Student Leadership for Global Citizenship

I have been in Multicultural Student Services jobs, a ba-zillion diversity trainings and institutional budget wars over what was the "right" thing to do, etc., etc. for a very, very long time. I have raised 3 Native American children in a diverse world and in ethnically homogeneous communities. So what I am about to say made even me question some basic social justice hallowed thought about how we teach students about who they are and the history of where they come. Social justice ideas that we have been holding onto in this country since the civil rights movement.

Here it is - "I DON'T THINK WE ARE DOING ANY STUDENTS ANY FAVORS BY TEACHING THEM ABOUT THEIR HISTORY IN THIS COUNTRY IF ALL IT DOES IS MAKE THEM ANGRY AND ONCE ANGRY THEY END UP GOING TO JAIL OR END UP DEAD!" We have to give them options past the "your people have been messed with dude" to "I can truly show you how to make a real difference in this world for YOUR people (including yourself, your family and your communities) and for all others!"

And that is what I saw visiting Bellevue Community College Student Leadership Programs. Faisal Jaswal, Assistant Dean of Student Programs, has an amazing thing going on over there. They are training real leaders in real business leadership principles of competition, communication, and compassion for world citizenship through their student clubs processes and project management. He's got the faculty on board. The president asked him to come up with it, so supports it. And he has all kinds of student ENGAGED.

Watch this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUdy7ADZd9E Bellevue has figured out how to make it possible that all of their students can visit another country regardless of ability to pay. And all students need to understand how to interact in a global world because of pervasive technology and because tribal corporations, Black businesses, Hispanic 500s now have investments all over the world.

Here are just a few of the fantastic things I see Bellevue doing:

Students recognize that the world is dynamic, fragmented, and saturated with ever-shifting information, capital, social and environmental struggles,

Students have the ability to apply knowledge and multiple skills to complex problems faced by individuals and groups in an interdependent world community.

Bellevue's Student Leadership programming really does do the following...


Developing Global Learning by Doing through Projects that the Students Create:
The capacity for individual empathy, civic and ethical responsibility,
The ability to live well among complexity,
The ability to identity and solve complex problems,
An understanding of social structures and systems in the US and elsewhere from differing points of view,
An appreciation, understanding and engagement of the values of world-based, participatory democracy.

ALL Students Clubs offer comprehensive:
Leadership training for students is cohesive and centralized, with over-arching mission and values towards global citizenship,

Clubs partner to assist and learn from each other about global citizenship,

Clubs partner provide service learning to the entire student body to assist global understanding,

Student leadership prepares students for project management in a global economy.

And finally, Bellevue CC Student Leadership even put out quarterly reports - see http://bellevuecollege.edu/stupro/pdf_doc/asg_offical_summer_quater_report_executive_summary_2007-2008.doc