Program Description
The Global Resource Systems (GLOBE) undergraduate major employs a truly interdisciplinary and systemic approach to understanding complex global resource issues. The major allows students to develop a core set of technical competencies in a resource area selected from among the 21 minors offered by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Students choose a world region in which to specialize, develop competency in a relevant language, participate in a significant cross cultural living and working immersion experience in their chosen world region, and carry out a senior project related to their resource specialization within the context of the world region.
Multi-disciplinary themes will be developed in the context of the physical, biological and sociological factors affecting global resource systems. In this context, resource systems will include natural resources, agricultural resources (including crops, livestock and aquaculture), human resources, institutional resources, physical and biological resources, food and energy resources, knowledge resources, financial resources, and other related resources.
Graduates of this program will have developed transnational leadership skills and will be successful integrators of various specializations on a team. They will be skilled in developing a systemic perspective and accomplished at solving complex global problems.
Competencies
The learning outcomes of the new GRS major are encompassed in three areas: Technical Competence, Cultural Competence and Leadership and Integration Competence.
Technical Competence
- Describe, analyze and evaluate the factors that influence global management of natural resources and food, fiber, and energy production systems in different societies and cultures at local, regional and global scales.
- Identify opportunities and constraints associated with religion, gender, race, government, and infrastructure and their impact on resource use and management in a society or culture.
- Describe how food security, shelter, energy, and sustainable livelihoods affect the management of resources by a given society or culture.
- Explain the relevance of societal structure, including land tenure, infrastructure, distribution of wealth, and politics, on global resource systems.
- Using the principles of the biological and physical sciences, anticipate, analyze and evaluate global resource issues, and explain the ecological, economic, and social consequences of global resource actions at various scales and over time.
- Actively seek and understand the perspectives of diverse stakeholders across different societies and cultures regarding global resource problems and issues.
- Evaluate global resources that are available to society, explain how they lead to the current condition of society, and recommend strategies for using global resources to positively impact society.
- Formulate and evaluate alternative solutions to complex local, regional and global problems and recommend and defend best alternatives.
Cultural Competence
- Demonstrate the ability to live in a culture that is different from the student's native culture by exhibiting cross-cultural sensitivity and adaptability.
- Describe cultural differences and similarities in the context of natural resource management.
- Comprehend the cultural, political, social, geographic and economic influences within one region of the globe that is outside of the United States.
- Demonstrate competence in a second language (two years of university study or equivalent fluency)
- Appreciate cultural diversity and understand the impact of the global distribution of people, wealth, and natural resources.
Leadership and Integration Competence
- Develop and demonstrate leadership skills for global resource management through successful collaborations and team-oriented activities.
- Communicate clearly and effectively with different types of people and cultures using appropriate techniques.
- Evaluate and choose skills and expertise needed to create an effective team to address global resource system issues.
- Use teamwork to analyze complex global issues in different settings that require holistic problem solving approaches.
- Demonstrate the ability to formulate integrated approaches to the management and use of global resources.
- Evaluate and appraise the proportional contributions of the principles of the social, biological and physical sciences to the solution of complex global resource issues.
- Assess, integrate, and recommend policies and practices for global resource systems employing a multidisciplinary perspective.
- Recognize and exercise the value of life-long study of complex global resource management issues.
