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Hamilton Lugar School of
Global and International Studies
Indiana University Bloomington
Experiential Learning

Global Competencies

A series of free, two-hour sessions where practitioners teach the skills international work actually runs on: negotiating, briefing, and writing under pressure. Open to anyone, with no course to enroll in and nothing to apply for.

See upcoming sessions

What it is

The Global Competencies Series closes the gap between reading about international work and doing it. The series includes hands-on practitioner modules built around the hard and soft skills used daily by diplomats, intelligence analysts, policy advocates, journalists and global executives.

Sessions run about two hours and you spend them working. You might be negotiating access for a humanitarian convoy, handling a crisis that changes while you are in it, or writing an executive memo that is due before the session ends.

  •  
    2 hours
    How long a simulation runs
  •  
    3–5
    Activities to earn the Momentum badge
  •  
    8
    Career competencies employers screen for

Based on 2026 data

Who you learn from

The series is led by Katherine Ntiamoah, Director of Policy Engagement and Strategic Partnerships. She is an HLS alumna and a former U.S. diplomat with nearly two decades in the foreign service across eleven global assignments, and she brings that tradecraft onto campus rather than describing it.

The people who run the sessions come from where the work happens: former ambassadors and intelligence officers, Fortune 500 executives, nonprofit leaders, White House advisors and tech policy specialists. You meet them in small groups over a catered dinner, not from the back of a lecture hall.

What you walk away with

Every session is free and none of it appears on your transcript. What it does leave you with is evidence.

  • A résumé credential. Complete three to five activities and earn the Momentum Digital Achievement Badge, verified for LinkedIn and your résumé.
  • Practice in the eight career competencies employers screen for: critical thinking, communication, leadership, technology, teamwork, equity and inclusion, professionalism and career development.
  • Time with visiting leaders in small-group career dinners, catered and open to every academic level.
  • Skills you can use on day one rather than after a training period.

What is coming up

Modules, public lectures, practitioner spotlights and career dinners are listed on the school calendar, with RSVP where a place has to be held. Sessions run in the Global and International Studies Building.

See all upcoming sessions

Everyone. Undergraduates, master’s and PhD students, staff, faculty, alumni, parents and the public. Lectures, panels and practitioner spotlights need no course registration and no prerequisite. The simulations and the career dinners are open to every academic level.
Browse what is coming up on the calendar and RSVP for anything that interests you. There is no application, no cost and no order to work through. Come to one, or come to all of them.
Point students to a module as an experiential learning option, or build one into a syllabus through Canvas. To host a visiting leader for a guest lecture in your classroom, coordinate with the series lead. Advisors: the Momentum badge gives advisees something concrete on an internship or job application.

Where to go next