About Us

The Office of Global Affairs works collaboratively to foster cultural humility and build globally-interconnected communities by promoting global learning opportunities on and off-campus, building international partnerships, and supporting international students, scholars, and research at the University of Washington Tacoma.  

In our work, we are committed to the following values:

• We promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through programming that recognizes, explores, and honors the cultural assets, histories, and lived experiences of our campus communities.
• We practice cultural humility by acknowledging and celebrating differences, engaging in critical self-reflection, and redressing power inequities.
• We extend equitable access to global education for all of our students with experiences such as international exchanges and study abroad programs. 
• We aspire to be actively anti-racist in our practices, policies, and programs. 
• We strive to provide exceptional services and programs that empower students, faculty, and staff to achieve their goals.
• OGA approaches our partners with respect and prioritizes mutually beneficial collaborations with partners across the University, our local communities, and internationally.

Global Learning Outcomes

These learning outcomes are meant to capture learning that occurs in programs offered or facilitated by the Office of Global Affairs, including our Global Ambassadors program, study abroad, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) courses, informal language lessons, applications to international fellowships, and more.

We encourage faculty and staff to adapt these learning outcomes to their specific contexts as needed; they do not need to be used verbatim. We also understand that there are disciplinary differences in how some of the terminology used in these learning outcomes are defined, and we encourage you to clarify terms such as cultural practices, cultural diversity, and others when adapting for your own learning outcomes.

• Demonstrate knowledge of cultural diversity, especially as it relates to global practices and constructions of political and economic systems, racialization, gendering, and/or the construction of other social identities.
• Develop understanding of one’s own role in a globally-connected world that integrates the complexities of global migration, the nation-state, Indigenous rights, social justice, and other socio-political dynamics.
• Practice cultural humility by acknowledging and valuing cultural differences.
• Co-create mutually beneficial, cross-cultural relationships and communities.
• Critically reflect on one's cultural origins, practices, and habits of thought.
• Articulate how political, economic, and other forms of power are impacted by and emerge within and across cultural contexts.
• Identify interconnections among and analyze impact of local, domestic, international, and global issues.
• Integrate and synthesize global learning experiences at UW Tacoma to enact personal, organizational, professional and/or social transformation.