My journey to global proficiency has taken me to Kentucky, all over Europe, to North Africa, and to Peru. However, it began with a yellow bus ride that took me only a few miles minutes from my house in an average American town…all the way to first grade.
What could make first grade so significant to my development of global awareness?
My town’s French Immersion Program.
Over the course of the next twelve years I would study French language and literature and learn the essentials the history and culture of different francophone countries.
Of course, at seven years old, I did not appreciate the value of the program I was beginning. But recess soccer games lead to a rift between Cunningham Elementary French and English programs (it was always the French fries versus the English Muffins). A sort of unspoken “French Fry pride” was born out of this childhood rivalry. As our abilities in the language grew, so did this juvenile pride. Moreover, for me, the program ignited a fascination for languages.
Even though I was a curious kid who always found it all interesting, the culture and history that I learned often seemed irrelevant and somewhat impractical to me.
How would my knowledge of the 100 years war serve me? When would I really need to pin point Angers on a map? Who would ask me about the traditions of Guinea Bissau? Would I ever really need to sing an Edith Piaf song again? Who will want me to explain Monet’s use of light in Waterlilies? Would I ever be challenged to debate French politics? Would I rather have a crepe or a chocolate ship cookie? Above all how did these relate to the rest of the wide world, and to my little world?
Boston College’s Global Proficiency Program helped me answer these questions. The program provided me with the structure to pursue my interest in foreign languages, and develop my appreciation for all those elements that make up a nation’s history and culture. Most importantly it has helped to recognize the value of a global perspective in the world today. My academic coursework provided me with an incredible basis with which to understand global interactions, economic, political, historical, and otherwise. My extracurricular activities awakened me to the significance of open cultural exchange. My service experience opened my eyes to the need that exist all over the world but that often goes unseen. Finally, my abroad experience grounded everything that I have learned into a visible, tangible context.
I came away with a deep appreciation for, and a much stronger desire to learn more about those things that seemed impractical to me in middle school: the history, the geography, the language, the politics, the economics, the religion, the culture, the art, the music, the film, and the food of foreign nations. I came to recognize that these aspects are fundamental to the identity of a people, and that they also draw connections across borders.
When reading comics in 8th grade french class, my teacher explained that to really get the jokes one needs a "conaissance au préalable", the background or the context behind the cartoon. I've come to understand the "conaissance au préalable" as a requirement of global proficiency. I believe that striving to understand that background info is is the secret ingredient to creating the types of relationships that are necessary for international friendships, successful business, international peace, and greater unity in facing global poverty and injustice.
The Global Proficiency gave me a strong grasp on what it really means to be a citizen of the world and this will motivate me to continually pursue an ever more complete global perspective as a life long goal.
