Globalize a Wheaton Education

The following strategic priority was established as part of the five-year From the Heart, For the Kingdom capital campaign, which concluded in June 2018. 

In response to this priority and others, through your generosity, we surpassed our $175M goal for the campaign and raise over $187M to make a Wheaton College education more Remarkable, Relevant, and Reachable for years to come.

We want our students to experience and recognize God’s presence and work in the world in new ways through academic engagement in globally-connected communities—to change perspective and not simply location, to gain understanding and not simply to collect experiences. We want to hear and understand the voices of Christians in the church worldwide, as well as speak with our own distinctive voices. We want to equip our students to work faithfully and fruitfully in the world.

Key steps toward globalizing a Wheaton education include:

• Developing a theological statement that values globalization and initiates a shift in how our community understands itself and engages others.
• Encouraging additional coursework on world religions and an intercultural competency requirement (with an assessment component) in the General Education revision.
• Enhancing courses and expanding offerings to reflect more fully global perspectives.
• Empowering a cross-divisional advisory committee to assist the Dean of Global and Experiential Learning in developing financial models, evaluating strategic partnerships, and directing academic credit assessments in order to facilitate implementation of the Global and Experiential Learning initiative.
• Expanding foreign language offerings, adding Arabic and other options.

In order to double the number of students who participate in off-campus cross-cultural academic experiences by 2020:

• Each major should establish or identify an off-campus cross-cultural option in which students could participate and for which coursework would be accepted.
• Advancement will pursue funding to allow greater access to cross-cultural programs, including programmatic development funds and endowed scholarships for international students at Wheaton and domestic students who study in cross-cultural programs.
• Admissions will increase undergraduate enrollment (proportionate to off-campus full semester enrollment) in order to maintain tuition revenue.