Intercultural Studies

Joyce E. Boss, Walter C. Bouzard, program directors

Intercultural studies is a minor program that equips students to interact more sensitively and effectively with people from other cultures. Course work, Study Abroad, and May Terms challenge students to gain an understanding of their own culture, an appreciation of cultural differences, an appreciation of the universal human experience, and an awareness of the communicative skills necessary for intercultural communication.

Foreign Language Proficiency

One term of a second language at the 106 level or above (or three years of a second language in high school, or bilingual proficiency)

Cultural Immersion Points

A cultural immersion is a course or program in which students live in a culture significantly different from the one in which they were raised and which has been approved as a cultural immersion by the Educational Policies Committee. An intercultural studies point is not a course credit. It is a measure assigned to weight the depth of a cultural immersion. A May Term cultural immersion earns one point, because a student has been exposed to another culture in a way that moves beyond being a tourist. A cultural immersion during Fall and/or Winter Term earns two points.

Two Cultural Immersion Points

• Fall or Winter Term Abroad, or Year Abroad on an approved Study Abroad program

One Cultural Immersion Point

• May/Summer Abroad, eligible courses  or approved by GMCS

Programs

• Intercultural Studies Minor