Course Outline

Basic Information

The entire program is conducted in English, and international students must submit TOEFL scores for eligibility. During a typical day, you will receive six hours of Global PACT classroom instruction -- three in the morning and three in the afternoon. You will listen to lectures, interact with instructors as a class, and work one-to-one with a small, multi-national group and Global PACT trainers. You and your team members will make frequent class presentations to the group. On some days, you will conduct research by interacting with locals, and on the final day your group will conduct a live press conference to introduce your project to national media. After class, you will be free to hang out and explore your host city with classmates, although some project work will require you to work with your team after class.

Interactive Exercises

From beginning to end, experienced trainers will engage your group in highly interactive exercises. Each exercise focuses on a process-oriented skill, which you’ll apply in your groups to your own real-life project, and compare your knowledge with that of other groups to share progress and feedback. Group presentations are frequent, and students have multiple opportunities to enhance their public speaking skills in an encouraging environment. At the end of the program, participants evaluate their progress by a performance in a real press conference.

Action Research

Creating real change is an active process. You have to figure out exactly what you need to know and where you might find it. Action research is research into new, developing, unresolved issues. It requires inventiveness and effort. Most people assume that someone else already has the answer and all you need to do is "look it up." That approach might work for a school essay, but if the answer to your issue were on the internet, do you really think someone else wouldn’t have found it already? Action research is about engaging people, discovering their issues, thinking collaboratively about solutions and creating new knowledge.

Expert Speakers & Site Visits

Whether it is the executive director of Helsinki Watch, a member of Parliament, an investigative reporter, a leading environmentalist or the World Health Organization malaria eradication project director, Global PACT brings the key public policy players to the classroom. We will also make trips to observe individuals and organizations in action. You learn best when interacting in intimate settings with the men and women who make the news. Whether you're visiting organizations that alleviate poverty in South Africa or that conduct post-war reconciliation in Croatia, your first-hand experiences with major players is key to understanding how social change happens. Please see individual program pages for information on specific speakers and excursions.

Press Conference

At the end of every Global PACT training, all groups participate in a professional press conference, explaining their discoveries to peers and the general public. It is an exercise meant to test your public speaking ability and presentation skill as a group, but also intended to inspire movement in the communities. Frequently, several Global PACT from each training can find pictures and stories about themselves in the newspapers the very next day.

Weekends - Cultural Excursions

On Saturdays, trainers lead group excursions to historically and culturally important sites in the area.  On Sundays, students have a free day to organize their own expeditions, develop their projects, explore the host city, or rest!