Why pursue the Global Connections Certificate?
Pursuing the Global Connections Certificate enables you to make the most of international and global opportunities during your time at Appalachian. That means not only seeking out campus events, new classes, study abroad opportunities and internships, but also meeting like-minded peers who are becoming globally engaged, both in and out of the classroom. The activities you engage in, and the courses you take, for the certificate will provide you with opportunities to develop professionally. You will explore ways to market your international experiences to employers and graduate or professional schools. Your certificate goes on your transcript and makes it clear to others that you took your global education seriously.
What is the importance of a global education?
Today employers and graduate and professional schools want people who know languages other than English, and how to understand (and appreciate) cultures other than their own. Even more importantly: The more you understand about the wider world, the better informed, more compassionate, more aware and more fully human you will be. And the more you can be a change agent in our world, creating the change that you want to see!
What will the Global Connections Certificate mean?
The Global Connections Certificate marks you not just as a global citizen, but a citizen who is globally engaged. Companies expect their employees to be able to work well with colleagues from different cultures at home or abroad. As a global citizen, you can provide evidence of how you attained a degree of global competence, in contrast to those who believe that all that is good in the world stops at the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. It does not matter if you are an engineer or a poet: You will stand out from your competition because you are becoming a global citizen.