{"id":20722,"date":"2017-08-04T10:47:33","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T14:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=20722"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:36:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:36:34","slug":"global-distinction-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=20722","title":{"rendered":"NC Global Distinction Program Connects Community Colleges with Global Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Carolina students Diana Scott (left) and Shodeah Kelly (right) participated in the North Carolina Global Distinction Program as community college students. Photo by Charlotte Eure ’16.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

For Shodeah Kelly, a student at Davidson County Community College who had never left the United States, joining the North Carolina Global Distinction Program helped develop sensitivities and skills that have started her on the path to becoming a global citizen. Kelly is now a second-year transfer student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, majoring in public policy with a social and economic justice minor in the College of Arts & Sciences.<\/p>\n

Diana Scott also transferred to UNC after participating in the Global Distinction Program at Central Piedmont Community College, and the program resonated with her too. Scott wants to pursue a master\u2019s degree in social work after graduation, and she says the program will help prepare her for that kind of career.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Being culturally sensitive and being aware of cultures and religions and races other than your own is extremely important,\u201d said Scott. \u201cIn a career that\u2019s very client-oriented, there are going to be clients who are different than me, and I\u2019m going to have to understand where they\u2019re coming from culturally, or even if I don\u2019t understand [their culture], at least be sensitive to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott is a sociology major with a minor in sexuality studies, also in the College.<\/p>\n

Kelly and Scott participated in the North Carolina Global Distinction Program, a partnership between World View, a public service program at UNC-Chapel Hill, and community colleges across the state. World View\u2019s mission is to help K-12 and community college educators prepare students to study and work in a globalized world. The Global Distinction Program furthers that mission by connecting community college faculty and students with global resources that are available at UNC.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecifically, we\u2019re looking to globalize the curriculum and increase faculty and student involvement in global issues, activities and dialogue,\u201d said World View associate director Neil Bolick, who leads the Global Distinction Program. \u201cTwo primary goals of the program are to prepare students to work in a global economy, and to help them transfer to and succeed in universities that increasingly emphasize global studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

World View collaborates with faculty, staff and a number of units at UNC-Chapel Hill, including the area studies centers and University Library, to help community colleges incorporate global learning opportunities into their curricula. Community college faculty members can arrange research visits to UNC, where they create global modules, or individual units within a course to make the course more global. The approach has been hugely successful in the classroom for both teachers and students.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the instructors who have been involved have said their students love the curriculum changes,\u201d Bolick said. \u201cThey\u2019re much more engaged. They feel that having this global content in their courses makes the courses much more relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Wider Benefit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even students who aren\u2019t in the Global Distinction Program have benefited from the program. Globally intensive courses are open to all students, meaning anyone, not just Global Distinction students, can take them. In fall 2016, more than 2,500 students at Pitt Community College took a globalized course. \u201cWe\u2019re pleased that this program delivers benefits to such a wide community throughout the state,\u201d said Charl\u00e9 LaMonica, director of World View.<\/p>\n

Students gain global experience by studying abroad or participating in a domestic intercultural experience, such as working with local immigrant communities or volunteering at global nongovernmental organizations, and complete a capstone presentation at the end of the program.<\/p>\n

In addition to the globally intensive courses, students in the Global Distinction Program are required to participate in intercultural activities and dialogue. Activities can include anything from attending festivals and lectures to watching films and visiting museums. While participating in the program at Central Piedmont Community College, Scott attended a Greek festival, an Indian festival and a conference on cultural awareness in business, and visited a museum of British ceramics.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The program] gave me a lot of opportunities to know what\u2019s going on culturally in Charlotte,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

World View has been working with community colleges for nearly 14 years, but the NC Global Distinction Program is still relatively new, with Davidson County Community College being the first to implement it three years ago. The college had already started a globalized learning program on its own, so when World View extended the invitation to be a part of its statewide consortium, it was a natural fit. Now there are 14 participating community colleges across the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work with all the community colleges in the state in our programs,\u201d Bolick said. \u201cGlobal Distinction colleges are existing World View partners who wanted to take it to a deeper level, who wanted to offer a structure in their colleges where their students could take a delineated program and end up graduating with Global Distinction on their transcript.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who graduate with the Global Distinction designation on their transcript elevate their college and job applications and come out better prepared for the transition to four-year universities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout this opportunity,\u201d said Kelly, \u201cI don\u2019t think I would have been prepared to even discuss anything outside the United States, so this has really helped me become a global citizen and become more aware of my surroundings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond College<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Global Distinction Program also prepares students to enter the workforce when they graduate, introducing them to what has become an increasingly global economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur state is already heavily involved in global business. Our population and workforce is becoming more international every year,\u201d Bolick said. \u201cBoth business and government leaders stress the need for citizens that can work with and communicate with people from other cultures, and that this is going to be a key to our economic success going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Kelly, who had never been out of the country, the Global Distinction Program gave her the experience and knowledge to become a global citizen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never had any global experience, and I\u2019d never traveled far from home. I was closed off from the world,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cI really didn\u2019t understand global issues or global policies. The Global Distinction Program helped me understand, or at least be on a path to understanding, international issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Katie King \u201915 for UNC Global<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carolina students Diana Scott and Shodeah Kelly participated in the North Carolina Global Distinction Program as community college students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,16,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fine-arts-humanities","category-global-programs","category-social-sciences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48188,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20722\/revisions\/48188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}