Our Story

Global PACT began in the summer of 2002 with eight Rutgers students who wanted to know if it was really possible to change the world.  

Two Rutgers professors and eight undergraduates joined fifteen Mongolian students for an intensive cross-cultural and activism training session in Ulan Batar, Mongolia. We spent two weeks talking, discussing, and debating in the dusty offices of Women for Social Progress, the first women's NGO in Mongolia. Through it all, we built friendships, learned about activism, began to understand cross-cultural issues and grassroots democracy, and strengthened our commitment to engaging our communities.  We came to believe that anyone with a knowledge of activist skills can make positive change.

As a result of this experience, the Mongolian and American team members decided to write a manual that would allow others to experience the same process they had created for themselves. Working together, they created a Mongolian and an English version of an activism training handbook to empower youth to organize effective community projects. This manual became the basis for the organization, Global PACT, which today trains students worldwide to be positive forces of change. 

Since 2002, the excitement generated by Global PACT Mongolia inspired people and organizations across Mongolia and across the world.  Our training and philosophy of education has led to over thirty Global PACT trainings conducted on five continents and drawn students from more than fifty countries.  We continue to spread our message in local and international trainings at Northeastern Univeristy 2005-Present, Rutgers University 2002-Present, Zagreb, Croatia 2004-Present, South Africa 2006-Present, Thailand 2007-Present, Cambodia 2008-Present, Brazil 2008-Present. We will be expanding to Chile in the summer of 2009 and launching our first semester-long programs in the spring of 2009. Each experience has built upon the successes of the previous trainings, not least because each training is led by graduates of previous trainings. Through its projects, Global PACT has empowered hundreds of participants and thousands of individuals to be active and effective agents of change.