Grand Challenges Hits the Road
A Grand Challenge with a Global Outlook
Grand Challenges, a Georgia Tech interdisciplinary living-learning community, is taking its principles of engagement, collaboration, and exploration on the road to South Africa, and invites all undergraduates to apply to join them!
Grand Challenges resides in the cabinet area of Student Engagement and Well-Being (SEWB) and exemplifies SEWB’s mission to develop diverse student leaders. Grand Challenges Global Experience: South Africa (GCGX) offers a powerful framework for teaching core content by leaning into problem- and community-based learning to integrate real-world issues. Undergraduate students from all Georgia Tech colleges and schools are encouraged to consider having this experience that will leave them equipped and inspired to impact the world positively.
As the newest Georgia Tech study abroad program to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), GCGX sits at the intersection of sustainability, technology, and policy. South Africa is an incredible classroom for this experience, and students will directly encounter the country's efforts to preserve and highlight the country's abundance of natural wonders, along with learning its history of inspirational leaders, from the likes of Nelson Mandela to local youth, who attempt to better their communities with scarce resources.
In the summer of 2025, GCGX will welcome the first cohort of 15 students to its inaugural program. The academic courses, PUBP 3600 - Sustainability, Technology, and Policy and PUBP 4140 - Foundations of Leadership, will be meaningful to students including and beyond those pursuing a Public Policy major (and whose 6 credits can fill a number of curriculum requirements.)
Annarose Hilhorst, a Computer Science undergraduate, has already applied to GCGX and is eager to hit the road:
“When I saw that Grand Challenges had developed a program in South Africa, I knew that I had to take part! To get out of the classroom and into the community in a country I know so little about (but want to know better) was the draw, and it is great to have such a unique opportunity to grow my leadership skills and expand my horizons.”
GCGX will start in early May 2025 with a virtual week of learning to lay the groundwork before participants spend four weeks traveling under the guidance of faculty leaders Ilya Gokhman and Jeffrey Davis along with staff leaders McCall Henderson and Ashton Bettis. This small group will take an overland journey across South Africa, from Johannesburg to Cape Town, with stops along the way at locations ranging from small towns to universities to sites of natural wonder.
Gokhman offers this look at what students can expect to experience:
“The academics will combine theory and practice. Students will learn key concepts related to innovation, technology, and policy, and will interact with individuals working firsthand to tackle the UN Sustainable Development Goals. As part of PUBP 3600, we will have excursions and guest speakers that will provide students with first-hand experiences about sustainability challenges confronting South Africa and the current approaches in place to resolve these challenges; as part of PUBP 4100, students will learn about the formal and grass-roots leaders who played a role in South Africa and beyond in bettering the human condition, and will incorporate these insights into developing a personal leadership action plan.”
Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with local institutions and communities and explore the diverse social, political, and environmental ecosystems of South Africa.
Visit the Grand Challenges Global Experience: South Africa home page for more information and to access the application form.
Applications are due January 15, 2025.
Photo (c) 2024 Grand Challenges