As the focal point and information center for Creighton’s international activity, the Global Engagement Office (GEO) supports the University's mission by providing global learning opportunities and services that foster cross-cultural awareness, facilitate intercultural communications, and enhance knowledge about world cultures and societies.
The GEO carries out its mission through the administration of programs and services that support international students and scholars, learners of English as a second language, study abroad, linkages with international organizations and institutions, faculty efforts to integrate global learning in the curriculum, and administration of the Creighton Global Initiative (CGI) and The Common Home Project grants.
Moreover, the GEO is Creighton's official link to the U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security. Only authorized GEO staff have the required credentials to process all documentation that facilitates obtaining and maintaining the right visa status of international students and scholars at Creighton University.
International Students and Scholar Services
The Office of International Student and Scholar Services assists students and scholars from around the world prior to their arrival, throughout their stay at Creighton and beyond. Specifically, these are the services the GEO provides international students and scholars:
- F-1 and J-1 student advising on visa, personal, academic and employment matters
- J-1 Exchange Visitor Program administration
- New student and scholar initial and ongoing orientation
- Cultural, cross-cultural and social activities
- Multinational Ambassador Program (MAP), which brings U.S. and international students together for cross-cultural exchange and social interaction.
The Common Home Project
The Common Home Project combines Creighton faculty, staff and students with dedicated educators, international development professionals, administrators and researchers across the globe through a unique partnership with select Jesuit universities dedicated to addressing global poverty and inequality. This partnership has created a network of “hubs” across the world (the Caribbean, South America, South Central Asia, and South Western Asia) that facilitate global learning opportunities for students (including credit-bearing courses, co-curricular immersions and internships), collaborative research between faculty, and capacity-building sustainable development projects in each institution’s community. The Common Home Project provides funding for programs that cut across academic fields to produce multidisciplinary knowledge on complex development challenge areas related to 1) Sustainability; 2) Humanitarianism; 3) Business Development; and 4) Global Health.
Study Abroad
Students have the opportunity to participate in semester-long, full-time programs with partner universities across the globe. Additionally, Creighton University offers at least 15 annual short-term (10-20 days) travel courses on a variety of subjects and to a variety of destinations. Additionally, Creighton University's own semester-long Encuentro Dominicano embodies the Jesuit mission of promoting justice, striving for excellence, and dedication to the truth. Using the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals as an organizing framework, the Encuentro Dominicano program centers around service-learning and community-building with fellow students and Dominicans – all while experiencing the rich and vibrant culture of the Dominican Republic. Students will experience service, academic life, and two immersion trips living and working with Dominican families in a rural community.
Institute for Latin American Concern (ILAC)
Creighton University has had a presence in the Dominican Republic for nearly 50 years. We are hosted by the Centro de Educacion para la Salud Integral (CESI), well-known by its English name, "Misión ILAC," with whom we have a very close partnership. This partnership grew from efforts to provide immersive experiences in health services and has expanded to more than 30 other initiatives including supporting a semester-long academic service learning program for undergraduate students, Encuentro Dominicano, facilitating service and immersion experiences for partner high schools, and assisting with surgical missions and medical rotations.
Intensive English Language Institute (IELI)
Since 1979, the IELI at Creighton University has been helping students from different language backgrounds enhance their English skills. Core courses in grammar, writing, reading, and speaking/listening focus on academic language skills. IELI classes meet four hours a day, Monday through Friday, between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.; additionally, there are regularly-scheduled co-curricular activities outside of the classroom. The IELI has a full semester (17-week) session in the fall and spring, and an accelerated 9-week session in the summer with 4 levels: beginner, intermediate, high intermediate, and advanced.
The IELI is the home of the Bridge to Creighton, a dynamic program designed for undergraduate students with high academic potential who would benefit from additional advanced-level English language support. The Bridge program is not simply an ESL program; it enables eligible students to earn up to 6 credits at Creighton University while polishing vital academic skills needed for success at a top-ranked university. In the Bridge semester, highly-qualified instructors in the Intensive English Language Institute instruct students in essential critical reading strategies, academic vocabulary, high level English grammar, presentation and oral communication skills, and note-taking. A 3-credit composition course will provide students with practice and techniques for the writing projects found in Creighton classes. A 2-credit academic success course will orient students to many services available on Creighton's campus. During or immediately following the Bridge semester, students are also connected with a faculty advisor and a small cohort of peers to examine and experience key elements of Creighton University life together (an additional 0.5-1 credit, depending on the program of study). In the following semesters - and throughout the student's Creighton career - the IELI instructors continue to serve as a resource for students, collaborating with the students' other Creighton professors to ensure student success.
Office of Global and Community-Based Learning
The Office of Global and Community-Based Learning connects academic courses with local and global community partners to enhance academic learning, meet community-identified needs, and foster global perspectives through engagement and reflection. Using academic service-learning and other experiential educational strategies that integrate community service into academic courses, the Office of Global and Community-Based Learning closely collaborate with faculty to enhance student learning while community partners also receive concrete benefits. Students study, serve and reflect on their experience in order to deepen their appropriation of knowledge.
Office of Sustainability Programs
At Creighton University, we recognize sustainability as a fundamental strategy to fulfill our moral responsibility to care for creation. We follow the United Nation's definition of meeting the needs and aspirations of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same. The Office of Sustainability Programs (OSP) guides the implementation of the Sustainable Creighton Initiative (SCI), Creighton's path toward carbon neutrality with goals intentionally focused on greenhouse gas emission reduction, waste diversion, education and co-curricular engagement. The OSP offers a broad variety of sustainable practices and programs on campus and serves as a hub for collaboration among students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, our local neighbors, and global partners so we can work together toward a more sustainable present and future in Omaha and afar.