Global education has never been more important. For millions of students, personal and professional goals are closely woven into how connected the world is. At Stockton University alone, the Office of Global Engagement is partnered with dozens of schools throughout the world. The fact that Stockton is one of the hundreds of universities throughout the country that are partnered with organizations like IES Abroad and EF exemplifies the widely recognized importance of connecting young academics with other countries.

Since the pandemic, UNESCO established the Global Education Coalition, which is “a platform for collaboration and exchange to protect the right to education during this unprecedented disruption and beyond”, and focuses on maintaining global collaboration when the world can’t travel. 175 UN member states are part of the coalition, further symbolizing the way the world recognizes the importance of global interconnectivity when it comes to education. During the pandemic, maintaining global collaboration through education was, as we all know, virtual. IES Abroad still ran their programs but through online internships, which allowed students to meet professors and other academics from their host schools abroad. 

Interweaving academics and the world ensures that students are exposed to learning from a variety of viewpoints, backgrounds,  and beliefs. This allows for empathy and open-mindedness, especially when a student is immersed in a country or school and is thus provided with the first-hand experience of what that culture is like.  The COVID-19 pandemic made this come to a screeching halt, but it still didn’t stop people from studying abroad the moment international borders reopened in early 2021 thanks to COVID-tested flights and high vaccination rates in countries like Israel and Uruguay. 

For people like Nia Donfris from Madrid’s San Louis University, the pandemic hurled a set of challenges in front of her dream of studying abroad, but she still didn’t let it stop her. This resilience is important to note. Donfris is in the nursing field, which forces her to forge close relationships with people, so learning another language and culture is important for empathy. This is important for so many other career fields, and when a different culture is understood through first-hand experience, company productivity, employee contentment, and community outreach can be achieved at the highest capacity. 

Creating a better world with these things starts with education, and when education is connected on a global scale (whether through virtual events or physically studying abroad), the quality of education, graduates, and professionals is enhanced.