Teaching world culture and religion courses has helped Seth Brady, a social studies teacher at Naperville Central High School, to recognize how beneficial globally awareness is to his students.

To promote being globally aware, Brady has helped promote and propose legislation based upon bringing a program to school districts to honor high school students who have proven their global awareness. This program is known as the Global Illinois Scholar and recently passed an Illinois Senate Committee. The next step is entering the full Senate. Cynthia Soto introduced the bill into the House of Representatives as HB 2983 then introduced to the Senate by Kimberly A. Lightford as SB 2469.

“The world is becoming increasingly interconnected,” explained Brady. “Students both locally and abroad find themselves connecting with people from all other parts of the world on a regular basis. Students need the collaborative and competitive skills to thrive in this new environment. Global competence is not merely the acquisition of skills and knowledge but the cultivation of a disposition. Students must be able to communicate effectively in a variety of cultural contexts. They must understand how to learn in these contexts. Such a disposition is no longer valuable, it is necessary.”

COD faculty such as Marco Benassi, speech communications professor and faculty liaison for global education, have started brainstorming ways to make COD students more globally mindful as well. His efforts include not only enhancing current courses, but also forming a program for COD.

“We’d have to develop our own program and that is under consideration, but not close to acceptance at the college,” explained Benassi. “Bigotry and hatred is fueled one ignorant person at a time, part of the hostility and anger we’re seeing now in this election cycle is indicative of a lack of understanding of other cultures and appreciation for others in our global community. My experience has been that globally aware students are more aware of how much more similar we are with people of other cultures rather than unique. Those who are globally aware and educated and have experience with other cultures are more likely to succeed in creating healthy and productive relationships.”

Darlene Ruscitti, DuPage regional superintendent of schools, explained her support in a written statement:. “‘The modern world requires a global perspective—politically, financially and socially.  Recognizing students who have gained that worldview is a positive step for our students, schools, and nation.’”

To be titled an “Illinois Global Scholar,” students must take eight globally-focused courses, have involvement in one sustained service learning project, collaborate with peers to create dialogue, participate in globally-focused student activities and complete a capstone assessment task.

Positives for the program go beyond just understanding the globe. Brady explained that students with the certificate will be able to prove themselves as globally educated. He believes this to be an advantage in any college setting or in future career endeavors.

As the bill progresses, faculty now focus on how to make education at COD more globally focused. “Our focus at the college is in further globalizing the curriculum by enhancing existing courses, offering numerous events on campus and promoting greater offerings in field studies, study abroad and global education,” said Benassi. “We’re reaching out to faculty in all disciplines to create more opportunities for students to experience global education across the curriculum.”
To share your support for the Illinois Global Scholar program and learn more, you can go to Illinoisglobalscholar.org and register as a supporter.