Student Programs

Global Scholar Diploma: Micro Credentials for 

High School Students

The world is complex. Understanding it is one of the most valuable things you can develop as a young person. World Tree Global's Global Scholar Diploma is a series of micro-credential courses designed for high school students who are ready to go deeper on the issues that shape our world.

Each course is self-contained, five modules long, and takes approximately 10–12 hours to complete — making it flexible enough to fit alongside your existing commitments. Whether you're pursuing a Global Scholar distinction at your school or simply following your curiosity, these courses will challenge you to think critically, engage across difference, and produce real work you're proud of.

Students who complete a course, including the final project, receive an official World Tree Global certificate of completion. 

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Global Citizenship & Peacebuilding: Connecting Local Action with Global Impact

What does it actually mean to be a "global citizen" — and what can you do about it? This course moves beyond the buzzword to explore how peace, justice, and civic action are deeply connected across borders. You'll examine real peacebuilding efforts around the world, investigate how local decisions ripple into global consequences, and develop your own voice as someone who can make a difference. Through creative projects, cross-cultural dialogue, and a personal action plan, you'll leave with a clearer sense of who you are in the world — and what you want to do about it.

You'll learn to: analyze global systems through a local lens, understand the roots of conflict and the conditions for peace, and design a realistic civic action project rooted in your own community.

What’s Really Going On? A Student’s Guide to Global Current Events.

The news is loud, fast, and often confusing — and most of it wasn't designed with you in mind. This course teaches you how to actually understand what's happening in the world: where to look, what to question, and how to think critically about the stories being told (and the ones being left out). Using real current events as your material, you'll dig beneath headlines, compare coverage across countries, and build the kind of media literacy that will serve you for life.

You'll learn to: evaluate sources across cultural and national contexts, analyze the gap between events and how they're reported, and form well-reasoned opinions on complex global issues.

Travel with Purpose: How to Prepare For — and Learn From — Your Time Abroad 

Travel can change you — but only if you let it. This course is for students who have a trip coming up, or who want to travel more meaningfully in the future. You'll explore the history and culture of the places you're visiting, examine your own assumptions and biases before you go, and develop the reflection skills that turn a trip into a genuine learning experience. Whether it's a school exchange, a family trip, or a service journey, this course helps you show up with curiosity, respect, and intention.

You'll learn to: research and contextualize an unfamiliar place and culture, recognize and examine your own cultural perspective, and document and reflect on your travel experience in a meaningful way.

Talk It Out: Building Skills for Cross-Cultural Conversations 

Some of the most important conversations you'll ever have will be with people who see the world very differently from you. This course gives you the tools to have those conversations well — with curiosity instead of defensiveness, and with confidence instead of avoidance. Through role-play, real dialogue practice, and case studies drawn from global contexts, you'll explore why cross-cultural misunderstandings happen, how to listen across difference, and what it takes to find common ground without erasing it.

You'll learn to: identify the cultural assumptions shaping your communication style, practice active listening and perspective-taking in difficult conversations, and navigate disagreement respectfully and productively.