Global Discipleship August 28 - December 5, 2025

Westmont Global Semester (WGS) aims to provide students with experiences to explore, learn, and serve in order to shape and create global disciple-citizens, with the hope that students will become global Christians, able to engage global and local forces with Christlike minds and actions. WGS provides a study abroad experience in countries with a range of population densities, economic strengths, and religious affiliations. A key feature of WGS is the opportunity to connect on meaningful levels with local community leaders, students, and others in the practica portion of the program. 
 

• Class standing
• GPA (minimum 2.3 GPA) and no student life sanctions
• Application essays
• Team and individual interviews
• Faculty and personal recommendations
• Must be interested in Christian formation

Criteria

• Ability to balance global discipleship goals, academics, travel, and service as a community.
• Willingness to show flexibility while living in challenging contexts (e.g., temperatures, cultures, food, schedules).
• Tolerate local diet with limited control over food choices in most locations; take initiative to choose local eating establishments.
• Navigate multiple irregular surfaces and walk on average of 5 miles a day and up to 10 miles on field trips.
• Demonstrate excellent time management skills, including required activities, academics, nutrition, and rest.
• Participate in rigorous physical activities for the PEA course, including but not limited to the following: soccer, cycling, hiking, team sports.
• Ability to travel independently on various forms of public transportation, including international air travel, public buses, and subways while carrying all personal items without assistance.
• Anticipate modest accommodations with shared rooms (1 or more classmates).

Global Religions in Context: 4 units. GE: Thinking Globally To support the Global Religions in Context course, the lectures, discussions, and assignments are designed so that students gain understanding of the global trajectories of religions and their competing and complementary worldviews. The course underscores the similarities and differences between Christianity and the other major world traditions. It traces the trajectory of the major world religions throughout the semester (e.g., origins and expansion). Taught to develop skills of empathy for other religions as well as to highlight Christian uniqueness, the course seeks to create avenues of connection in our multiethnic, multi-religious world and, perhaps for some, to encourage a Christian call into cross-cultural settings for their careers, an inspiring beginning to long-term engagement.      

Decision-Making in a Global Context: 4 units. GE: Quantitative & Analytical Reasoning *Serving Society To support the Decision-Making in a Global Context course, the lectures, writing assignments, and team projects expose students to a variety of decision-making contexts, primarily at the lower socio-economic levels of societies that have a wide diversity of worldviews compared to western democratic ideals. The course helps students compare decision-making in various diverse locations in order to tease out local and more universal strategies and processes. We rely on our excellent network of American field workers who provide access to local business and community leaders for students to learn from and practice the decision skills they acquired from the course. Countries and regions were chosen to reflect a variety of political systems, population and population densities, and a mix of rural and urban settings.

Travel Writing: 4 units. GE: Writing for the Liberal Arts GE: Writing Intensive Outside the Major To support the Travel Writing course, the writing assignments connect with the other topics, places, people, and experiences encountered by the students. Combines creative nonfiction writing with ethnographic research, blogging and on-site journalism. Students read and write travel essays, profiles, and reviews. Writing may be published weekly on social media, together with photos and video content. Assignments require students to observe and engage people and the environment in various countries where they are studying and serving. The following chart includes a brief working outline of the projects and focus.

Exploring Wellness (Physical Education): 1 unit. GE: Physical Education To support the 1-unit Physical Education course, students engage in a variety of local sports, often with local communities.

Pre-Trip Course: 1 unit. GE: none This 1-unit course occurs the semester prior to the Westmont Global Semester. Some of the topics include the following: a) Introduction to the broad themes of the courses (e.g., global connections); b) Introduction to culture shock and the act of moving in and out of cultures; c) Learn to be empathetic toward difference through Christian affirmations of hospitality; d) Safety, risk, health, and exploration; e) Begin course readings.

Westmont semester tuition, room, board, a program fee of $5000 plus RT airfare from LAX. Students are allowed to apply their financial aid awards from the college - both need-based and merit-based awards - toward the program's cost.