The Hormel Institute, an independent biomedical research department within the University of Minnesota specializing in cancer research, partnered with AFS to offer the Global Up programs as part of its DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiative. Thanks to this partnership, The Hormel Institute will begin by training 25 faculty and staff members this semester and offering the program to any incoming international research scholars. The plan is to begin a second cohort of faculty and staff training in spring 2022 and continue to expand access within the institute.
“The Hormel Institute is very excited to begin using ‘Global Up at Work’ this fall. We will be using it as one of the foundational tools for increasing intercultural leadership capacity across the organization as we strive for a culture of inclusive excellence,” says Jim Trelstad-Porter, Immigration Manager & Intercultural Engagement Specialist at the Hormel. “As a Qualified Facilitator of the program, I found it to be the only tool that was organized around the latest research on effective intercultural development and delivered in such a user-friendly online platform. The content is now even more engaging and interfaces well with our DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) work moving forward.”
AFS Global Up is a unique program that develops essential and lifelong global “power skills”: collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, cross-cultural communication, open-mindedness and flexibility. A 2018 study by Purdue University has shown that participants in these programs “are more effective intercultural communicators, they are equipped to resolve conflict and are able to bridge differences.”
The Global Up program content is designed to develop learners’ intercultural competence within their own community or schools, while working on diverse teams, or when living or studying abroad. The program comes in four different versions, each appropriate for the specific needs of different audiences. Upon completion, participants in these programs receive the award-winning AFS Global Competence Certificate. Find out more here.