Global Education at JCC

Why Global Education?

…Because globalization is happening all around us and has touched many in Johnston County. JCC sees many out-of-work students needing to be retrained after their jobs have gone abroad to lower-paid workers. There are several international companies in the county including Danish pharmaceutical company, Novo Nordisk, and other businesses involved in import-export. The makeup of the local population is changing to include many new immigrants from Mexico and Latin America. Local schools are teaching children Spanish, Chinese, and Global Awareness to prepare them for a future in which these skills will be needed and valued.

Globalization impacts our economic strength. In the summer of 2008, we saw gas prices double, triple, and then quadruple to over $4/gallon. Once demand went down, so did prices. Along with the demand for gasoline, so went demand for American-made cars and SUVs. More efficient Toyotas, Hondas, VWs and other foreign cars continued to sell, but the global economy was hit hard by troubles here.

Globalization affects political currents. Political allies of the US are those that we depend on for trade and who share our ideals of liberty and democracy. We have fought against those who suppress freedom or violate human rights. The US has been the focus of the world’s sympathies and its anger. The election of our country’s first biracial president has been seen as historic around the world.

Globalization is seen in our increasing diversity. North Carolina was one of Great Britain’s 13 original colonies, and was a slave state before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Our cultural heritage has been formed by English, Scottish, Irish and other European immigrants, and Blacks from Africa and the Caribbean. These cultures mixed with Native American tribes already living here, such as the Lumbee Indians of central North Carolina. Today, we see many tiendas, mercados, and signs written en español. This is due to the increasing rate of immigration of Hispanic and Latino people, primarily from Mexico and Latin America. A lack of jobs in their countries has led them to our county to seek new opportunity and community. We are also served by doctors and health care professionals from many parts of the globe including China, India and the Middle East.

It is important for students at JCC to understand their place in the world, so that they will be successful in competing for jobs, reacting to global economic and political issues, and mixing with immigrants to our county.

For further information about Global Education programming, please contact
Heather Murphy, Director, Global Education and Outreach
(919) 209-2239
hemurphy@johnstoncc.edu