GLC: More than travel
By Cydney Cappello, BTS Editor
February 14, 2007 | 3:45 p.m.
Ohio University's Global Learning Community (GLC) became a formal university certificate-granting program on November 23, 1999, after the hard work of a university-wide committee of faculty and administrators who developed this experimental program.
"The Global Learning Community is a two-year undergraduate certificate program that prepares students to serve as internationally-minded, skilled and experienced leaders in all walks of life," according to the mission statement.
The program strives to teach leadership skills through a liberal arts perspective, preparing students to think critically and creatively as well as communicating clearly through speech and writing.
A common misconception views the GLC as just another study abroad program because of the requirement of two international experiences, but it's more than this. The GLC combines communications and business to teach students how to work cross-culturally.
"Students tend to join for the trip, but soon realize it's different," GLC Assistant to the Director Gayle McKerrow said. "All of our students have their own majors; there are no textbooks and more questions than answers."
McKerrow has been on board since the beginning and remembers when the GLC was only a ninth-floor triple dorm room in Bromley Hall, which she had the task of converting into an office.
"That first year we had to make it up as we went,” said McKerrow. "We knew what we wanted to do, but we didn't know how to do it."
The students were the ones to make the GLC the program what it is today, through the development of the student-director program. This program is where representatives from each class, (first- and second-year students), come together and voice concerns they have about the program's current status.
The GLC offers problem-based learning on a multitude of "projects and problems, usually with real-world clients (both domestic and abroad)," according to the GLC Assessment of Progress 2000-2005.
Some of the clients GLC has had in the past are the product corporation Procter & Gamble where "students were assigned with developing hypothetical products and marketing campaigns to accommodate the growing Hispanic population within North America." The most recent client is Harvard University. GLC students are preparing research projects to submit to the on-going Pluralism Project that is attempting to record all "the religious traditions of Asia and the Middle East that have become woven into the religious fabric of the United States over the past twenty-five years,"according to their Web site.
The GLC's creative approach to learning earned them recognition by Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, who presented them with the Governor's Excellence in Exporting Award on June 24, 2004. This award is given to organizations in Ohio that have contributed to the state's reputation as an outstanding place to do business. These organizations are leaders in the effort to grow Ohio's economy and maintain a competitive edge in the global market.
"Jobs are becoming global now," GLC Director Dr. Greg Emery said. "Graduates are not just competing with students from Ohio, but from France and India as well. The GLC provides for a well-rounded, globally responsible person."
Emery became Director of the GLC in 2000 and considers the program to be "a really great chance to get to know the students" because of the close faculty and student interaction. Emery said this type of relationship does not develop in the larger, lecture-type classes. One of the unique aspects about this program, according to Emery, is "that there is a lot to learn and what students put into the program is exactly what they get back."
Alumni of the GLC program say the skills they learned from the GLC are useful everyday at their respective jobs.
"I go between the communication and business world everyday and the GLC helped me learn how to work well in both," Suzanne Billet, a 2000 alumna, said. Billet is currently the director for the real estate division at Quinn & Co., a public relations firm in New York City.
Class of 2002 alumnus Brian Fuchey, who is a communication design consultant for Accenture, said the GLC provided the skills to simultaneously juggle multiple assignments, tasks and jobs.
The alumni of GLC feel strongly tied to the program and want to give back. They are doing so by presenting a student with the first GLC Alumni Scholarship this year. The Alumni Scholarship will help aid the qualifying student with such expenses as lodging or airfare so they can complete their international experience.
"This scholarship was an idea the alumni came up with, to make an international trip possible for someone who otherwise could not go," Emery said.
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To learn more about the Global Learning Community, visit their Web site, http://www.ohiou.edu/glc/.
To learn more about Harvard University's Pluralism Project, visit their Web site, http://www.pluralism.org.