"Professor Arntson's team building exercises and classes about group dynamics were invaluable. They gave our team the same vocabulary and tools to mediate conflicts and make decisions while abroad and helped us understand each other's motivations."
- Catherine Wu
"I will always treasure my home-stay experience. I became very close with my siblings and loved having a large family. I learned that wherever you are, a family is a family and life is lived day to day."
- Ellen Abrams
"My home-stay was one of the best aspects of my summer. I could not wait to get home after work. My sisters taught me so much about Ugandan culture as well as life in general. We have grown up on different sides of the world but we may as well as lived next door."
- Chelsea Christman
"I learned how compassionate people can be who have just met you and the wonderful hospitality and family culture that exists in India."
- Asha Toulmin
"Our NGO let us work independently, but took co-ownership of our project, which was comforting as we were creating a proposal for them and we required input and feedback to know that our work had a purpose."
- Elizabeth Montgomery
"Being at our NGO was the single best part of the trip. I loved the community, and I loved the people there. It is an amazing NGO that does amazing things. The challenges we faced taught us to overcome obstacles."
- Alex Grubman
"The FSD site team was incredible. I've never worked with such capable, caring, fun people. They made me feel so at home and safe and also really supported us with our NGO."
- Asha Toulmin
"The FSD site team was fantastic. They helped us with everything we needed from managing tough NGO relationships to making sure our project plans were really attempting to achieve sustainable development."
- Claire Olszewski
"I could not have imagined a better set of teammates. They were all extremely committed and brought all they knew to the table."
- Chelsea Christman
"I am very impressed by the commitment and intelligence of the fellow students in GESI. I definitely learned much from them."
- XinKai Cheng
"The diversity of our group made us effective -- while others preferred to work on logistical, behind-the-scenes stuff; some were outspoken, others were more contemplative; some were better planners, some were better at actuating ideas on paper."
- Abby Hannifan
"To succeed in this program you have to be willing to set aside your expectations. This applies both to the outcomes of your project, as well as the expectations of what daily life will consist of."
- Elizabeth Montgomery
"This program gave new meaning to hands on learning. The background at the institute on development was great, and a week later you were on site attempting to implement what you had learned, and in the process learning far more than you could imagine."
- Rachel Suffrin
"It is unique that GESI students do not have a predetermined project before arriving in country. Although this can lead to certain challenges, I was grateful for this approach."
- Ellen Abrams
"The most unique thing was the amount of exposure we got to the community. I felt like I was a part of it and not just observing it."
- Bryan Stenson
"This experience was absolutely applicable to my personal, professional, academic goals, especially when it comes to approaching development with a realistic perception of how it works on the ground."
- Elizabeth Montgomery
"The experience has given me a new perspective on everything from washing the dishes to how to address world hunger... I will be returning to the lessons I learned on this trip decades from now."
- Alexis Suskin-Sperry
"GESI has helped me mature as a team member and a prospective development worker."
- C.A.

Professors

GESI professors guide the curriculum for the pre-departure training and final summit, acting as important resources to students before, during, and after their on-the-ground experience. These professors are committed to service learning and student reflection opportunities.

Paul Arntson
paul Paul Arntson received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in Communication Arts with a minor in Educational Psychology. He joined the Communication Studies Department in 1974 and was the chair for six years. He is on the faculty of the Asset Based Community Development Institute at the Institute for Policy Research and a Fellow at the Center for Communication and Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He is a member of the General Faculty Committee and was elected to serve as its chair.

Professor Arntson has conducted research and training programs in British, Australian, and American primary care contexts, with self help groups, and with neighborhood associations in order to improve citizens’ decision making competencies concerning their health and the well-being of their communities.

His research icludes understanding how pediatric cancer survivors and their parents communicate bout their cancer experiences, investigating how to improve communication between primary care providers and deaf patients, evaluating community living options for adults with disabilities, and documenting how community based organizations contribute to the well-being of their neighborhoods . He is also part of an NIH grant studying how families can make informd decisions concerning fertility options when their daughters are diagnosed with having cancer.

Professor Arntson teaches leadership and decision-making courses at the undergraduate level, at the graduate level in the Masters of Manufacturing Management program, in the Managerial Communication Masters program, and in the Ph.D. program. Through a Ford Foundation Grant on Difficult Dialogues he developed and hosts a first year seminar on how to discuss issues of identity, diversity, and religion. He previously held the Van Zelt Chair in Communication Research and the first Alumnae of Northwestern Teaching Professorship.

Professor Arntson was the founder and then director of Northwestern University’s Undergraduate Leadership Program for 12 years. He is also the founding coordinator of Northwestern University’s Public Interest Program that places graduating seniors in public interest fellowships each year. He teaches in the Certificate for Service Learning Program and co-directs the capstone community projects. He also teaches in the Center for Global Engagement and works with groups of students in Africa, India, and Argentina each summer. He recently helped establish the Center for Civic Engagement at Northwestern University.

He has lived in Evanston for the past 35 years with his wife Martha, who is the director of the Childcare Network of Evanston. Professor Arntson works with leadership and community engagement organizations in Evanston, Chicago, and around the world.

John (Jody) Kretzmann
John Kretzmann (Jody) is Co-Director of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute, a research project of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. ABCD Institute works with community building leaders across North America as well as five other continents to conduct research, produce materials and otherwise support community-based efforts to rediscover local capacities and to mobilize citizens’ resources to solve problems. The Institute continues to build on the stories and methods about successful community building reported in the popular book, Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets (1993, with John L. McKnight.)

A much-traveled speaker and trainer, Kretzmann brings more than thirty years of community experience and study to his current position. He was a founding faculty member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Urban Studies Program in 1969, and served as director of that institution for six years. He has been a community organizer in Chicago’s West Side, and served as a consultant to a wide range of neighborhood organizing and development groups. In addition to the ACM Program, he has taught at Northwestern University, Valparaiso University and the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.

Kretzmann has worked to develop community-oriented public policy at the national, state and local levels. In Chicago, he served as chair of the Neighborhood Planning Committee for Mayor Harold Washington, and was an active policy consultant through Washington’s four and a half years in office. He serves on a wide range of civic, community, and foundation boards.

Kretzmann’s educational background includes a B.A. from Princeton University (Magna Cum Laude); a M.A. in English Literature from the University of Virginia; and a Ph.D in Sociology and Urban Affairs from Northwestern University.
He is married to Ingrid Christiansen. They have two children, Marcus and Katie.