Humber College
AC-5: Immersive Experience

Global Learning Opportunities: Humber offers multiple academic, work-integrated learning, and co-curricular experiences abroad which give students the opportunity to study and work with local communities on various aspects of social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. For example, multidisciplinary student groups taking credit courses on sustainability and bi-culturalism co-guided by Indigenous elders and knowledge holders at Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand and Humber in Canada. The Etuaptmumk approach engages Indigenous and non-Indigenous students as equal partners in the learning process, valuing all ways of being, knowing and doing. Students can choose from a broad range of international opportunities, which can last in duration from a week abroad to a full academic semester.

1) Beyond COVID-19: Global Systems Gap Challenge, in partnership with the City of Toronto: Since its launch in 2020, the challenge has meaningfully engaged 800+ postsecondary students and 150+ faculty, staff and industry mentors across six continents and 35+ countries. The initiative nurtures two of the UNESCO crosscutting competences needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals: systems thinking and collaboration, while coaching students to develop essential employability skills. Working across continents and time zones in multidisciplinary and intercultural teams, students build meaningful relationships with their mentors and peers to research a complex global issue in one of four themes: Economic Development, Arts & Culture, Health and Wellness, and Social Innovation.

Uniquely, their task is not to find a solution, but to identify systematic gaps in current solution efforts. Throughout the challenge, teams follow curriculum built collaboratively by Humber faculty from multiple academic areas. The program deepens students’ understanding of human diversity, interconnectedness, and cultural complexity and enhance their sense of personal and community responsibility – the key traits of global citizenship education.

Each week, teams engage in skills building workshops, global networking, and professional development mentorship opportunities. The program culminates with an employability workshop to help participants identify, document, articulate, and demonstrate their skills to potential employers, e.g.., critical thinking, digital fluency, and, most relevantly, global collaboration and citizenship. https://humber.ca/global-opportunities/global-systems-gap-challenge.html

2) Global Citizenship Certificate: The Global Citizenship Certificate is a cross-college, multi-disciplinary program designed to accommodate currently enrolled students from any academic program at Humber. Envisioned as a "global backpack" or a set of courses and experiences that learners can fit into their current studies, the program requires students to examine the theme of global citizenship, including relevant knowledge, skills, values and civic actions. It allows them to deepen their understanding of sustainability, systems, human diversity, interconnectedness, cultural complexity, EDI, and enhance their sense of personal and community responsibility. As part of the program learners must complete 40 hours of local community development, with a focus on sustainable action. Learners produce an e-portfolio to intentionally map out and document their learning experiences and outcomes in the Certificate. The program leads to a Certificate of Completion which is noted on learners’ academic transcripts. This is a multi-semester long certificate program where students can partake along with their current studies. GCC Program offers a variety of courses that teach students about Sustainable Development Goals such as Introduction to Global Citizenship, Citizen at Humber, Citizen of the World and Global Studies Courses. The Citizen of the World course, for example, introduces the topics of culture and identity, guided by the Iceberg Concept of Culture, Hofstede’s theory of Cultural Dimensions and Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. Learners will explore topics relevant to understanding the spectrum of identity, uncovering implicit bias, awareness of issues related to equity and inclusion, and community engagement in a culturally diverse and interdependent world.

More information can be found here: https://humber.ca/global-opportunities/global-citizenship.html