As the world grows smaller and companies become increasingly international, engineering students with a global education will be in high demand. Given the constraints of the typical undergraduate engineering curriculum, it can be extremely challenging for engineering students to participate in activities designed to promote global awareness. Lehigh University’s answer to this challenge is the Global Citizenship Program (GCP), a “backpack” program designed to be accessible to any student on campus. The “backpack” metaphor means that all students should be able to assemble their own particular mix of additional courses and experiences in order to develop a global perspective that deepens their core disciplinary training. The GCP at Lehigh provides focus and structure to engineering students, providing opportunities for study abroad and organizing their humanities and social science electives into a coherent package of curricular and co-curricular experiences that maximizes the educational potential of these few non-engineering opportunities
