International Initiatives

NGCSU Awarded Internationalizing the Campus (ITC)

Grant Year Awarded 2006

This grant program is intended to support major institutional initiatives that will have a significant impact on internationalizing the campus (ITC). The ITC competition is designed for USG campuses that are prepared to take major steps forward in building international perspectives and global competencies into the fabric of undergraduate education. North Georgia College & State University was the inaugural recipient for this grant; and focused on integrating two world regions: Asia and North Africa/Middle East into the North Georgia core curriculum.

United Nations Academic Impact Initiative

Joined 2009

North Georgia recently joined universities throughout the world in support of the United Nations Academic Impact Initiative. The United Nations Academic Impact Initiative will help the UN build stronger ties with institutions of higher learning around the world and leverage the resources of the global higher education sector to promote UN goals. Participants in the Academic Impact Initiative agree to commit themselves to tolerance, diversity and dialogue as educational values, human rights, among them freedom of inquiry, opinion, and speech, educational opportunity for all people regardless of gender, race, religion or ethnicity, universal adult literacy, building capacity in primary and secondary education systems across the world, building capacity in higher education systems across the world, encouraging world citizenship through education, advancing peace and conflict resolution through education, addressing issues of poverty and health through education, and promoting sustainable through education.

AAC&U Shared Futures Project: Global Learning and Social Responsibility

Joined 2009

North Georgia recently participated in The Global Learning Forum which featured the emerging curricular designs from participating colleges and universities in Shared Futures: General Education for Global Learning, a three-year project begun in 2005. This project builds upon previous Shared Futures programming to expand and extend the role of global learning in general education curricula, with specific emphasis on developing science pedagogues that foster global learning. It currently consists of a network of 16 institutions, supported by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) and the Henry Luce Foundation.

Model APEC

First Annual Model APEC held in 2009

The main goal of Model APEC is to educate students regarding transnational negotiations and cooperation across divergent cultures. The conference provided students with real life problems that countries face, and students spent their time attempting to write a resolution to solve the problem given to them. Through negotiation and compromise students were able to construct a resolution that addressed major issues within the Asian region. Writing a resolution not only taught students how to solve major issues, but how to negotiate and handle relations on a global scale. The students were judged throughout the conference and were given scores for their preparedness, speaking skills, negotiation skills, and overall organization.

Center for Language Education (CLE)

North Georgia College & State University has developed a new language center within its School of Education to capitalize on the ever increasing number of language programs and partnerships being developed as part of the university's growing focus on global engagement. Beginning this summer, the Center for Language Education (CLE) will provide opportunities for international and regional students who are future or practicing teachers to develop language skills by improving their English or learning another language. The university's goal is to promote the best teaching practices for educators teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and to meet the needs of the state's diverse public school students. The three areas the CLE will focus on include ESL, educational endorsements for teachers working with students speaking other languages, and certifying teachers who speak other languages fluently so that they can teach their native language in the education field.

 Summer Language Institute

The institute seeks to immerse selected students in specially designed academic and experiential programs intended to provide a solid professional foundation for a career in state or federal public service, international business, or science professions. It is specially targeted to developing future leaders who will be adaptive in nature and possessing the experiential and academic foundational skills required to understand strategic issues and acquire global awareness. The Summer Institute consists of a Foreign Language and Culture Module that is designed to be academically challenging, fun and thoroughly rewarding. This is a residential program. You will live on campus with other students who are taking the same courses as you. Your classmates will be students who have similar interests.

International Majors and Minors

International Affairs

Go beyond the United States' borders for a more global education in major regions of the world! The Bachelor of Arts degree in International Affairs provides a unique blend of strong foundational courses and individual flexibility to design a course of study most suited for different goals. Through various course offerings, the International Affairs degree enables students to pursue their individualized interest in a major region of the world. At the same time, they establish a strong foundation in theoretical and analytical approaches to the field of international affairs.

Foreign Languages Majors

 French

Students have a choice of two degree programs in French including the traditional French major and French with Business Emphasis. For students interested in Study Abroad, the Department offers a French language study program in Québec City, Québec, in conjunction with the Université Laval, and Fribourg, Switzerland, in conjunction with the Université de Fribourg. High school students with two years of French study can apply to Joint-Enrollment Study Abroad program in Toulouse, France, and receive six hours of NGCSU credit in advanced French.

 Spanish  

Students have choice of two degree programs in Spanish including  the traditional Spanish major and Spanish with Business Emphasis. For students interested in Study Abroad, the Department offers a Spanish language study program in Nerja and Santander, Spain, in conjunction with the Escuela de Idiomas and the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo. Semester and academic-year-long programs are available through the GRIIS (Granada Institute of International Studies) in Granada, Spain.

 Chinese

  In spring 2010 a two-track major in Chinese was approved by the NGSCU Faculty and Administration, and in Spring 2011, approved by the Board of Regents.  The University maintains exchange agreements with Tsinghua University in Beijing, China and Liaocheng University, Liaocheng City, China, where students can take Chinese courses in order to complete course work, a minor, or a major in Chinese.

Foreign Languages Minors

The Department provides on-campus instruction in beginning, elementary, and intermediate-level German, as well as 2 courses of advanced-level study. It also offers study-abroad opportunities in Germany, such as a five-week program in Bonn, Germany, where students can take a variety of courses taught by faculty of the University System of Georgia, and a 4-week Advanced German Language course in Paderborn, in which students can complete the courses they need for the minor.

Under the auspices of NASILP (National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs), the Department initiated a pilot program in Arabic and Korean in the fall of 2007. Russian has been added to the curriculum for the fall of 2009. These programs include course work at the 1001, 1002, 2001, and 2002 levels (3 hours each), which can be used to fulfill language requirements for the core and those majors/minors with additional language requirements. Students should be aware that this SILP program does not constitute an offering of classes, but rather a coordinated system of independent study that is structured by native-speaker/facilitators and external examiners for each language. Please contact the Department for details.

For additional information please visit the Modern Languages web page.