TIGERVILLE, SC (courtesy ngu.edu) — North Greenville University (NGU) has announced the launch of the Institute of Global Leadership (IGL) to facilitate student mobilization for short-term trips and develop academic programs in leadership, global studies, and related disciplines.
The university has named Dr. Allen McWhite as executive director and NGU alumna Erin Wolfe (‘08) as the assistant director for the Institute. McWhite will also serve as an associate professor of global leadership. The initial program to be offered by the IGL will be the recently approved minor in global studies.
“At North Greenville University, we are educating students to be transformational leaders for church and society. The Institute for Global Leadership will be an increasingly important hub for transformational leadership development and mobilizing our students to serve others in a variety of cultural contexts,” said NGU Provost and Dean of the University Faculty Dr. Nathan A. Finn. “Dr. Allen McWhite is a seasoned leader who has served churches, community organizations, and in higher education, both in the USA and abroad. He is the ideal person to help our students become global leaders, regardless of their fields of study.”
The global studies minor is designed to prepare students of all academic majors to be transformational leaders in a global environment. The minor will be of tremendous benefit to students if they desire to use their degrees and vocational skills in an international setting around the world, but it will also be of great usefulness right here in our own increasingly multi-cultural North American context. It will be the initial academic program offered by the Institute, but the vision is for additional programs to be added in the near future.
“For 125 years, North Greenville University has prioritized serving the Upstate region, but our students have served globally almost since the first year of our existence. They have served as teachers, healthcare workers, non-profit leaders, and many other kinds of leaders all around the world,” said NGU President Dr. Gene C. Fant, Jr. “With the establishment of the Institute, we are underscoring our commitment to preparing students who can lead anywhere their careers and their callings may take them.”
NGU will continue to offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in Intercultural Studies for students whose desire is to give full-time focus to preparing themselves for a wide variety of cross-cultural ministry opportunities. The global studies minor, however, is specifically designed for those who will be entering the secular marketplace in a variety of fields including business, education, fine arts, communication, health care, math and science, the service industry, etc. The desire is for NGU students to “make their degrees global” and have a truly global impact.
McWhite says, “I believe that the global studies minor will give our students a real edge in an increasingly competitive job market by providing them with a deeper level of preparedness as they leave our campus to enter the global marketplace. We desire to send them out to be transformational leaders who will take their place in a variety of career fields, but with the same purpose: being difference-makers God uses to bring real transformation to our communities, to our nation, and among the nations.”
The Institute, located in the Craft-Hemphill Building, serves as the hub for this program on campus. It will continue to be instrumental in providing NGU students with a range of North American and international opportunities in the form of short-term trips.
McWhite has served at NGU since 2002. Before his time at NGU, McWhite and his family served in the field with the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). He has also been a full-time pastor and a military chaplain. Outside of his university responsibilities, he serves as a part-time law enforcement officer with the State of South Carolina and continues to work with local churches in an interim pastor role.
Before coming to NGU, Wolfe worked at Fellowship Travel International in Virginia, served as training and public relations coordinator in the Center for Global Connections at Southwest Baptist University in Missouri, and as a student mobilizer in South Asia. In her role as assistant director, she will be providing leadership in preparing and sending out short-term North American and international student teams.
For more information about NGU’s Institute for Global Leadership, visit https://www.ngu.edu/global-engagement.php.