Starting this spring, Northeastern students majoring in international affairs and human services will have the chance to participate in a new global-studies program in India.
Students in the pilot program, known as the Global PACT India Dialogue—a combination of Global Partnership for Activism and Cross-Cultural Training (Global PACT) and Dialogue of Civilizations (Dialogue)—will work together in both Boston and Hubli, a city in southwestern India.
The program is the result of a new partnership between the university and the Deshpande Foundation, a philanthropic organization in Massachusetts and India devoted to innovation, entrepreneurship, and international development.
It was inspired both by the growing number of students seeking a nontraditional international career path, and by the university’s interest in forging and maintaining links with India.
“Northeastern’s global vision asks faculty and students to be fully engaged with the world community,” says political science professor Denis Sullivan, director of the university’s international affairs program, “an engagement that gives their efforts meaning and has a positive impact on the communities with which they engage.”