Katherine Anthony, an Environmental Social Sciences student, describes the lasting impact of her experience as a Global Officer
Being a Global Officer has been a greatly significant experience in my final year of university. I had not heard about this program until last year, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to partake in and contribute to a range of activities and events, and throughout I met lots of new people and had meaningful exchanges of cultures, opinions, and ideas. I improved my employability, leadership, cultural awareness, intelligence, and confidence. I gained further knowledge on the importance of such skills, and recognising we are all global citizens and how valuable interconnectivity and understanding are.
From attending the introductory session in September on Cultural Intelligence, I knew that this experience would be greatly beneficial, and expand my knowledge and skills. Throughout the GOLD Programme, I attended many sessions, these included; An Introduction to Cultural Intelligence (CQ), Curriculum Internationalisation, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and Leadership in a Global Context. These involved various workshops which were very informative, covering cultural and emotional intelligence and cultural awareness, employability, and leadership skills. All of these are invaluable for the future. Attending these sessions meant I could meet students across different courses and cultures, some of which I may not have crossed paths with without GOLD. We had great discussions, and I thoroughly enjoyed how the workshops had opportunities to discuss in teams and share our ideas and feedback with the rest of the students. I also took part in a blog writing workshop, which helped to develop my creative skills and gave me an opportunity to practice blog writing.
A particularly memorable experience for me was helping to develop ideas to contribute to WorldFest activities with other global officers. We shared and curated ideas for WorldFest, including international films. We discussed some of our most loved Thai, Korean, and Japanese films, with Spirited Away being chosen for the WorldFest film night. We also met with Geoff, the catering manager of Rutherford, who was so welcoming and lovely, and we were able to choose a different WorldFest dish each day. In the end, we chose a wide variety of different cultural dishes, and it was really fun to be a part of.
Taking part in the Global Hangouts was also enjoyable. I helped to set up the stalls, decorations, and games for the WorldFest hangout, and helped other global officers to run the ‘chopsticks skittle challenge stall’, which consisted of two people playing against one another trying to separate different coloured skittles into cups using chopsticks, and seeing who could put the most in the cups and test their chopstick skills. It was a really popular and fun game! We also helped set up the ‘Guess the Flag’ game, and this became very competitive among the students!
Overall, it was an amazing experience, and I learnt so much from all my peers and the great staff members who supported this journey. I would really recommend partaking in this programme to anyone at the university, and I am so glad I got to meet my fellow Global Officers, who I can now call friends.