VCU Launches New Global Education Living-Learning Program

By V. Renee Russell
VCU Global Education Office

The vision of VCU’s strategic plan Quest for Distinction continues to become a reality with the launch of VCU Globe, a global education living-learning community. The program aims to prepare students to navigate among global communities at home, abroad and in personal and professional contexts.

Students, faculty, staff and administrators from across the university gathered at a reception on April 30 to meet the inaugural cohort of VCU Globe students and to learn more about this interdisciplinary program. Beverly Warren, Ed.D, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at VCU, thanked the faculty and administrators who have been involved with the program so far and addressed the students, drawing an analogy comparing them to pioneers on a ship’s launch.  

“In nautical tradition, the individuals who are onboard to commission a new ship are called ‘plank holders,’” said Warren. “You are the plank holders of Globe. And when I think about what you’re going to do in terms of charting into unknown territory and unknown waters, I so admire that courage,” she told the students.

Warren also recognized VCU Globe’s role in fulfilling part of the university’s strategic plan.

“A key aim of VCU’s strategic plan is that our students would be globally connected, because our world is becoming smaller as we become increasingly interconnected,” she said. “As you grow as global citizens and expand your footprint out into the places you might go, with the understanding and the transformations that will come as you complete this experience, we know you will make us proud.”

Warren saidd that Globe is the fulfillment of a vision set forth by VCU President Michael Rao, to have students engaged in learning “not only by the experiences in class but by what they learn together and collectively in co-curricular experiences that are so rich.”

Students participating in the four-year program come from a wide variety of majors across the university. The group completed an orientation course this spring. Next fall, students will begin a specialized curriculum comprised of five globally-focused seminars, a special section of the research and writing course, “Inquiry and the Craft of Argument,” and one three-credit globally-themed course.

In addition to coursework, students in the program will live together in the new West Grace Student Housing-North residence hall currently under construction and slated to open this fall.  Together, the group will engage in community service projects and leadership-building activities.

 

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