\n<\/p>\n
For many college students, connecting their interests to career and life goals can be a challenge. Transfer students may find it especially difficult because they lack familiarity with the campus resources available to help them make those connections. A course at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management aims to help these students chart their path, in part by sending them on an international trip. <\/p>\n
The Design Your Life in a Global Context course encourages transfer students to apply design thinking principles to their college career and beyond and organizes a short study abroad trip led by a faculty member. The experience, mostly paid for by the institution, breaks down barriers to the students\u2019 participation and aims to boost their feelings of belonging at the university. <\/p>\n
The background: <\/strong>All students in the Carlson School of Management undergraduate program have been required to complete an international experience since 2008. The goal is to motivate them to be globally competent, to support their development as business leaders and to create collaboration with international colleagues, according to the school\u2019s website. <\/p>\n Study abroad experiences have been tied to personal and professional development. A recent survey of study abroad alumni by the Forum on Education Abroad found that 42\u00a0percent of respondents indicated studying in another country helped them get their first job. <\/p>\n For students in the Design Your Life in a Global Context course, the experience is made possible by funding from the Carlson Family Foundation, which provides scholarships through the Carlson Global Institute and the Learning Abroad Center. <\/p>\n In addition to Design Your Life in a Global Context, the university offers Design Your Career in Global Context, which sends students on a similar short study abroad experience. <\/p>\n The framework: <\/strong>Design Your Life in a Global Context meets once a week throughout the fall semester and then culminates in a 10-day trip to Japan, a country instructor Lisa Novack selected because of its unique focus on work-life balance and well-being. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re familiar with the concepts of <\/em>ikigai<\/em>, it\u2019s all about finding one\u2019s purpose and aligning what you love, what the world needs, what you\u2019re good at and what you can be paid for,\u201d said Novack, director of student engagement and development at the Carlson School. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be learning about this concept while we\u2019re abroad.\u201d <\/p>\n Because transfer students, like first-year students, can face challenges acclimating to their new campus and connecting with peers, the class is designed in part to provide them with resources and instill a sense of belonging within their cohort.<\/p>\n In addition, the course helps students apply life design principles to their whole lives, modeled after Stanford University\u2019s design thinking framework. <\/p>\n \u201cThrough the class, we equip students with the tools and strategies to design their college and career experience that aligns with their values, interests, strengths, needs and goals,\u201d Novack said. <\/p>\n Going abroad: <\/strong>During the 10-day trip, students explore Tokyo and Okinawa. <\/p>\n They visit Gallup\u2019s Tokyo office to learn about the Clifton strengths assessment and the research the organization is doing in Japan. In Okinawa, students learn from residents living in a \u201cblue zone,\u201d an area of the world where people live the longest and have the fewest health complications. <\/p>\n \u201cWe learn about some of the factors that contribute to longevity in that area of the world and then connect that back to designing one\u2019s life and a life of purpose,\u201d Novack said. <\/p>\n In addition to class content, the trip offers students an opportunity to participate in intercultural learning and experience international travel that may be unfamiliar. <\/p>\n Before they leave for Japan, Novack and her colleagues from the Carlson Global Institute support students with travel logistics, including securing a passport, creating a packing list and navigating currency exchange. <\/p>\n \u201cI also bring in different food from the area,\u201d Novack said. \u201cWe call it \u2018taste of Japan.\u2019 I have different candy or snacks from Japan and they get to experience the culture a little bit in that way and get excited about what we\u2019re doing.\u201d <\/p>\n Novack also leads guided reflections with students before, during and after the trip to help them make sense of their travels and how the experience could shape their worldview. <\/p>\n \u201cI just hope that they recognize that the world and business are increasingly global and connected,\u201d Novack said. \u201cBeing able to navigate difference and build connections and have conversations with people that are so different than you is a powerful learning experience.\u201d <\/p>\n This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Lisa Novack’s name and the year in which international education became a requirement for undergraduate business students.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For many college students, connecting their interests to career and life goals can be a challenge. Transfer students may find it especially difficult because they lack familiarity with the campus resources available to help them make those connections. A course at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management aims to help these students chart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[3694,337,188,16535],"class_list":{"0":"post-30322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-design","9":"tag-life","10":"tag-study","11":"tag-transfers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}