speech on global citizenship
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This was a phenomenal commitment and innovation for any U.S. college or university at that time, and continues to make Goshen College outstanding today.
This year, as we celebrate 50 years of SST and imagine its future, it is fitting and exciting to focus on our core value of global citizenship.
So let’s start by thinking about these two combined words, and I want to start with the noun. Citizenship is a word with several layers of meaning.
Legal citizenship involves geographic and political boundaries around certain rights and privileges; access to security, resources, freedom. Citizens have a voice.
In these days, so characterized by nationalistic fervor, citizenship brings up strong emotions.
And so I want you to know that regardless of your geopolitical citizenship, at Goshen College you are all citizens of this campus community. You are citizens with full access to security, resources, freedom of this place. You have a voice.
We welcome students from any nation. This year, our student body is comprised of citizens of 28 countries, and 37 of our United States. Unlike most colleges and universities in the U.S., we provide financial aid to students from any nation of origin. At Goshen College, we also welcome students who are undocumented in the United States. To our DACA and undocumented students, we will walk with you, support you and advocate for your rights.
The core value that we claim at Goshen College is global citizenship － a concept not defined by the borders of nations. There is no legal body that gives you global citizenship.
By global citizenship, we also mean something different from one’s inherent rights and dignity as a human being. We hold the worth of each human being to be intrinsic; in the words of the U.S. constitution, unalienable. But that’s not all that we mean in this core value.
Our core value of global citizenship is something that one learns and grows into, or not. We are saying that we intend to learn and grow in this way.
My experience of global citizenship at Goshen College set me on a path that has unfolded throughout my lifetime..