Global Foundations

Global Foundations

Global Foundations

All students must complete a global foundations course or experience. Either a global foundations course or an approved global experience will meet the graduation requirement. Greenville offers many courses during the academic year that meet the global foundations requirement. Students may also fulfill their global foundations requirement through participation in off-campus programs. 

In global foundations classes, the following three learning objectives must be incorporated. 

Students will be able to:

1. Articulate a Christian call to unity that supports a greater good and extends respect and understanding to all humankind, as all are created in God’s image.
2. Explain ethnocentrism and its role in the development of perceptions and reality.
3. Demonstrate an expanded knowledge base about another culture(s), including cultural beliefs, values, customs, language, non-verbal communication and accomplishments. (International students may study U.S. culture.) 

Additional Criteria: Faculty must include at least one of these additional learning objectives in the course:

Students will be able to:

1. Explain the issues of cultures in conflict between or within nations.
2. Articulate an understanding of social and cultural change. 
3. Relate the importance of cultural and ethnic self-identification.

Further, faculty must incorporate these components into their global foundations classes:

1. Administer pre- and post- assessments that measure students’ learning with regard to global and cultural knowledge. 
2. Travel courses must include coursework (readings, reflection, assessments, etc.) about the culture being studied. Courses taught from our home campus must include an experiential component that engages students in the culture being studied. Experiential learning may be done through service learning and/or collaborations with local and regional institutions.

International students and children of missionaries who have spent several years living outside of the United States may take advantage of the University's PLA process to demonstrate that the Global Foundations learning objectives have been met.