Alumni Update – Nicaragua

Alumni Update – Nicaragua

My name is Fernanda Alina Polanco Avendaño, and I am from Nicaragua. I had the chance to be part of the Global UGRAD Program around 2015-2016 in Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU). Thanks to my Global UGRAD journey, my life became more fruitful and significant in all aspects. I got to meet other Global UGRAD friends from my home country, …

Alumni Update – Nicaragua

Alumni Update – Nicaragua

One Career, Multiple Paths The Global UGRAD Program boosted my confidence and helped me to open up to multiple possibilities. My experience abroad made me realize how flexible my skills and abilities are, and I became aware of the value of adapting to different environments. After my Global UGRAD experience, I started to feel braver to explore beyond one strict …

Alumni Update – Guatemala

Alumni Update – Guatemala

On August 18th I will commemorate 2 years since my arrival for the wonderful Global UGRAD adventure. These past years after I came back have been quite challenging, but with all the knowledge and experience obtained during the exchange program I have been able to overcome any adversity and open myself for new horizons. Reflecting about the program I realized …

Arriving on Campus

Arriving on Campus

This August, the Global UGRAD 2020-2021 cohort was very busy making their long-awaited trips to their U.S. host universities! We are so excited to welcome all of the Global UGRADs to the United States and look forward to watching the positive impact they make on their local and university communities. In anticipation of arrivals, we asked the Global UGRADs about …

April Social Media Challenge: #EarthDayChallenge

April Social Media Challenge: #EarthDayChallenge

Did you know that about one billion people take part in Earth Day activities around the world every year? No matter where we live, the Earth is something we all have in common. During the month of April, we launched a social media challenge asking Global UGRADs to share what the environment means to them and what they are doing …

Alumni Update – Raul del Valle (Guatemala)

Alumni Update – Raul del Valle (Guatemala)

Since Sunday, December 15th of 2019, the date I “concluded” my participation in the Global UGRAD Program at American University in D.C., life has been a roller coaster of emotions. I mention “concluded” inside quotation marks because I truly believe that when someone becomes a Global UGRAD, they will forever be a Global UGRAD. After the program I came back …

April Online Engagement: Country Presentations and Public Speaking

April Online Engagement: Country Presentations and Public Speaking

In our fourth month of online engagement, Global UGRAD finalists saw the return of some of our popular series activities: our student-facilitated Country Presentations and our Speaker Series. This round of Country Presentations closed out with student presenters from three additional regions, and this edition of the Speaker Series, focused on public speaking, featured guest speaker Zoe Matthews. Country Presentations …

March Online Engagement: Alumni Q&A Panels and Academic Writing

March Online Engagement: Alumni Q&A Panels and Academic Writing

This March, the Global UGRAD team dove deeper into the academic world with the introduction of two new activities in our spring virtual programming: our Alumni Q&A Panels and Professional Development series. For our first installment of the Alumni Q&A Panel, Global UGRAD alumni shared their experiences on the subject of All Things Academics! Next, the topic of this month’s edition of …

Meet Our New Teammates, Amy, Annie, and Sarah!

Meet Our New Teammates, Amy, Annie, and Sarah!

Amy Broome is joining the Global UGRAD team as the Program Officer for the Western Hemisphere and Middle East/North Africa regions. She is currently living in Austin, TX, but originally hails from Vermont. Amy has a Masters in Middle Eastern Studies from UT Austin, where she studied Arabic and Hebrew. She is very much inspired to work with World Learning because …

February Social Media Challenge: #MyIdentity

February Social Media Challenge: #MyIdentity

Continuing with our monthly social media challenges, we recently asked the incoming Global UGRADs to share with us a little about themselves in the #MyIdentity challenge. We’ve spotlighted a few entries below so that you can learn more about who our Global UGRADs are and where they come from, too! The world is full of colors and hues that every …