The Global Experience

Advising and the Global Experience

All Global Scholars participate in a “global experience” – this is a learning experience that offers students opportunities to engage deeply with their learning, with different perspectives, and with real world challenges and opportunities. Global experiences are transformative learning opportunities such as study abroad, Model UN, an international clinical experience, or a globally-related research project – these experiences may or may not be paired with course content and no credits need to be associated with the experience. Students will need help in identifying appropriate Global Experiences.

Here are some suggestions for different kinds of impactful global learning experiences at UW Oshkosh that you may already be involved with, can create on your own, or might share with interested students.

Study abroad
Globally focused study away
Globally focused service learning activities
Globally focused Faculty – Student collaborative research
Globally focused independent student research
Globally focused field work, pre-professional internship, or pre-professional clinical
International exchange program participation
Participation in Model United Nations

Examples: The College of Nursing offers a study abroad experiences that provide nursing students with clinical experiences in Peru and in India. Students from across campus participate every year in UW Oshkosh’s award winning Model United Nations program representing developing countries from around the world. Students in Geology engage in oceanography field work in the Florida Keys and Bermuda to understand the impact of global climate change on coral reefs. Faculty members from a variety of majors and programs engage with students in faculty collaborative research, closely supervise internships, and support independent student research with a comparative or global focus.

Students will need to demonstrate their completion of a global high impact practice and reflect on their impact of that experience on their learning and personal development as a Global Scholar in an ePresentation (a sharable electronic format). Instructors should be prepared to offer support and guidance for the student developing an ePresentation.

The Global Experience is a High-Impact Educational Practice

Global experiences are high-impact educational practices (HIPs) that require students to invest time and effort in their learning, interact with faculty and peers about substantive matters and grapple with big questions and unsolvable problems. Done well, high-impact practices foster the investment of students and faculty alike in real-world messiness, complexity, problem-solving and the joy of learning. During their global experience students should confront diversity of worldviews, discover the relevance of learning through real-world applications, and integrate their learning through reflection.