Leadership for the Global Future

This story was paraphrased from an article written by Paul Desruisseaux
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Former President William J. Clinton visited Santa Barbara to participate in a public dialogue on global issues that will help inaugurate UC Santa Barbara's Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies and the university's new master's degree program in that field.

Titled "Leadership for the Global Future," the event was structured as a conversation between President Clinton and Paul Orfalea, the entrepreneur and business leader who founded the Kinko's chain of copy stores (now known as FedEx Kinko's).

 

 

The event also included an announcement of a commitment by the Orfalea Foundations to The Clinton Global Initiative, which was the focus of a major international conference in New York last month. The Orfalea commitment includes support for all four focus areas of the Clinton Global Initiative: Poverty Alleviation, Energy and Climate Change, Global Health, and Mitigating Religious and Ethnic Conflict

Paul Orfalea is a distinguished visiting lecturer in the Global and International Studies Program at UCSB, where he teaches a popular course in global business. Orfalea and the Orfalea Family Foundation provided the seed money for the Orfalea Center at UCSB and the university's novel graduate program in global and international studies. Both the center and the graduate program are focused on the preparation of professionals to work in the global non-profit sector as well as in international government and multinational business. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales for the October 13 event will go to support the center and the M.A. program.

"The Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies provides an opportunity to impact management practices internationally," said Natalie Orfalea, chairperson of the Orfalea Fund and the Orfalea Family Foundation. "The growing collaborative efforts among business, government, and non-profit organizations in strategic planning, communication, and the execution of global policies offer much hope for affecting change in our world community."

UCSB's Orfalea Center and the M.A. program in global and international studies are dedicated to exploring issues related to global civil society, with a special emphasis on the role of non-governmental, non-profit service organizations. The center sponsors conferences, seminars, and research projects. The master's program offers a two-year curriculum, aimed at global leadership. The first M.A. class enrolled this fall with 18 students, several of them from other countries, including Canada, China, Iran, Serbia, and Trinidad and Tobago. An internship abroad is one of the program's requirements.

More information about Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara and the Orfalea Center is available on the Web: http://www.global.ucsb.edu/