The Hussman global guarantee

UNC-Chapel Hill offers its students a global guarantee, aiming to ensure that all students — even those who never travel abroad while at UNC — receive a substantive combination of knowledge, experiences and skills to be engaged and dynamic global citizens. UNC Hussman’s growing Global, Immersive and Professional (GIP) programs team furthers that guarantee for the school.

Over half of Hussman’s most recent graduating class (2018) took part in a global experience either by studying or working abroad, interning for an international organization or participating in courses and projects with a global component.

In addition to offerings by UNC Study Abroad Office, Hussman GIP programs offer six semester-long exchanges with leading media and journalism school — in Argentina, Australia, China, Chile, England or Spain. Short-term immersion programs are available during spring break and Maymester in London or China; or as part of a multimedia documentary project or in an independent reporting setting. UNC Hussman students who stay on campus also get the benefits of the program by collaborating on campus with international exchange students who travel to Chapel Hill.

In September, Chris Hill joined Director Liana Pinner on the GIP team. Hill previously worked in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy as a student services manager. Hill and Pinner oversee UNC Hussman’s study abroad exchanges and global and immersive student opportunities.

Hussman semester-long exchanges give students the opportunity to enrich their academic experience at Carolina by taking skills-based journalism and media courses abroad while immersing themselves in a different culture and our short-term programs allow them to get an idea of the work culture and the day-to-day of careers across the industry. We often see students come back from our global experiences with a new or reinforced interest in their education or career path.

THIS SEMESTER’S EXPERIENCES
This semester, 62 Hussman students are taking part in global and immersive programs, from the nation’s capital to the Carribean. In Washington, D.C., students met with alums in politics and advocacy groups, visited Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers including North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr and discussed public policy at Facebook and Twitter. Another group of students traveled to the Bahamas, studying sports journalism and covering the Battle4Atlantis basketball tournament.

JOURNALISM IN LONDON
In June, Pinner produced the inaugural Bloomberg-UNC-City Business Journalism Diversity Program in partnership with City, University of London after coordinating similar programs in Chapel Hill, New York and San Francisco. She helped Bloomberg News bring 10 U.K. students — who had roots from Sri Lanka to Nigeria to Spain to India — to London to participate in the week-long program. They learned how business journalists report on what’s most at stake in the economy, global stock and bond markets, government regulations and the job market. They witnessed how the best reporting comes with a focus on the greatest diversity of participants. The Bloomberg Diversity Program continue in 2020, will run in Chapel Hill and at University of California, Berkeley — applications are due between Jan. 1–29.

MORE TO COME
This spring, even more Hussman students will travel to pursue their studies. 103 students will explore a rich variety of trips — including to Placencia, Belize to report on the degradation of coral reefs and the impact on everyday life, as well as exchange programs in Hong Kong, Spain and London.