Cultural Competence Student Programs
Gateway to Cultural Perspectives
The Developing Cultural Competence certificate program allows NC State students to join students from partner institutions across the world in facilitated online discussions and cultural exchanges after completing a series of self-paced individual learning modules. Undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines are encouraged to participate.
“I’m really grateful for this experience because I met new people, made new friends from all over the world, and became more tolerant and respectful of different cultures.”
DCC Program Participant
Fall 2021
GTI will continue to offer virtual open enrollment offerings through the 2022-2023 Academic Year for NC State students and global partners. Students can apply on the main DCC program page.
Classic Co-curricular Virtual Exchange
GTI schedules open enrollment opportunities and students register for time/dates that fit their schedule. These courses provide students the opportunity to learn alongside students from other universities around the globe. The meetings are typically set up to meet weekly for four weeks at 9:00 AM Eastern Time (this is a time that lets us connect to most other global partners).
Custom Course Embed*
GTI can work with individual faculty members to embed the DCC content into existing scheduled academic courses and university programs. (Example: AEE 326: Teaching Diverse Learners, Spring 2020)
Orientation Program or Study Abroad Component*
Students within a particular course or program
(Example: E480 and the Namibia Wildlife Aerial Observation Study Abroad and Global Village Living and Learning Village Orientation)
Strategic Goal 1: Empower students for a lifetime of success and impact.
“We recognize that graduates at all levels face rapidly changing economic, social and workforce demands. They need more than knowledge to get their first job; they must also possess the dispositions, skills and values to sustain them in adapting to circumstances, creating opportunities and assuming new careers throughout their lives. They must be able to not only work with those from diverse backgrounds, experiences and cultures; they also need to see the value that comes from opening their minds to differing perspectives (2021-2030 Strategic Plan Final Draft).”
Strategic Goal 4: Champion a culture of equity, diversity, inclusion, belonging and well-being in all we do.
“NC State’s strength comes from all of its amazing people and their diversity of thought and experience. We will work to ensure diverse perspectives are embraced at all levels, in all processes and through all decisions (2021-2030 Strategic Plan Final Draft).”
The following statements are from NC State University undergraduate students who completed the virtual program this past year:
- “The DCC program was really helpful for me personally because I knew I was already interested in culture from when I took a cultural anthropology course last fall. Now after taking this course I have declared an International Studies minor while also pursuing the Global Perspectives Certificate!” (Arin Crow, College of Engineering)
- “Because of the diversity in the group, and the small size of the group everyone had the chance to talk about their personal experience and share with the others. So you get to learn about culture in an interactive and non-judgmental approach.”
GTI uses the TMC/Berlitz Cultural Orientations Model as our guiding framework for teaching and discussing culture. We define culture as the complex pattern of ideas, emotions and observable manifestations that tend to be expected, reinforced and rewarded by and within a particular group. Cultural competence is the perpetual process for individual growth in successfully navigating culturally diverse situations and working with people of other cultures. It involves five steps:
- open attitude
- self-awareness
- other-awareness
- cultural knowledge
- cultural skills
The virtual course includes 4 sessions, each with a self-paced learning module, 90-minute facilitated discussion and reflective exercises (3 individual + 1 team).
In addition to displaying their learning through course objectives and competencies, the students provided insight into their most important takeaways from the program.
- “How to start a cultural dialogue and develop a safe space to do that.”
- “It is not only about learning others’ culture, being able to be self-aware of your own culture is just as important.”
- “Having an open mind is the critical first step in developing and practicing cultural competence.”
- “There is so much more diversity and layers of culture than I realized before.”
- “How to facilitate conversation and communicate meaningful messages with those from different cultures.”
- “Cultural competence must be continually practiced and improved.”