Diversity
- Diversity in Mexico (PDF)
- Diversity in Central America (PDF)
- Diversity in Southern Africa (PDF)
- For Participants From Historically Disadvantaged Racial/Ethnic Groups
- For White Participants
- For Students with Disabilities
Supporting a Diverse Community of Co-learners
Studying and traveling abroad is a unique and often life changing experience where you have the opportunity to grow professionally and personally. However, it can also be a challenging experience. Immersing yourself in a new and different culture, you are bound to be faced with some norms or beliefs that may be offensive or even discriminatory. Ultimately, this is all part of the abroad experience and will help you to learn more about yourself and the world around you.In this section we present information that can:
- help ease your immersion into a new and different culture,
- prepare you regarding what to expect in the countries where you will study/travel, and
- help you anticipate some of the challenges that privilege and discrimination may play in your international experience.
The Center for Global Education strives to create for its participants an intentionally diverse community of co-learners where a variety of cultures and backgrounds is represented. Students, faculty, and staff help each other respond to issues of oppression such as racism, sexism, homophobia, economic inequality, xenophobia, and classism, in an environment where diversity expands participants’ thinking and worldview.
While the Center for Global Education at Augsburg College is situated within a predominantly white institution, it is important to the mission of Augsburg College and the Center to embrace and value diversity. The Center for Global Education operates in more than five different countries and includes a diverse team of staff and professors; thus, we bring rich and varied perspectives in addressing diversity and cultural issues. For that reason, you will find different language used throughout this site to discuss race, ethnicity, and cultural discrimination that reflects our regional perspectives.
If you have additional questions about issues of diversity, multiculturalism, or oppression in regards to the site to which you will travel, please let us know during the enrollment process.
What Makes Our Program Unique?
- An environment where diversity is respected and where students, faculty, and staff encourage the discussion and responses to various forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, homophobia, economic inequality, xenophobia, and classism.
- An ethnically and culturally diverse staff of North Americans, Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans who coordinate educational programs and teach courses.
- Opportunities to explore your own heritage, ethnicity and identity.
- Scholarships for students who've been historically under-represented in international programs.
- Face-to-face engagement with peoples from diverse ethnic backgrounds struggling for justice in other regions of the world.
- Hands-on opportunities to meet and discuss current issues with people at the grassroots level.
- Opportunities to expand your worldview and challenge your perceptions about global justice and human liberation.
- Opportunity to improve your professional and financial potential by participating in a life-changing experience that will add value to your studies and possible entry into an international career.
- Strengthen intercultural communication and leadership skills.
