Institute for Global Engagement

Fostering wider world views and greater global connectivity.

When we understand more of the world beyond our borders, cultural barriers shrink. We see not what makes us different from one another, but what we share as humans. We understand how we might work together — across continents, languages, and societies.

It’s one thing to give lip service to that idea. It’s another to embrace it so completely that global programming is part of every student’s learning experience.

The Institute for Global Engagement is living proof of our commitment to comprehensive global learning, which includes off-campus study, study abroad, faculty-led programs, faculty-student research, language learning, cocurricular engagement, and strategic partnerships.

Grinnell faculty teach courses in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Latin, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. The Language Learning Center supports these languages and offers self-instructional programs in less-common languages.

The Goals of Grinnell Global Learning are:

• Use complex skills and knowledge, including languages, to understand and experience a place beyond your home country
• Understand a global process or system (like climate change or international trade) that connects and affects us all
• Identify and explore a topic upon which we have varying opinions or attitudes
• Understand your home or home country in global terms
• Navigate societies, work in cultures, and understand and speak languages other than your own

Make a Gift