Why Pursue Human Needs and Global Resources?
Established in 1976, Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR) is an academic certificate program that integrates multidisciplinary coursework, a six-month internship, and whole-person formation through experiential learning. Students live, work, worship, and serve with local communities worldwide, while accompanying host partner organizations that confront poverty, challenge inequity, transform conflict, pursue justice, and seek fullness of life. The program cultivates a life-orienting commitment to justice, intercultural humility, compassion, hospitality, environmental health, and peacemaking, as actively reflected in lifestyle and vocation.
Why Pursue Human Needs and Global Resources at Wheaton?
Because we have a group of 25-30 each year, we are able to identify and tailor internships according to students’ academic, personal, and professional desires. Of course, there is no ideal or perfect internship, but we do our best.
Interns are placed through an intentional discernment process that seeks to integrate the student’s particular interests and the resources and opportunities provided by host organizations. The placement process begins during the fall semester of the junior year and concludes sometime around mid-late spring semester. Over HNGR’s history, the program has placed over 800 students in more than 70 countries and over 330 host organization
Our team and supporting faculty provides amazing support. In fact, our Student Support Coordinator, a licensed professional counselor, cares for students before, during, and after the internship. Further, a Wheaton College faculty member or HNGR staff person will visit you halfway during your internship to check in.
A hallmark of the HNGR internship is the independent research completed in collaboration with the host organization. You design the instruments, collect the data, analyze, and then report at our annual symposium. This is one of the main ways students “give back” to host organization who do so much for you.
Rather than study at a university abroad, or a language school, instead your work and life is your classroom. We teach you the skills to reflect on your experiences well, so that you truly do learn experientially. And, all the learning you do is actually for a full-credit load, so it’s just like a normal semester at Wheaton.
One of our main goals as a program is to introduce students to the global church and to have Christian leaders from around the world speak into the lives of our students, program, and college. By reading Christian thinkers from all around the world and by being supervised by remarkable Christian leaders in their context, we seek to expand students’ worldviews.
What Will I Learn?
Learn to understand and explain the multi-level systemic and structural causes of poverty; and, recognize multi-dimensional aspects of poverty as manifested in the interconnected domains of environment, economics, politics, wellness, art, society, culture and religion.
Learn to appraise and analyze diverse communal, organizational and institutional responses to human needs.
Practice reciprocal relationships and intercultural humility by working and living in culturally diverse settings and contexts.
Learn to demonstrate skill in field-based, applied and ethical research or creative projects in partnership with host communities.
Be able to articulate growth in devotion to God and commitment to the church and in the pursuit of loving, just and peaceable service to others.