Global Connect year-end symposium to feature student videos

The School of Social Sciences’ Global Connect program will close out its 10th year with its annual high school symposium Friday, June 1, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the UCI Student Center. Student-designed videos and essays offering creative solutions to international problems will be on display as more than 250 students from Costa Mesa, Estancia, El Toro, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo and Newport Harbor high schools come to campus for the event. Featured speakers are Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a Washington Post editor and book author, and Mark Petracca, associate dean of social sciences and associate professor of political science at UCI. Also on the agenda are a performance by the UCI Jodaiko drumming ensemble and an awards ceremony for outstanding global educators and top global projects. UCI faculty, students, staff, alumni and community friends are invited to attend all sessions to learn more about the impact of Global Connect, an international studies curriculum that aims to provide high school students with a better understanding of how global issues affect their lives. It is UCI’s first program to become an established core academic course within California’s schools.