The Global and Community Leadership (GCL) Honors Program is for students searching for a deeper understanding of global and community issues and a way to relate those issues to their own values and goals. Faculty mentoring, specialized courses, service-learning, and international and community learning experiences encourage students to take leadership roles in campus and community organizations. Students also form a community with like-minded peers who share their goals for the future. Together, they investigate, analyze, and seek to understand the many common concerns faced by societies around the world, and they prepare for the leadership roles that can help address those concerns.
Leadership - Where passion meets action
Leadership requires more than a specific set of skills. Here at GCL, we believe that leadership requires several things. First, it requires that individuals know and understand themselves - what interests them, why they are motivated toward such goals, what values they hold as important. Second, leadership implies that a person be driven by a certain quality-passion-towards a larger purpose. This passion both fuels a leader's curiosity for greater understanding and maintains this drive through adversity.
Given knowledge about oneself and a passion towards some issue or topic, leaders must also possess knowledge about the issue or topic on which they wish to lead. Such knowledge is never stagnant, but instead requires lifelong learning and exploration. And finally, leadership is executed through initiative and action. That is, a leader must apply his/her knowledge and passion towards affecting change.
What kinds of issues do students explore?
GCL Honors is, ultimately, an opportunity for students to specialize in a particular topic or issue, applying what they are learning in their major towards a more specific field of interest. In this way, the kinds of issues to be explored are endless. Some larger thematic areas within which they might specialize, however, include: the environment, globalization, urban issues, governance, public health, native peoples, global cultures, social justice, and human rights. Within each of these larger thematic issues, a student might choose to apply his/her own major. The student's specialization is supported through targeted honors classes and study away and/or internship opportunities.
Is it for me?
As a prospective student, you may be wondering whether GCL Honors is a good fit for you. We believe that the program enhances the college experience for students with passion, motivation, ideas and initiative, and a desire to work towards the common good. Our students think critically about tough issues, challenging the status quo by asking "why" and trying to determine if a better solution exists in a given situation. If these traits describe yourself, then GCL Honors is your opportunity to connect your ideas and initiative with your academic interests to prepare for local, national, even global leadership