Creighton’s Global Initiative began funding its 30 approved projects on July 1 of this year after 72 proposals were submitted to a committee of faculty, staff and students in March and the selected number were recommended to and approved by the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, S.J. in April.
The approved projects cover a variety of global learning opportunities, including previously existing programs, brand new programs and opportunities for global engagement within the Omaha community. The total amount of funding for this year’s projects is nearly $1.5 million.
The initiative was first announced by Hendrickson during his inauguration speech in October 2015. Funding for the initiative comes from donors. Collaborators on the project expect to continue raising donations for more programs over the next three or four years, ideally reaching a total of around $5 million, according to Dr. René Padilla, executive director of the Global Engagement Office.
“The initial year was partly to gauge the interest but also to raise more interest on the notion of global education and global learning,” said Padilla.
“Global learning means the whole of learning, or of the world as an integrated whole… so I think what we’re hoping to see in the next few years is projects that actually change the way in which we operate or how classes occur, how curricula occur, and that this is sort of the seed to get that going because change is difficult when you don’t have the resources. So this is providing the research to make those changes and then those changes continue.”
Another goal of the project is to increase the number of students that are able to have “a meaningful global learning experience outside of the United States.” Currently, 10 percent of Creighton students receive academic credit outside of the country by graduation. Just a year and a half ago that number was only around 6 percent, according to Padilla.
“It’s really about how we all are trying to think of what does it mean to be a university in this world. Not that people weren’t thinking of that, but it wasn’t sort of this cross campus conversation,” said Padilla, “I think that’s really cool. That’s really exciting to me both as a scholar and a staff person. […] The other part that I think is very exciting to me personally that I think is good for the university is that we’re really trying to link it here. It’s sort of this 360 idea that the global is brought to the local and the local to the global in terms of what are the implications of these things that happen.”
The 2016 selectees include the Encuentro Dominicano program, which is incorporating water quality and public health into its already existing program, the development of a two-week Theology program in the Balkans, the development of a three-week study of colonization and its impact in Hawaii and the Philippines, a partnership with Jesuit institutions in India, a campus lecture series on climate change and opportunities for volunteer work in Omaha, working with refugees, asylees and immigrants. The full list of programs is available on the Global Engagement Office’s website.
Proposals for 2017 will also go through the advisory committee and waiting for final approval from Hendrickson. Committees are made up of 25 faculty members, staff and students who are chosen through a competitive application process. Criteria for this year’s projects is currently in discussion within the Global Engagement Office and committee members will apply and be selected in January.