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By Christian Feuerstein

Mount Holyoke College bestowed Global Competence Awards to 37 students on Friday, May 17. Parents, faculty mentors and friends gathered to celebrate their initiative and achievements.

Award recipients completed a highly rigorous set of requirements during their undergraduate career. They successfully finished at least three language courses beyond the College’s language requirement. The awardees also participated in either an internationally focused internship, an internationally focused community-based learning project or a study abroad program.

Additionally, they pursued at least two courses that explore a global issue from different perspectives. And they also engaged in cross-cultural learning on campus, either by living on a language floor, participating in the Global Partners’ Program or taking an active part in an internationally focused student organization.

In a capstone essay, award winners reflected on their global learning at ������ý. These essays covered a myriad of topics and issues, but all shared one common theme: the need to empathetically engage with people across cultural and national borders.

“One valuable lesson that I learned … is the value of being comfortable with being uncomfortable,” wrote Virginia Guerra ’19.

“It is not an exaggeration to stay that study abroad changed my life,” wrote Stella Grill-Dubois ’19. “[The] World Politics [class] and my experience abroad have crystallized for me the necessity of thinking about current events globally.”

“Our Global Competence Award winners have prepared themselves to learn about and take action on the big global challenges,” said Eva Paus, professor of economics and the Carol Hoffmann Collins Director of the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives. “They bring hope and inspiration to our world.”