About

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.

Check out the embedded and downloadable program guide and read below for more information!
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Program

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 in 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 are 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 has sent nearly 100  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 Chicago campus, 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, students work with host community development nonprofits to design and implement a 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 supports student relationships with their host organizations and provides in country support for health, safety, and all other issues. Throughout the program, students will communicate 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.

As the program closes, the CGE will transition into the role of alumni support.  Our mission is to help students lead lives of commitment to social justice. For us, this means helping our alumni find internships, job, or project support opportunities that allow them to engage with the issues they care most about.