About

*Need more information?*
Mini Info Sessions Mondays 11:30am and Wednesdays 3:30pm
Office Hours Mondays 11:45-1 and Wednesdays 3:45-5
Program of African Studies at NU
620 Library Place

Welcome!

Welcome to the Global Engagement Summer Institute! If you’re an undergraduate who’s passionately committed to global justice and international development, you’re in the right place.

Run by Northwestern University’s Center for Global Engagement and supported abroad by the Foundation for Sustainable Development, the Global Engagement Summer Institute program will bring together students from universities around the country to learn from and work with communities in India, Argentina, and Uganda experiencing the problems of poverty and injustice.

Going beyond traditional study abroad experiences, the program will place you a team setting with a host nonprofit organization where you’ll learn about international community development by developing and implementing a real project in areas from youth education to microfinance and beyond.

If you’re looking for a program where you learn by doing and you’re ready to get your hands dirty in the pursuit of global social change, GESI is for you.

Program Components

The Global Engagement Summer Institute is a two-course summer study abroad program focused on teaching approximately 60 students per year about community development in a global context. The program is an expansion of the CGE’s “ENGAGE Uganda” program, which has sent almost 40 students to work in team based community development in Uganda.

The GESI program features three components: a 10-day lead-in Institute on Northwestern’s campus in Evanston, IL, a seven-week team-based project immersion with host nonprofits in either India, Argentina, or Uganda, and a short wrap-up summit in Chicago.

The 10-day Institute will feature intensive course work focused on the history, theory and practice of community development, team dynamics in international development relationships, and local history, politics, and culture of India, Argentina, and Uganda. The program focuses in part on “Asset-Based Community Develoment”, a framework for harnessing the resources of individuals and communities to ensure local ownership and sustainability of development efforts.   In addition to lectures and discussions with Northwestern professors and guest speakers, students will have a chance to bond with the five person team with which they will spend the summer as well as one of the program staff who’ll be supporting them abroad.

Teams will take group flights to their summer destination: Udaipur, India, La Plata, Argentina, or Jinja, Uganda. Grouped in teams of five, they will work with host community development nonprofits to design and implement some small scale project over the next seven weeks. Living in home-stays with local community members, the students will be supported by the Foundation for Sustainable Development, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that will support student relationships with their host organizations and provide in country support for health, safety, and all other issues. Throughout the seven weeks, students will be communicating with Northwestern faculty, and will be treated to a number of guest lectures and seminars about the local political and cultural context.

Finally, students will return to Chicago for a brief final program debrief where they will have the chance to share their ideas, frustrations and inspirations with their peers returning from other locations.

The program will run from mid-June to mid-August and will give students the equivalent of two course credits.