A Global Mindset
A guide to being a responsible, and well-received, world traveler

—Courtesy of Business for Diplomatic Action and Southern Methodist University

Stick out your tongue in Tibet and make friends, but don’t wave like an American in Greece or you’ll insult people.

Just some of the advice in the World Citizens Guide for young Americans published by Business for Diplomatic Action (www.businessfordiplomaticaction.org) and Southern Methodist University. Created by students for students, its goal is simple: to sensitize, empower, and engage young Americans to the notion of global citizenship.

In 2006, American college students studied abroad in greater numbers than ever before. Recent polls and other events suggest many of them will face skeptical receptions if not for their nationality, then for their own lack of cultural understanding:

•The Pew Global Attitudes Project surveyed 16,000 people worldwide in February and found that America’s image has taken a sharp drop since last year.

•In June, the Forum on Education Abroad, an association of more than 200 colleges and universities, urged schools to adopt new standards for study abroad students, according to The New York Times.

More than 100,000 copies of the guide have been distributed to students studying abroad, and a second edition will be in production this spring. Business for Diplomatic Action is a non-profit organization that formed to help reduce anti-American sentiment abroad. It includes leading professionals from the fields of global communications, marketing, research, and media and is committed to mobilizing and harnessing the private sector in public diplomacy efforts.

“American college students are a ready-made diplomatic corps to help change perceptions overseas. This generation also has more at stake in a world where respect is eroding for the values of our nation,” said Keith Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide, who spearheads BDA as its president World Citizens Guide is not a travel guide. It does not include advice on currency exchanges, hotels, and restaurants. This mini-book, designed to fit in travel gear, is full of information and insights culled from a worldwide listening exercise BDA and DDB embarked on in 2003. Much of the content for the book came from foreign nationals working in 130 DDB offices worldwide. Reinhard asked them, “If you could advise Americans on what they could do to be better global citizens and to reduce resentment towards them, what would you say?”

From these responses, five students, Lisa B. Coe, Ben Lipsett, Meredith Matthews, Meredith McKee, and Katie Springfield, under the tutelage of SMU’s Temerlin Advertising Institute Director Patricia Alvey, Ph.D., wrote the copy and designed the guide. Each chapter poses a series of questions so students will understand how the rest of the world lives and thinks.

“In researching this book, we discovered lots of organizations provide students with good travel information, and every publication says to ‘be nice.’ But that message is often buried at the end of everything else,” Alvey said. “Our book turns that approach on its head, steps right into the critical conversation, and empowers students to enjoy their new environments by embracing the culture and the customs of the country—all the while remembering that they are guests in someone else’s home.”

A major sponsor of the guide, PepsiCo underwrote the first 200,000 printed. “It’s only natural that we support American students in their quest for knowledge about new and different cultures, and equip them with tips to help them succeed,” says Steve Reinemund, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo.

To date, the guide has been distributed in partnership with NAFSA: Association of International Educators to its 2,500 members in the field of study abroad and through Student Travel Abroad (STA).

“We are excited to be partnering with Business for Diplomatic Action and SMU ... Its emphasis on cultural sensitivity, awareness, and listening are important lessons for all of us, and it will be a valuable addition to students’ toolboxes as they prepare to live and study abroad,” said NAFSA Executive Director and CEO Marlene Johnson.

An abridged version of World Citizens Guide is available at www.worldcitizensguide.org.