Public Service and Global Affairs

Program Overview

Gannon University's Public Service and Global Affairs program empowers students to make a difference in the world. With a focus on experiential learning, including international travel and internships, the program prepares students for careers in government, nonprofits, and international development. Students develop critical thinking, communication, and foreign language skills, and gain a deep understanding of global issues and historical roots of contemporary problems.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

Gannon University's Public Service and Global Affairs program is an innovative major for those who dream of changing the world. The program offers a tailored curriculum to suit individual interests and career goals, and emphasizes gaining valuable paid internship experience. It also prepares students to lead in public service and global affairs by teaching them to analyze the historical roots of contemporary problems, think critically, write persuasively, and argue passionately about vital global and political topics.

Objectives:

Students completing the program will:

• Articulate and implement a personal educational plan with the assistance of an advisor.
• Comprehend a broad range of international issues and understand the relationships between materials explored through different disciplinary lenses.
• Demonstrate understanding of a specific geographical region, academic discipline, or topic.
• Demonstrate oral and written proficiency in one foreign language.
• Synthesize their experiential education experience and traditional classroom coursework.

Teaching:

• The program boasts a low student-to-faculty ratio of 13:1, providing personalized experiences inspired by Gannon's faculty experts.
• The program utilizes a variety of teaching methods, including lectures, discussions, group projects, and experiential learning.
• Students have the opportunity to participate in international travel experiences, such as archaeological digs in Jordan or Bosnia and Poland, and to meet genocide survivors.
• Gannon University hosts the annual Jefferson Educational Global Summit, where students can hear from and network with nationally and internationally recognized speakers.
• The program offers a monthly event called "Politics and Pints," where students can engage in political trivia, hear from guest speakers, and debate current affairs.

Careers:

The program prepares students for careers in:

• Government
• Nonprofit sector
• Peace Corps
• State Department
• International development

Other:

• The program offers real-world knowledge through key public service and global affairs courses, including:
• Plagues & Pandemics: This comparative history course explores the roots, reactions, and consequences of plagues and pandemics across time.
• War Crimes: This course covers the history and legal foundations of war crimes.
Students travel to the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands and to Bosnia to experience firsthand how war crimes are dealt with on the ground and at the highest levels of international jurisprudence.
• A Problem from Hell: A Century of Genocide: This comparative mass violence course examines the problem of state-sponsored mass violence across time and space.
Students finish the class in Poland and Ukraine to visit Holocaust-related sites and study a post-genocide society firsthand.
• Gannon University's Washington Center provides internship placements in the government and nonprofit sectors in Washington, D.C., New York City, and London.
• The program provides a foundation for further graduate study in the field.