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Globe is a Residential Learning Program, where students spend 5 semesters gaining skills in global leadership, global citizenship and service to the community in and around Richmond, VA.
Learn more at global.vcu.edu/vcuglobe
Globe has been an incredible community to be a part of, providing me countless opportunities to learn more and meet people from cultures different than my own. Globe inspired me to take chances, get outside my comfort zone, and ultimately led me to my current job. In the future, I am going to work internationally or in the field of international relations and Globe has prepared me well for those roles.
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Through Globe, I have performed 100+ hours of community service with a local organization, STAR, and earned my Peace Corps Prep Certificate.
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I joined Globe in the Spring of 2017, and graduated three years later in the Spring of 2020 with some of my closest friends. I'd like to take this chance to show you the wonderful opportunities Globe has provided me below.
In the Summer of 2019, I had the chance to spend time in Da Nang, Vietnam. I studied Mass Communications with a focus on Media in Tourism at the American University in Vietnam.
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Having spent a month in a European country before, I thought I would be comfortable in the culture shock, but the cultures were wildly different, and not what I was expecting.
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My lessons from Globe were critical for this trip, as I had continued to learn various cultural differences and how to respond in situations I was uncomfortable in.
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This trip also gave me the courage to apply for the JET Program and spend a year teaching English abroad. I knew I would be able to adapt to being placed into an unfamiliar environment.
VCU Globe and the Global Education Office partner with Shimane University, Japan each year in an exchange program.
For the past 3 years, in September, students from Shimane came to visit and experience life in America for 2 weeks.
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Throughout their time here, I had so many fun experiences, taking them to Monticello and an apple farm, cooking traditional Japanese meals, showing them around Virginia, and learning Japanese phrases.
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I have been a host to 2 students, taking them home for a weekend and sharing my family with them. It was wonderful to be able to share my culture with them and learn more about theirs. I'm excited to still be in contact with them online today and I hope to visit them when I travel to Japan this year.
Each student in their second year of Globe must pick a community partner to work with for a minimum of one year. That community partner must work with an internationally focused lens.
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My community partner was the STAR program with the local YMCA. Twice a week, I would travel to a local middle school and help mentor and tutor students who were in the ESL program (English as a Second Language).
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I was able to learn as much from these students as they did from me. They shared many parts of their culture with me. What my favorite part is that they were always excited to talk about their successes that came from the program; whether that be a good grade on a test or getting through reading a particularly tough book.
The Richmond Folk Festival is a yearly nonprofit music festival hosted by an incredible group in the heart of the city. Each year, the festival hosts dozens of artists from around the globe, including Taiko drummers, Irish fiddles, and Tibetan Throat Singers.
The festival is supported completely by volunteers, including the Bucket Brigade who walk around and collect donations.
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Globe students participate this event, and from my first year in Richmond, I was enamored, and fell in love with the event. I took pictures and posted them to my social media, hoping to entice my friends to join me the following year.
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Through Globe and my volunteering's influence, I was able to intern with the festival's PR Director, and came up with the idea of these signs to memorialize the 15th year and all the festival's patrons.
In the Summer of 2017, I spent a month travelling around Austria, and studying German at the University of Vienna.
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Vienna, Austria holds a special place in my heart, because my host sister who had spent a year with me in high school lives there.
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As my first abroad trip and my first semester after Globe.
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These experiences helped me become a more aware global citizen, and how my actions impacted the world around me.