Growing a greater global awareness
Three years ago, ACS International School Hillingdon became the first school in Europe to offer the Global Citizens Diploma (GCD). The GCD is a unique qualification for High School students that goes beyond academic results to acknowledge all of the exceptional citizenship and service-related activities students undertake as part of their education at ACS.
Since then, the project has evolved and developed further, enabling our students to tailor the programme to their own interests and journeys. It is now also mainly led by a student GCD committee, who provide advice and guidance to their peers.
The GCD can be completed to three different levels: Global Citizens Certificate (GCC), the GCD or the GCD+ (with distinction), and comprises of 16 key elements, which are split into core values, competencies and areas of expertise. These include elements such as: community engagement, global understanding, intercultural communication, wilderness engagement, work experience, artistic expression and leadership.
All High School students at ACS Hillingdon complete at least the GCC before they graduate, and are encouraged to go on to complete the full Diploma. As part of the programme, our students log a series of ‘stories’, describing the activities they have undertaken within the school day, and in their spare time, to showcase the time, effort and dedication that has gone into the programme. This allows them to demonstrate their skills, personality and values beyond their academic grades.
As well as consolidating all their activities, students are encouraged to reflect and take actions that will enable them to get to the next level. This allows us to provide new opportunities for our young people to develop key life skills and a greater global awareness.
By reflecting on their activities and achievements in this way, students are not only able to consolidate their interests and abilities, but they also graduate with a set of tangible stories that can be used to support university and job applications and personal statements and can be accessed by teachers when writing references.
Grade 12 student at ACS Hillingdon and president of the GCD committee, Rhea A, chose to volunteer with a charity that promotes education and empowerment for girls in rural India as part of her Diploma. In her free time, she designed the charity’s website and runs its social media, as well as speaks to some of the girls who are supported by the charity to compare different experiences of education.
Other GCD students have volunteered with charities such as Young Healthwatch Hillingdon, an organisation established to enable young people to reach out to people in their age group and help them with their physical and mental health.
This type of education, where students are developed into well-rounded global citizens instead of just simply attaining grades, is what we champion at ACS International Schools. By learning in this way, our students leave ACS as empowered individuals, with the academic and emotional intelligence to empathise and engage with tomorrow’s big issues, ready for a future full of opportunity.
To find out more about how the GCD is structured, please visit: globalcitizendiploma.org
