Written by Colin McEvoy | February 22, 2024 | SHARE
Lehigh University's Iacocca Institute will launch a strategic period of assessment, research, and reinvention with the Global Village community
The Iacocca Institute has announced exciting plans for the future of its programs, including its flagship Global Village.
Beginning this spring, Lehigh University's Iacocca Institute will launch a strategic period of assessment, research, and reinvention, engaging Global Village partners, alumni, and constituents to refine the Institute’s understanding of the marketplace for global leadership programming.
As a result of this assessment, the Institute will pause the Global Village program during the summer of 2024, and resume with a bold relaunch in 2025, which will ensure that the Global Village program continues to maintain the successful, innovative programming that it has demonstrated for nearly 30 years.
“The combination of the evolving higher education marketplace and consumer expectations, technological advances, and the global pandemic have fundamentally changed the way learners around the globe connect with each other,” said Scott Koerwer, Executive Director of the Iacocca Institute. “Our programs will be reimagined to address this new reality.”
The Iacocca Institute’s signature program, Global Village is an intensive, immersive virtual and in-person program on the Lehigh campus that teaches university students and young professionals the basics of business, the essentials of management, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills while preparing them to thrive in a global community.
In the year ahead, the Institute will contact and meet with an array of constituents and experts, including global leaders, academic scholars, and institutional partners to learn from their experiences and how they are working to address the world’s complex challenges. Alumni will be engaged through surveys, visits, invitations to campus, and meetings with small groups in different regions.
Additionally, thought leaders and other partners will be invited to the Lehigh campus to participate in these discussions. The focus will be to preserve what has been at the essence of the Global Village since its founding, while also infusing it with new energy, curriculum, and experiences to develop current and future leaders.
“We are firmly committed to Global Village, and deeply appreciative of the history of this program and its impressive alumni network,” said Cheryl Matherly, Vice President and Vice Provost for International Affairs at Lehigh’s Office of International Affairs (OIA). “We are excited by the work ahead of us as we collaborate with our partners to develop the programs, research, and services to not only inspire, but also to create the next generation of future makers.”
Koerwer expressed gratitude to the past leaders of the Global Village upon whom the shoulders of the Institute stands, as well as the program’s benefactor and namesake, alumnus Lee Iacocca, who Koerwer described as a global leader ahead of his time who defines the term “future maker,” as used in Lehigh’s strategic plan, Inspiring the Future Makers.
Global Village has an alumni network of more than 2,550 leaders from over 140 countries. The program invites villagers to work in cross-cultural teams on leadership challenges for organizations across the globe, develop their personal leadership vision and plan, and build a lifelong network of global colleagues, mentors, and friends.