This certificate is a professional development opportunity for IU employees seeking to expand their understanding of the complexities of intercultural communication and collaboration.
Intercultural Competence Certificate
Spring 2025
Training sessions are free and open to employees (faculty, staff, and graduate students) across all IU campuses.
This program will foster personal and professional growth through interactive, in-depth conversations around culture and identity and the impact they have on our work, whether in our interactions with students, colleagues, or the IU community at large.
With an array of courses available, this certificate can be catered to your work responsibilities and/or personal interests and will require less than 10 hours of your time over the semester. Each course is taught by IU staff members professionally trained in intercultural competency.
Curriculum
All courses will include an applicability component. Sessions will be a mix of virtual events and reading assignments that can be completed on your own. Feel free to attend a smaller number of sessions without obtaining a certificate.
Complete 4 sessions to earn the certificate.
- Complete at least one session from each category listed below.
- You can also attend an intercultural event and submit a short impact paragraph (writing prompts provided) in lieu of one session.
Session categories
Knowledge
1 Required
- Foundations of Intercultural Understanding+
- Core Culture Values
- The International Student Experience
Attitude
1 Required
- Attend a cultural event
- Cultivating Cultural Curiosity
- Cultural Humility
- Identity Across Cultures
Skills
1 Required
- Say My Name, Build My Sense of Belonging
- Email Communication Styles Across Cultures
- Exploring International Inclusion in the Classroom
- Building Successful Intercultural Teams
+ Available only as an asynchronous course on Canvas.
Recommended Canvas course
This course is completely lecture-based and sets the three key concepts used to frame the Intercultural Competence Certificate (ICC). To make it more accessible to all, we are presenting it in 4 ten-minute modules on Canvas, where you can watch it at your leisure, and reference it throughout your training and beyond. Credit for watching all four of these sessions will be applied towards the Knowledge portion of the ICC. We highly recommend that you watch either this session or attend the Core Culture Values and Culture Mapping session before delving too far into the rest of the certificate program.
Course description:
We will introduce and explore three key concepts that frame much of intercultural study. Once this framework is in place, participants will begin to grasp more clearly the “why” of behavior and move into understanding and adaptation.
Objectives are to help participants:
- Understand basic cultural precepts.
- Look at their own interactions through a cultural lens.
- Begin to apply this new awareness in their work and personal environment
(This session has been developed by the OIS Intercultural Task Force.)
Upcoming training sessions
There are no events at this time.
Please note: Sessions are NOT recorded to allow open exchange and because engaging and participating in the discussions is an important component of the certificate. The course is currently exploring providing supplemental courses in specific cultures (for example, Deaf and Hard of Hearing culture in the United States, or Chinese language pronunciation). While these courses will not currently apply towards completion of the Certificate, they will be included as a part of this events feed.
Cultural events at IU
Visit IU Bloomington's and IU Indianapolis' international offices to find global events being planned by students and departments. Any event that provides exposure to a culture (domestic or international) will satisfy the Attitude component.
Contact
Rendy Schrader, Director of Student and Scholar Advising, is available to answer any questions.
Disclaimer: We risk alienating populations if we insist that they all have the traits of a particular group, without regard for their individual experiences and identities. At the same time, having knowledge of a cultural group can help us interact more appropriately with our constituents. Please use intercultural competence resources appropriately.
