Growing Global Energy Leaders

A Growing Intercultural Global Energy Leaders (GIGEL) Summer Graduate Certificate Program was created by CISTAR's Diversity and Culture of Inclusion Director, Dr. Denise Driscoll, in collaboration with a Senior Intercultural Learning Specialist at Purdue, Dr. Dan Jones, to address the diversity and culture of inclusion goals outlined in the C2C grant that was awarded to CISTAR (U.S.), RCGI (Brazil), and CINE (Brazil) to engage in research and professional development together. In addition, the GIGEL program was offered to provide a virtual intercultural learning opportunity for all the graduate students after several years of not being able to travel in-person because of COVID-related travel restrictions.

Overarching Purpose

Design and Benefits of the Program

The GIGEL program was a 7-week certificate program specifically designed to build intercultural awareness and skills, forge international personal and professional connections, and encourage thinking about the global energy landscape, with a focus on Brazil and the U.S. A grant secured by Dr. Driscoll covered participant program costs.

There were 7 modules - with videos, short articles, and guided activities - created on Brightspace, a learning management system, for students to complete asynchronously before attending one-hour "live" in-person virtual Zoom sessions. At these live sessions, the first ½ hour was reserved to discuss the module with the instructors and other graduate students in breakout rooms; the second ½ hour was reserved to listen and ask questions of an invited speaker.

Each graduate student participant received a year-long license to Country Navigator, a dynamic, interactive online tool for improving intercultural knowledge and engagement (https://www.countrynavigator.com/).

Participants also benefited from a pre- and post- Intercultural Developmental Inventory (IDI) assessment. Group scores were shared and explained during a live session; an additional 9 participants met individually with Dr. Driscoll, an IDI certified administrator, to learn their individual pre- and post-IDI scores and to be debriefed (45-minute sessions).

Participants and Program Outcomes

Twenty-three graduate student participants received a final certificate. Twenty of the 23 GIGEL participants (Ps) completed the survey (87% return rate). Program outcomes are described below.

Program Goals Met? (N=20)

GIGEL Ps were asked, "To what extent do you disagree or agree that the 7-week program met the below goals?"

As shown in the next figure, there was 100% agreement (green bars=strongly agree; yellow bars=somewhat agree) that program goals were met for "Helped me think about being a future intercultural global energy leader," "Will help me have more enjoyable and productive future international research collaborations and interactions," and "Provided an opportunity to work on one's intercultural awareness and skills." The agreement percentage dropped only slightly to 90% for "Allowed me to make some initial personal and professional connections" (see 10% response with gray bar=neither agree nor disagree).

Comments made it clear that GIGEL Ps wanted more time to interact with one another. Overwhelmingly, though, the GIGEL Ps thought the program goals had been met.

Quality Program? (N=20)

GIGEL Ps were asked, "Please rate the GIGEL certification program for the quality of: the invited speakers, intercultural mentors, breakout room conversations, and content."

As shown in the next figure, overall, there was strong consensus (ranging from 90-100%) that the quality of the program across these different aspects of the program was "good" (yellow bars) or "excellent" (green bars). A slight drop in the percentages of agreement was clarified by comments, such as: 1. Some Ps wanted more time in breakout rooms and 2. A few Ps wanted the invited speakers to focus more on the intersection of intercultural issues and their research.

Recommend the Program? (N=17)

When asked, "Would you recommend this program to other graduate students?" 15 of the 17 GIGEL Ps (88%) answered "yes" and 2 Ps (12%) responded "maybe." All 17 Ps commented positively (i.e., they've already recommended it to other graduate students; they would recommend the program because it taught much needed skills not learned elsewhere); even the 2 comments associated with the maybe responses simply qualified their recommendations (i.e., if graduate students have the time in summer to take the program).

What Was Liked about the GIGEL? (N=17)

All Ps commented with what they linked, with the main themes being: 1. How much they valued learning about intercultural skills, 2. How the program is needed if one is going to be a global energy leader, and 3. How much they learned from talking to graduate students and speakers from other countries. Here are some quotes so you can get a sense of the comments (which were all in this vein):

“It was an excellent opportunity to get to know other cultures and get to know myself better, as I was able to relate in environments outside my comfort zone. I believe that GIGEL was one of the most important moments of my career and the knowledge I acquired in the course will be very useful in my professional and personal life.”

“Intercultural competence is something I never thought we could develop, so I am thankful for this experience. It made me think more about previous interactions I had with people from different cultures and how difficult it was in the beginning. If I was more self-aware about these differences and knew about the importance of learning about other cultures, I would probably have adapted much more easily. Besides, I enjoyed the videos, the tools we had a chance to explore (such as the CN); I also found the exercises and group discussions very interesting, and the live sessions were an opportunity to discuss with my colleagues about the different topics we explored during GIGEL.”

What Was Disliked about the GIGEL? (N=17)

All Ps commented, with the main themes being: 1. How they wanted to interact more with one another (breakout rooms longer; more live sessions) and 2. How they wanted more emphasis on energy. Here are some quotes so you can get a sense of the comments (which are all in this vein):

“I think the course could be a little longer and we could have more live meetings to discuss further about the energy topic with our colleagues. GIGEL was very interesting, that's why I think we could explore it for a little longer.”

“I think that would be interesting having less offline activities and more live sessions. Although the material was very good and brought interesting content, I felt like the live discussions were more enriching than the tasks. So, as a suggestion, I believe that some of the discussions we had in Brightspace should be done in the live sessions.”

Valuable Take Aways?

16 of 17 Ps commented. Comments were positive, but idiosyncratic. Here are some examples (which are representative of many of the comments made):

“A valuable take away from this program for me was recognizing that though there may be common threads among people, cultural differences do exist and should not be overlooked or minimized. In doing so we can neglect or, worse, refuse the subtle characteristics that make a culture so rich. It really helped me to better understand that trying to find commonality among all people can itself be a barrier to my growth and understanding as a person living in a multicultural world.”

“I learnt to be more self-aware of the intercultural differences in the world, be more open-minded to change and about the importance of intercultural competence to the scientific career.”

“My valuable take-away was about being a better and more patient listener. Also, I feel that I have evolved in terms of understanding other cultures. Finally, I'm more encouraged to travel abroad.”

“A valuable take-away is that we are not as developed in terms of intercultural skills as we think we are. This is something that we should always keep improving in order to better collaborate with people from other cultures.”

Ideas for Next Steps

Thanks to the high return rate of the survey (87%) and the largely consensual feedback about what was disliked/needing improvement, the GIGEL program will be re-designed to better meet the needs of future graduate student participants. The plan is to offer a certificate program in two years when there are sufficient numbers of new graduate students across the centers to form another cohort of 20-25 graduate students.

In the meantime, we are weighing whether to offer a modified version of this program in Summer 2024 for undergraduates in science and engineering who are interested in energy and affiliated with the C2C grant, RCGI, CINE, or CISTAR. Please get in touch if you have any input to inform this decision.

Finally, it should be taken under consideration that there seems to be a real interest in a next step offering that addresses the intersection between the ongoing research in the centers, how that research makes sense in the context of a global energy landscape, and what implications all of it has for social and environmental justice issues. To this end, I welcome input and collaboration from those with more expertise in energy research globally. I'd also encourage faculty to talk with any of their graduate students who participated in the GIGEL program to hear what they believe would be a useful next step, and then share that discussion—and your own thoughts—with me.

Final Point to Share

To give those who are interested a small taste of where the certificate program ended, I wanted to share the final discussion board question posed to the GIGEL Ps:

“As a future leader in the field of energy, what can you do to achieve more equitable energy solutions and environmental justice for all people as we focus on how to transition to cleaner energy sources?”

The wisdom and thought that went into their answers was, quite frankly, stunning. So, my thanks to the graduate students who engaged so wholeheartedly in the GIGEL program. My hope for them, and everyone, is that you have both enjoyable and productive international research collaborations and that you continue to grow your global leadership skills. Best of luck in your continued intercultural journey!