During its 50-year history, LIU Global (previously the Friends World College, Friends World Program & Global College) has established itself as one of the nation’s leading experiential education programs, providing an individualized international experience as well as a broad-based liberal arts education from one of the largest, most comprehensive private universities in the country. LIU Global students spend their first three years living and learning at the university’s centers and programs in Costa Rica, China, South Africa, India, Australia, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey, acquiring a cross-cultural education that is becoming increasingly valuable in our rapidly globalizing world. The final year of the program begins with an independently designed research project in a location of the student’s choice and culminates in a semester in New York City, where students complete a series of capstone experiences and write a senior thesis before graduating with a B.A. During their course of study, our students have the opportunity to learn multiple languages and to participate in service-learning projects in diverse settings, building both their personal and professional skills. They have published books, served as staff writers for magazines, founded organizations like the Royal Asiatic Society Hangzhou and CIVIC.org, and have interned and worked for international institutions and businesses around the world. Students document their studies and experiences in an electronic portfolio including research papers and essays; Flash files and podcasts; and creative works like photos, paintings and poems. Graduates have gone on to secure positions with leading organizations including the United Nations, OXFAM, UNICEF, the Earth Institute, the World Health Organization, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and a number of international nonprofits concerned with the developing world. They have built successful careers as linguists, analysts, scientists, journalists, teachers, social workers, diplomats and professors, and those who have pursued graduate education have been admitted to respected institutions including Columbia University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of California-Berkeley and the School for International Training.
