Cultural Competence For Students

The Developing Cultural Competence Student Certificate program is open to all currently enrolled students at North Carolina State University, regardless of their degree program or graduate/undergraduate status. The program is also open to students currently studying at NC State’s various global partner institutions.

The virtual exchange experience includes four 90-minute live Zoom-facilitated discussions, independent learning, personal reflection, and a group presentation component. Global participants are enrolled in a shared learning management system for shared content and collaboration.

• Week 1: Introducing the learning community and connecting favorite traditions to cultural identities
• Week 2: Understanding personal cultural identities and forming cultural knowledge research groups
• Week 3: Identifying cultural gaps and group presentations
• Week 4: Considering how cultural skills bridge gaps and applying those skills to common scenarios

The Developing Cultural Competence program requires, on average, 10 hours of time over the course of the program:

• Four 90-minute live facilitated discussions offered via Zoom Web Conferencing (6 hours)
• Weekly self-paced lessons and individual assignments to be completed online (4+ hours)

Students should plan to spend up to 3 hours per week on related assignments for the 4-week-long DCC programs.

The Global Training Initiative aims to offer at least one session of the DCC course each fall, spring and summer semester. DCC sessions are designed to meet four weeks in a row, often all in the same calendar month. The listed times are in the Raleigh, NC time zone (Eastern Standard/Daylight US).

Please check with your academic advisor or program director to see if a sponsorship exists for you. If so, simply choose “Sponsor Pay” on the application form and fill in the Sponsorship code or contact information related to your program.

• Verified global partner students may also pay the fee directly via Flywire wire payment using the instructions provided upon acceptance to the program.
• NC State students may pay the fee directly via the University Controller’s Office Non-Student Credit Card Payments webpage using the instructions provided upon acceptance to the program.
• NC State or overseas students who are not sponsored can email the GTI to be considered for a scholarship.

All course materials, lessons, instruction and discussions are led in English, so some degree of English proficiency is required to succeed in this program. DCC applicants don’t need to provide proof of English language ability; however, we recommend the following minimum English levels:

• TOEFL – iBT: 55 total points
• CET 4: 425
• IELTS: 5.5
• TOEIC: 750
• Duolingo: 85