The Global Studies Institute is a non-partisan, interdisciplinary studies center at Culver Academies. The Institute focuses on the great issues and challenges that face the international community in the 21st century—war and peace; human rights; the environment; the global economy; scientific frontiers; and cultural literacy.

Its purpose is to prepare Culver students for citizenship in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world by giving them the opportunity to interact with thinkers, scholars, and leaders from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds.

Culver believes young citizens cannot responsibly ignore the vital issues of the wider world. The stakes are simply too high. Globalization will not allow it. If today’s youth wait until college to examine their beliefs about the world and its interconnections, the cause is lost.

An understanding of emerging global realities, however, is just the beginning. Much more will be expected of tomorrow’s leaders. Their challenge will be to formulate what former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev calls “the new thinking,” a philosophy and methodology of bold and innovative approaches toward international affairs—in effect, an entirely new conceptual vision of the future.

As we embark upon a new century, there appears to be one certainty— we inhabit a world of common destinies and common dangers. The Institute provides Culver students with the unprecedented opportunity to communicate across cultures and oceans, and thus create a blueprint for the future of human understanding.

This vision of a future based on “internationalism” and “world citizenship” is the foundation of the Global Studies Institute.