Most UNC programs and funders working with students conducting international service, service-learning and/or research offer general information on liability, health and safety, and logistics to help prepare participants for their experience.
The GO! Initiative is designed to help students evaluate expectations, anticipate potential challenges, prepare for culture shock, and develop intercultural competencies. In addition, GO! provides an avenue for students to network and interact with others traveling to similar areas of the world. Upon their return, students will have the opportunity at a follow-up workshop to discuss their travels as well as strategies to help them cope with the many conflicting thoughts and feelings that resulted from their experience abroad.
GO! will:
- provide an introduction to intercultural competency
- address challenges of working with non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, and communities
- provide a framework for addressing ethical issues of working in communities
- address the importance of sustainability and the potentially negative effects of unsustainable efforts
- provide information on country and culture specific issues, values, and norms
- provide information about health and safety issues (country/region specific, where possible)
- help students develop more realistic expectations about their time abroad
- encourage students to be responsible for learning in advance about the region and country where they are traveling
Participating programs include:
- Academic Affairs Committee of Student Government
- African Studies Center
- APPLES Service-Learning Program
- Burch Programs and Honors Study Abroad
- Campus Y
- Center for Global Initiatives
- Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases
- Institute for the Study of the Americas
- Morehead-Cain Foundation
- Office of Institutional Research and Assessment
- Office for Undergraduate Research
- Robertson Scholars
- Study Abroad Office
as well as faculty from: