philanthropy, and service-learning.
Global+ Classroom Speaker: Ms. Mona Haydar spoke in WRC 370 classes. Ms. Haydar is an activist, poet, and musician who speaks on issues relating to Islam, gender, feminism, Arabic culture, art, Islamophobia and being part of a diaspora community.
Global+ TEDxMaryville College: The Global+ program sponsored the Winter 2022 TED x Maryville College conference “Journey Across Mindsets”
Global+ First Year Seminar Pilot Program: This pilot program took 7 sections of the Maryville College first year seminar course and focused on a Citizenship, Globalization, and Civic Engagement/Action theme. The Global+ Exploration fund provided resources for the end of semester celebration.
Students began the semester with CREDO content about Citizenship, Globalization, and Civic Engagement/Action. Students read “Seedfolks,” by Paul Fleischman, as part of the citizenship thread. The novella is about a multicultural community in Cleveland, Ohio. Students had focus assignments for the reading – community, stereotypes/generalizations, and civic engagement – for participation in jigsaw discussions, and they researched 8 countries of the immigrant characters. Research partners shared charts with information about Government, Geography, Language(s), Religion, Education, and Food. The reading, discussions, and research provided a cross-cultural look at human communities. Students completed service projects with various agencies that serve marginalized communities. The service projects are intended to provide experience with agencies or organizations that are engaged in breaking down barriers common across cultural differences. The celebration was a time for students to share the following about their experiences:
What agency or program did your group serve?
What is their mission?
What did you do?
What did you enjoy? What surprised you?
What are your takeaways about communities, citizenship, and/or civic engagement?
Global+ Food & Culture Night: The Global Exploration Fund was used to offer students traveling to Costa Rica a pre-departure food and culture experience prior to travel. Students were able to test their growth mindset by sampling regional foods and drinks and learn more about cultural traditions.
Global+ Internship Award: Ms. Nelida Djassi received GEF funding to support a meaningful opportunity to intern with a community-led NGO, taking a holistic approach to support Maasai women and girls in Tanzania.
Global+ Movie Series: Global Movie Nights introduced international cinema to the Maryville College campus. Two pilot international/second language films were screened to increase exposure to both different styles of filmmaking while also encouraging engagement with non-English language cinema. Following the movie screening, students had the opportunity to discuss the film either with their professor in their class or through a post-screening discussion with Center for Global Engagement staff. These opportunities encouraged students to investigate the world by highlighting cinema that exists outside of the standard Hollywood formula in terms of content and technique. They provided an opportunity for students to view cinema that provides a window into a different culture, and encourage further cultural exploration, from seeking out more international movies to connecting with local international students from these cultures to perhaps traveling to a country through a study abroad program.
Global+ Indigenous Music: The GEF program provided an honorarium for a guest speaker from an Indigenous community who is involved in music to speak to History of Music in the U.S. Class for Music Majors and US Pluralism Core students during the unit on Indigenous Music.
Global+ Training Grant: The GEF grant provided a faculty opportunity to do training in “Cultural humility, Curiosity, and Collaborativeness and Stepping Into a Future Free of Historical Trauma” The training was conducted by a culturalist and Historical Trauma Specialist, with a long career of mediating community misconduct around the world as a descendant of a long line of traditional healers from Benin Republic, West Africa. This curriculum enrich courses taught in the Behavioral Sciences (e.g., PSY 232) that include global competencies.
Global+ Exploration Fund Eligibility
- students pursuing internships or senior study projects that have a global dimension
- student organizations wishing to develop programming that builds global competencies and achieves Global+ Objectives
- MC departments/divisions on campus wishing to develop programming that builds global competencies and achieves Global+ Objectives
Award Amounts: Up to $500
Funding will be capped at $500 to support the proposed project. Eligible expenses include materials directly related to GEF programming activity (e.g., movie licensing fee, speaker honorarium, performer fee, printing/purchase of activity materials), and/or related travel expenses* (e.g., travel or fees associated with an internship or senior study project; organization field trip). Each budget request will be considered for its relevance and necessity to support the goals of the proposed project.
Selection Process:
The International Programming Committee will review applications and determine awards. Award cycles will be on a rolling basis and occur each semester through Spring 2022.**
Recipients of GEF awards are required to submit
1) A final report at the end of the semester/term of the award activity,
2) A program evaluation (and submit results to the G+ team), and
3) Be willing to have participants take a global competency survey (coded to protect privacy) and participate in Global+ summits where possible.
Global Competency
Global competence is the capacity to understand and appreciate local and global issues, diverse perspectives and world views and interact appropriately and effectively with people from different cultures and identities.
Globally competent students have the knowledge and skills to:
- Investigate the World
- Globally competent students are aware, curious, and interested in learning about the world and how it works.
- Recognize Perspectives
- Globally competent students recognize that they have a particular perspective, and that others may or may not share it.
- Communicate Ideas
- Globally competent students can effectively communicate, verbally and non-verbally, with diverse audiences.
- Take Action
- Globally competent students have the skills and knowledge to not just learn about the world, but also to make a difference in the world.
(OECD-PISA 2018)
GEF Grant applicants should aim to address one of these three areas:
• Think globally: have an increased knowledge of their relationship to the world; think about issues from a global perspective; gain an appreciation for other world cultures, viewpoints, and perspectives.
• Communicate effectively: improve their foreign language skills and their ability to communicate with people across cultural and language divides.
• Contribute responsibly: use their global knowledge to interact and build relationships with people from other cultures; demonstrate respect, open-mindedness, understanding and flexibility in behavior and thinking; help others to embrace multiple perspectives.
*Subject to Institutional Travel policies
**Subject to availability of funds allocated for each year of the grant
