After years of piloting new global and interdisciplinary initiatives for Pomona’s planned Center for Global Engagement (CGE), the Global Pomona Council, with College faculty and staff, is actively shaping its future programming in anticipation of its fall 2028 grand opening.
On March 6, the Center took a significant step forward when the Board of Trustees approved investing $125 million in building the CGE, with its residential, dining, classroom and collaboration spaces.
While raising the 100,000-square-foot liberal arts laboratory at the center of Pomona’s campus will take time, the academic work to build upon the 60-year legacy of language immersion at the Oldenborg Center and prepare students to take on the world’s biggest challenges is well underway.
“It’s been exciting to work with faculty, students and staff to explore the CGE’s core values by piloting new initiatives even before construction begins,” says Kara Godwin, assistant vice president and chief global officer. “Academic leaders are testing ideas, creating unique content, and iterating novel opportunities as we design new programs and enhance our legacy ones.
“We will channel our learning from these pilots and the data they provide to shape the CGE.”
Pilot programs offer a preview of what’s to come
These pilots are taking a number of different forms:
- Student-led programs: On April 4, the Pomona America-China Initiative for International Cooperation (PACIFIC) launched its inaugural two-day conference, Fostering Connections for a Better Tomorrow. PACIFIC, a student-led group, organized speaker events, conferences and cultural programming focused on U.S.-China dialogue and developing critical person-to-person relationships.
- Faculty-led study away: In June, another group of students will embark on a new Global Gateways course that explores the history, politics and culture of the Weimar Republic through immersive field study in Berlin with professors from the German and dance departments.
- International collaborations: This fall, Professor of Politics and Oldenborg Faculty Fellow Pierre Englebert will convene an international academic workshop, “Africa After the End of History,” bringing together scholars to engage in interdisciplinary inquiry on Africa, with opportunities for students to contribute to the research they will conduct.
“Collaboration in general is a big part of the CGE footprint, because it is a big part of being global,” Englebert says. “If we want to pursue projects that cut across disciplines, boundaries and cultures, we need to associate with others, especially others who are elsewhere and come to things from a different angle.”
With the CGE scheduled to open in fall 2028, a growing variety of pilots with either global or interdisciplinary focuses are planned for the semesters ahead.
Five priorities will anchor the Center’s work
As plans for that grand opening develop, the Global Pomona Council’s focus is on bolstering programs to advance the following five priorities:
- Allow students to live together in new theme-based residential learning communities. Building on more than 60 years of experience with Oldenborg’s immersive language halls, the new CGE Living-Learning Communities will help students connect their academic work with their lives outside the classroom while strengthening their fluency in language and culture.
- Offer the Global Collaborative as the ultimate expression of the new ways in which students will learn through the CGE. Working in teams, students and faculty will tackle multifaceted, real-world, local and global problems, applying their academic knowledge with partners in related fields.
- Provide the infrastructure to expand Pomona’s study-away opportunities. Led by Pomona faculty and tied closely to on-campus curricula, Global Gateways will broaden student access to both international and domestic immersive experiences.
- Host as many as 30 community-wide discussions at the CGE annually. These “360 Seminars,” the continued Oldenborg Luncheon Colloquia, and arts, civic and musical events will feature visiting experts from multiple fields who explore differing viewpoints for addressing the most complex issues of the day.
- A Visiting Scholars program will bring leaders and scholars from around the world to campus for periods of a few weeks to multiple years. The program will also provide pathways for other experts in their fields—including postdoctoral researchers and graduate students—to engage with the community and share knowledge, mentor students and collaborate on projects.
As these and other emerging CGE plans suggest, the Center for Global Engagement aims to combine hands-on collaboration and immersive residential experiences to enhance students’ skills in working across geographic and cultural borders. All the current programs offered by Oldenborg and the International and Domestic Programs Office will continue in the CGE, along with so much more.
While the Board’s vote to proceed with constructing the CGE means the comprehensive home of this work will soon begin rising from the ground, Pomona’s strategic efforts to expand student access to global and local experiential learning are already well underway.
To learn more about the Center for Global Engagement and its role in advancing Pomona’s global initiatives, visit the CGE website.