An Overview pt. i

It was a long and intense week of great lectures, discussion and meeting new people with bright minds and concern for the betterment of the world we live in.

The seminar in which I attended in Salzburg, as a fellow was just for that, to learn how we—San José State University, University of San Francisco and Eastern Kentucky University—could make a difference in the world, and take the knowledge home with us; not only to help globalize our campuses, but to make an impact in our communities as Global Citizens.

A Global Citizen can be defined in many ways depending on who you ask. My takeaway from this seminar was as follows:

A person who checks themselves, as far as their privileges, use of diction—especially concerning “We v. They” and the perspectives in which we approach situations. As a global citizen, one should look at a situation from multiple perspectives to truly try and understand a situation, and have empathy and compassion for others.

Each day consisted of breakfast, lunch, dinner and two coffee/tea breaks with lecture, discussion—built in and during meals, as well as breaks; we often even used or free time—throughout the days to continue to understand, process and evaluate what we learned. 

My day would generally start around 07:00 when I’d wake up. Showering and getting dressed, usually landed me at the breakfast table at 07:30 when food was served.

The food was delicious, I could truly taste how fresh the ingredients were, most likely from local markets and farms, for every meal. As we were in Salzburg to learn how to make a difference, the cooking staff did their part for sustainability. They balanced meals between vegetarian dishes and meat; as most people know, raising cattle, etc, has an effect on out planet. For more info

I’ve decided to write upon my experience at the Global Citizenship Alliance seminar at the end, as an overview and in parts, because it was a lot of information to digest and wanted to sit with it before I wrote about it. To continue on the next blog, I’ll focus on the different lectures and group work which took place during the fourth session at the Global Citizenship Alliance seminar.

Part of the SJSU fam