Long History, New Beginnings

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Jul 06, 2016
by Louise Hallman
Long History, New Beginnings

After 12 years, 71 sessions, and more than 3000 participants from 80 colleges and universities across the United States, 2015 saw one of Salzburg Global Seminar’s longest running programs – the Global Citizenship Program (GCP) – transform into a new independent NGO: the Global Citizenship Alliance. But this isn’t the end of global citizenship education at Salzburg Global. 

STEPHEN L. SALYER and JOCHEN FRIED  officially sign the GCA into being at a celebratory ceremony at Schloss Leopoldskron.Even though the long-running Global Citizenship Program no longer appears on the Salzburg Global annual list of programs, global citizenship education is still very much alive in Salzburg. Now both Salzburg Global Seminar and the newly-formed Global Citizenship Alliance offer programs in association with each other, underscoring both organizations’ commitment to innovative, highest quality programs.The Global Citizenship Alliance was established in the Fall of 2015 to continue, strengthen and expand the work of Salzburg Global’s successful Global Citizenship Program (GCP), which in its 12 years had become one of the largest, most systematic, and most comprehensive programs on global citizenship education in the United States (where most of the partner schools are based). The Alliance has now assumed operating responsibility for the GCP and will hold six seminars in 2016. Following a consultative process extending over several months, the senior leadership of Salzburg Global Seminar and the GCP staff agreed to place the GCP, also formerly known as the International Study Program (ISP), on new footing. Growing interest by program partners in a range of global citizenship education programs – the US as well as in Europe – argued for a dedicated organization able to respond flexibly to the needs and expectations of program partners and alumni.Many of the aspects that made the GCP unique will inevitably remain in the seminars run by the Alliance. Since its beginnings in 2004, the program sought to inspire and enact change within individual participants and their peer groups at their home colleges or universities. But beyond this, the program also aspired to change the very higher education institutions from which the students, faculty and administrators came. In this vein, the Alliance will continue to operate programs for students, faculty, and administrators of higher education institutions. For its first full year of operation, the student sessions will continue to run in Salzburg, either at its original home of Schloss Leopoldskron or Schlosswirt Anif, just outside of the city. The faculty and administrator session will be held in the German city of Potsdam. The Alliance will also start to explore options for offering other programs and workshops in the US and begin developing an online platform to share the impact their seminars have had on their alumni.Announcing the Alliance’s launch in September 2015, Salzburg Global President Stephen Salyer said: “Salzburg Global believes in the mission and goals of the GCP and feels great pride in what it has achieved.“Steady support by Salzburg Global has allowed the GCP to build long-term partnerships, secure grants, and create brand recognition in relationship to our unique campus at Schloss Leopoldskron. We are pleased to help the GCP transition to a new operating structure and look forward to a close relationship for many years to come.”“We are grateful for and excited by this opportunity to take global citizenship education to new heights,” added Jochen Fried, now President and CEO of the Global Citizenship Alliance, who conceived the GCP and had been its Director ever since. CONTINUING COMMITMENT
While the GCP team might be moving on to pastures new, Salzburg Global Seminar is still involved in global citizenship education programs. In addition to its supporting role of the GCA, Salzburg Global Seminar continues to run the Mellon-Global Citizenship Program (M-GCP) and support the summer programs of the Global Citizenship Institute at St. Mark’s School in Southborough, MA, USA.Launched as a follow-on of the Mellon Community Fellows Initiative and with continued financial support of the Andrew. W. Mellon Foundation, the Mellon-Global Citizenship Program held its first Global Citizenship Summit in Atlanta, GA, USA, in October 2015. The Summit brought together 40 faculty and administrators from select Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and members of the Appalachian College Association (ACA). They shared and received feedback on deepening their institutions’ global citizenship education work, expanded and enhanced multi-campus partnerships, and established new collaborative program activities.The M-GCP also awarded its first round of grants to support a Visiting Specialist Series whereby a global citizenship education expert will visit multiple schools to meet with faculty, administrators, and students. The grants also support Study Away Incentive Programs, which allows multiple institutions to coordinate on a shared domestic “study away” experience, an Undergraduate Research Conference, and participation in the next Global Citizenship Summit.The Global Citizenship Institute, conceived by Salzburg Global Fellow and St. Mark’s School teacher Laura Appell-Warren, is an innovative collaboration between the high school and Salzburg Global that adopts and adapts the GCP for the high school sector. It will hold its third summer program for high school students and their teachers in 2016.As Dr. Walter Fluker, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership at Boston University School of Theology stated at the opening of the M-GCP’s 2015 Summit: “Global citizenship education is a conscious and courageous commitment to the future.” This is a commitment Salzburg Global Seminar will continue to honor.


ONLINE RESOURCESThe reports from the Mellon Global Citizenship Initiative “Creating Sites of Global Citizenship” and the inaugural Global Citizenship Summit of the Mellon-Global Citizenship Program (M-GCP) are available online to read, download, and share.SEE ONLINE: m-gcp.SalzburgGlobal.org