Life Quality

Enabling higher education and research to promote an equitable and secure global society.

Penn State has research and educational programs that facilitate communication and understanding across cultures, enhance national and cyber security, and advance human well-being across a wide range of colleges and disciplines.  Some of these are international programs, others are domestic, but all view human society in a global context. Examples include:

Communication and Understanding

• World in Conversation trains undergraduate facilitators to lead virtual dialogues between students around the world, as well as between NATO cadets and civilians in conflict zones.
• Global Engagement and Leadership Experience (GELE) is a two-and-a-half day conference that provides a space for diverse populations of international and U.S. students to discuss cultures and examine leadership through the variety of global perspectives.

National Security

• Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) serves as a University Center of Excellence in Defense science, systems, and technologies with a focus in naval missions and related areas.
• The World Campus offers an online undergraduate minor in Homeland Security and a Master of Professional Studies in Homeland Security, as well as graduate and postbaccalaureate certificates in Geospatial Intelligence.

Human Well-being

• The Pan Institutional Network for Global Health is a consortium of institutions founded by Penn State, the University of Freiburg (Germany), the University of Cape Town (South Africa), Savitribai Phule Pune University (India), the University of Limpopo (South Africa) and the University of the West Indies to support innovations and solutions to improve the health of citizens around the globe.
• The Global Health Minor in the College of Health and Human Development includes a summer fieldwork experience in South Africa, Tanzania or Senegal.
• The Global Health Scholars Program in Penn State’s College of Medicine provides immersive international opportunities for medical students to participate in developing community health projects and clinical care.
• Cities is an Institute for the Arts and Humanities program that takes an interdisciplinary perspective on individual cities in the U.S., South Africa, Iran and around the Pacific Rim; has addressed City Living and Living Cities; and has organized a City, Energy, Information Symposium.
• The Children and Youth Empowerment Centre (CYEC) in Nyeri, Kenya is the site of an on-going collaborative partnership that includes an education abroad program in Economic, Community & Agricultural Development.