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Global Learning and Community Engagement
The Global Learning and Community Engagement program connects student learning and reflection to meaningful service grounded in local and global community needs.
Global Learning
Packer's Global Learning program aims to cultivate knowledgeable, empathetic, and engaged members of an interconnected and dynamic world, preparing students to meet global challenges by thinking deeply, listening actively, speaking courageously, and acting with purpose and heart.
Our signature Global Learning program is International Symposium, in which all eleventh-grade students travel abroad at no additional cost to families. Through immersive, real-world learning, students engage in cross-cultural exchange, explore complex global issues, and build meaningful relationships with communities beyond their own. Working in partnership with local organizations and community members, students apply collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills while exploring sustainable approaches to shared challenges.
Global Learning is deeply integrated with our Community Engagement and Equity and Inclusion programs, reinforcing our commitment to educating students who are both intellectually capable and socially responsible. Many Upper School students continue to expand their global perspectives through elective travel programs and study abroad opportunities.
Community Engagement
Our Global Learning and Community Engagement program uses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for connecting local experiences to global issues. Through this work, students develop an understanding of our global interdependence, explore how local actions and systems can have far-reaching consequences, and consider how they can take responsible action to address shared challenges and contribute to sustainable change.
We strive to connect Global Learning and Community Engagement directly to classroom learning. The experiences we design both emerge from and contribute to students’ academic development, providing opportunities to apply their learning in authentic contexts. Through these experiences, students actively practice the mindsets and dispositions that reflect our mission and values. Our goal is to deepen understanding, spark curiosity, and empower students to engage thoughtfully and purposefully within their local communities and the wider world.
Community Engagement is deeply integrated with Global Learning and is part of our approach to Equity and Inclusion at Packer.
Community Engagement Opportunities
![Jennifer Donovan]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1694105382/packer/pgwdtfnrf968nfl2aqmc/donovanjenniferCC700.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1694105382/packer/pgwdtfnrf968nfl2aqmc/donovanjenniferCC700.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1694105382/packer/pgwdtfnrf968nfl2aqmc/donovanjenniferCC700.png","width":700}])
Jennifer Donovan
Director of Global Learning and Community Engagement
From the first interview I knew that Packer was a special place that valued relationships and connection. I was excited to be a part of a team that valued global learning and community engagement and was deeply committed to developing programs that live into the mission and values of the school.
