Top 10 most globally minded colleges

Instead of focusing on faculty research contribution, we highlight global citizenship, as measured by US News & World Report's ranking of student participation in study abroad programs. 

2. Soka University of America

Courtesy of Soka University of America
Juniors at Soka University of America participate in a study abroad program included in their tuition cost.

Founded in 1987, Soka University of America is part of a larger coalition of Soka schools including kindergartens and the flagship Soka University of Japan.

Located in Orange County, Calif., Soka University of America mandates that juniors participate in a study abroad program in a country that speaks the non-native language they've been studying. In addition, Soka teaches classes in single-subject, three-and-a-half week blocks, as opposed to the semester or quarter systems of most US colleges. 

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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