The next award in our whistle-stop tour of the RED Awards scheme is Global Engagement, which encourages students to gain a broader awareness of modern society as a whole, with its variety of cultures, languages, faith groups.
In an ever-changing world, employers are looking for people with even broader skills sets, particularly those who have worked towards becoming more globally engaged – in other words, immersing yourself in meaningful experiences and opportunities that not only develop your knowledge, but enable you to appreciate our many cultural differences.
Being globally engaged can mean something different to everyone – learning a new language, interacting with individuals from different backgrounds, or studying abroad to immerse yourself in a new environment. Whatever you choose to do, building up your cross-culture skills during your studies can have immeasurable benefits.
The idea underpinning the Global Engagement Award is to acquire and demonstrate your understanding of this concept. The ‘Global Awareness’ component allows you to find opportunities with a global or cultural focus to expand your knowledge, such as careers workshops, preparation sessions for the UoR’s Study Abroad programme, language learning apps/courses, online learning opportunities, or even as a mentee on the Thrive scheme (provided your mentor has a global link).
When completing your ‘Global Action’ component, you will be given the chance to put your new skills into practice, in the form of paid work, internships, student ambassadorships, volunteering, or any other activity where you can make a difference to the wider world, as well as your local community. These two aspects will form the basis of your 40 activity hours.
Not unlike the ‘Articulate’ stage of the Sustainable Action Award, you will also be asked to illustrate the ways in which you have developed into a more globally engaged person, which could mean writing a short blog post, recording a video, or creating a podcast. This element makes up your ‘Global Understanding’ phase.
Finding inspiration for personal development opportunities that fit into the context of other cultures, languages and faiths can be tricky – here are some specific examples to fill the activity phases of your pathway.
Global Awareness
- Language apps, e.g., Duolingo, Memrise, Babel, etc.
- Pre-departure training for the Study Abroad programme.
- LinkedIn Learning courses – some good examples cover topics on cross-culture communication, diversity, equity, and many more.
- FutureLearn online open courses – a specific example would be the Systems Thinking to Tackle the Climate and Biodiversity Crisis.
- Relevant workshops, webinars or conferences organised by the university, student union or even independent organisations.
Global Action
- The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) offers middle-year students the chance to be part of on-going research projects over the summer break – be on the lookout for chances to interact with students from another culture on whatever project you apply to.
- The Modern Foreign Language Club is run by volunteers who assist in teaching languages to secondary school students.
- STaR mentoring – this gives you the chance to help someone from a different cultural background get settled into their life at Reading.
- Reading Voluntary Action (RVA) – you may find opportunities to assist organisations working with refugees or asylum seekers.
Isla Bailey, RED Awards Ambassador and Microbiology Student at the University of Reading