GCL Honors is, ultimately, an opportunity for students to become experts about a particular area of global concern, applying what they are learning in their major field towards a more specific area of passion or deep interest with the goal of making a positive impact in the world. 

What kinds of issues do students explore?

The topics to be explored are nearly endless.  Some larger thematic areas within which students might specialize include: the environment; urban planning; globalization; governance; public health; poverty; science and public policy; the global political economy; social justice; and human and civil rights. Within each of these larger thematic issues, a student will choose to explore topics within his/her own major. 

You can see this process through the experiences of our students.

Students creatively use their major classes, not only to gain knowledge but also to share it, such as through this Public Service Announcement made by Anna Lloyd, Senior, Media and Public Policy major:

Discussing the her service-learning experience in one of the GCL courses, one student shared, "Global and Community Leadership Honors Program motivates and directs  students to be people “who make things happen” through a topic of interest. My service learning at Lakeshore Foundation helped me realize my passion for helping children with physical disabilities.  I saw the need for more knowledge of different approaches to physical activity for children with disabilities such as Spina Bifada and Cerebral Palsy. To gain further knowledge on diverse exercise regiments for children, I plan to take classes such as Motor Development where I will work with a child with no disability, exercise with the child, and perform testing to collect data. With this information, I will develop increased knowledge about collecting measurements of motor development and different approaches to physical activity. I can utilize everything I learn in the class to help create more enjoyable and beneficial exercise therapies for children with disabilities." Dhara Shah, Junior, Exercise Science

The impact of students becoming deeply involved in improving the health and well-being of others, while themselves growing in knowledge and understanding, cannot be undervalued. As one student stated, "Being involved in the community surrounding where I lived, worked, and went to school was an integral part of how I developed both in the classroom at UAB and as I have moved on into my new job. I became aware of the needs of the people around me--the reasons for those needs, the causes of those needs, and most importantly where I fit into the answers to those needs. My time spent with people from various backgrounds, neighborhoods, and places in life has shaped my motivation to continue my relationship with the community after graduation. I have gained insight that no classroom or book could deliver. No one can teach the look of poverty. No book can capture a face of hunger in its text. You can't outline in your notes a family suffering from food insecurity. All of these abstract ideas and conditions become real right in front of you. The numbers you study have faces and names. Percentages are personified in families and neighborhoods. Tests become irrelevant. You not only want to pass or make an A, you want to make a difference. To connect with a community is to form a relationship that you are invested in, one that you can't walk away from."   T.C. McLemore, 2010 political science graduate, current AmeriCorps VISTA with the Alabama Poverty Project