Among the many clubs and organizations at Lehigh, Global Citizenship is a fundamental program that will do much more for students than many other extracurricular activities. If you're contemplating joining Global Citizenship, read further! With advice from Dakotta DiMattio, GC's campus affairs liaison, here are some of the reasons why you should consider joining.
1. It helps boost your resume
Originally intended to help students in engineering and business accumulate more international experiences, the program allows students from across all three undergraduate colleges to explore what it means to be a global citizen. The coursework challenges students to look at the world differently and build their cross-cultural competency. As companies look to expand and build their businesses abroad, they continue to look for employees who are able to apply their knowledge and adapt to unfamiliar environments.
2. Networking opportunities
Members of Global Citizenship can be found all around campus and in all walks of life. Just within Cohort 10 you can find orientation coordinators, student senators, and other leaders who regularly engage with and coordinate events across campus. Program graduates can be found from New York to Hong Kong at General Electric, PwC, and even the United Nations.
3. New friends
The Global Citizenship program selects 20 students from a class of over 1200. While the diversity of backgrounds and experiences would suggest that these twenty student have nothing in common, you quickly become lifelong friends.
4. Opportunities for leadership
Because the Global Citizenship program only has around 20 people per grade, there are always plenty of opportunities for leadership, like serving on the student committee or as a cohort representative. Academically, Global Citizenship students are frequently asked to partake in various research opportunities, and during senior year, to complete a yearlong capstone that is focused on improving the local community.
5. Gaining new perspectives
As a member of your respective college, you often find yourself surrounded with like-minded people who share your views, but as a GC student. you will find your peers challenging your ideas every chance they get. Political Science majors will debate the benefits of socialist rule while business students will cite the economic infeasibility and the engineers mediate some sort of middle ground. International Students will remind us of the failures of America’s foreign policy and bi-lingual students will help explain the true meaning of various passages and readings.
6. Traveling
You get to go on an amazing vacation with 22 of your best friends.
7. The close relationships you form at the end of it all.
When you walk in on the first day of the program, you won’t know the majority of your cohort, however, by the end, there is little you won’t know about each and every person. From their individual personality to career goals, you will leave the program with an incredibly diverse group of friends who will support you on every step of your educational experience.
