Global Engagement

An Oxy education affords excellent opportunities to connect your learning to the wider world—and the global context.

At Oxy, you have many pathways to global citizenship. Many of our students study abroad, but you can also pursue international research through a Young or Richter grant, apply for a semester-long internship with the United Nations in New York City or enroll in an Oxy faculty-led course abroad. For nearly two-thirds of our students, these global engagement programs provide intensive cross-cultural learning and collaboration through cultural and language immersion, independent fieldwork and community-based learning projects.

With nearly 200 different languages spoken within the city limits, Los Angeles is its own cosmopolitan center. Both our neighborhood and our campus are places where diverse backgrounds, interests and ideas come together. Oxy’s emphasis on global engagement will prepare you to excel in graduate studies and to lead in today’s complex world. It will also refine your ability to help solve transnational problems and thrive in intercultural environments.

The global experience at Oxy takes many forms, offering many ways for you to engage:

International Programs

The International Programs office is the hub connecting you to a world of opportunities that allow you to engage with other cultures, grow intellectually and learn about yourself. Oxy’s study abroad and international research programs offer cultural and language immersion, the ability to pursue independent research in an international context and a chance to engage with communities directly as part of experiential learning.

John Parke Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy

The Young Initiative supports the study of global affairs by providing grants for research projects and programs developed by students under faculty supervision in addition to a robust schedule of special events and programming. Oxypreneurship, a collaboration of students and business leaders, hosts programs that expose participants to the foundations of entrepreneurial thinking. TEDx at Oxy is a student-run, biennial event on campus that fosters dialogue on the most pressing issues of our time.

McKinnon Center for Global Affairs

The Center promotes excellence in global liberal arts through teaching, research, outreach, and international exchange. The Center supports a wide range of conferences and workshops, lectures and special guests, student fellowships, and a variety of cross-disciplinary and curricular collaborations.

Kahane United Nations Program

Housed within Oxy’s renowned Diplomacy and World Affairs department and open to all qualified students, the U.N. Program is a singular opportunity that provides an in-depth education on our 21st-century global community through direct participation. During the fall semester, when the General Assembly is in session, students head to New York City, where they take courses in international issues and intern full-time at a U.N.-related agency.

 

Located in Johnson Hall, The Global Forum is Oxy’s marketplace of ideas, images and information about matters of international importance. A two-story-high, LED-lit media wall of sculpted glass with 10 embedded interactive screens, the forum is a constantly shifting array of student and faculty research and coursework that extends discussion beyond the classroom.