Moses said that global leadership is an essential skill to have in today’s globally focused world. “Effective leadership means being able to work with individuals from different backgrounds and bring intercultural competence into teamwork,” he said. “It’s all about collective collaboration. Being able to step out of a comfort zone and have empathy to understand other people’s cultures are important in today’s leadership.”
Each semester, GELE accepts a total of 40 participants composed of 20 international students and 20 U.S. students from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Since its launch in 2011, GELE has welcomed students from more than 17 different countries.
Estella Obi-Tabot, a junior in studying health and human development and a recent participant, said that GELE has been an “eye-opening” experience for her. As a domestic student, prior to participating in GELE, Obi-Tabot had traveled briefly to several countries, mainly for the purpose of visiting family members, and it wasn’t until GELE that she was able to really engage in cultural dialogue and learn different cultural traditions.
“Before participating in GELE, it could seem a little bit intimidating to really reach out to international students and break into cultural groups,” Obi-Tabot said. “GELE challenged me to really step out of my comfort zone. And I learned when it comes down to an individual, there are always more similarities than differences.”
As the current president of Penn State’s Society for Biobehavioral Health, Obi-Tabot said she benefitted a lot from the discussions about leadership and would be able to apply many lessons toward the global health initiative within her organization. “In global health, if we can really engage with the people we are helping within a deeper level instead of just doing fundraising for them, it would be a big step,” she said.