Shared Futures

Chandler-Gilbert Community College

Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC) is one of the ten Maricopa Community Colleges in metropolitan Phoenix. CGCC serves approximately 13,000 students a year at three campus locations, offering a variety of associate degrees, university transfer curricula, career and technical training programs, and special interest courses. However, eighty-three percent of CGCC students are pursuing academic coursework in general education and transfer curricula.  Currently, students are only required to take one course with a “Global Awareness” designation.  Thirty four courses with the Global Awareness designation are in the Chandler-Gilbert Community College catalog.

Our first target for change is in Faculty Development.  The Chandler-Gilbert Faculty Development Team has adopted a 2005-2007 theme called “SEE Your World,” which focuses on the social, environmental, and economic concerns in our local communities and throughout the world. As we work with the SEE Your World theme over the next two years, we will help students and the entire college community to gain knowledge of the world’s peoples and problems, to develop intercultural competencies, to sustain difficult conversations, to engage in practical work that affects international communities not well served by society, and to believe that their actions and ideas will make a difference in the world.  In the classroom, current strategies for engaging students with global issues range from entire courses built around global issues to class assignments connected to global issues.  Faculty use readings, research assignments, guest speakers and other events, such as open forums, panels, and films to infuse global engagement into their curriculum.

Second, we will look to offer more courses on our campus with a “Global Awareness” designation.  Currently, there are 107 courses flagged with a “Global Awareness” designation in the Maricopa Community College District course bank.  As stated above, only 34 are offered at Chandler-Gilbert.  There is potential for growth.

Third, we will look to develop a coherent vision of global education on campus, likely through the development of a Global Studies Certificate Program.  As part of this, we work to offer more study abroad opportunities (in 2006, we offer two study abroad courses).  There are 26 study abroad opportunities district wide in 2006.