Program Profile

LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York

Global Scholars Achieving Career Success

  • Undergraduate
  • Graduate

LaGuardia Community College’s Global Scholars Achieving Career Success (GSACS) is a collaborative multi-campus program that foregrounds UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and career readiness competencies in class-to-class virtual exchanges between students from the City University of New York and universities in the MENA region.

Participants collaborate on experiential learning projects that explore UN SDGs in relation to their local and international communities, present their work at a student-led conference, and engage in career development workshops that guide them to make connections between their GSACS experience and future career success. By developing their empathy, global knowledge, and sense of civic responsibility, GSACS prepares participants to serve their local and global communities in an interconnected world.

Activities

Utilizing mobile-friendly platforms, participants in each virtual exchange collaboratively explore a UN SDG through dialogue with peers, professors, and industry experts from the U.S. and MENA region. Participants build on this knowledge by engaging with local communities and/or relevant organizations to examine the causes and impact of a global issue and to develop solutions at the local, national, and global levels. Each virtual exchange project culminates in international teams presenting their work at a transnational virtual student-led conference. The program concludes with a career development workshop where participants engage in guided reflection on how the competencies they developed translate to career success.

Program Details
  • Number of Participants: 3,595
  • Participant Age Group: Undergraduate; Graduate
  • Partners in the United States: New York – CUNY-Borough of Manhattan Community College; CUNY-Guttman Community College; CUNY-Hostos Community College; CUNY-Queens College
  • Partners in the Middle East and North Africa: Egypt – American University in Cairo; Jordan – Jordan University of Science & Technology; Morocco – Abdelmalek Essaâdi University; Palestinian Territories – Palestine Ahliya University
  • Project Duration: April 2021– June 2023

Global Scholars Achieving Career Success is implemented by LaGuardia Community College and is supported by the J. Christopher Stevens Virtual Exchange Initiative (JCSVEI). JCSVEI is a U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs program administered by the Aspen Institute.