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Human Needs and Global Resources

Learning to accompany communities worldwide toward justice and fullness of life

Art, Activism, and the Prophetic Imagination

2024 Fall Symposium in Human Needs and Global Resources

How might we, as followers of Jesus, boldly confront injustice in the communities we inhabit and in the wider world to which we belong? And how might we work to imagine and create communities where all experience God’s peace, justice, and love? The Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR) program, the Office of Multicultural Development (OMD), and Intercultural Arts and Media (ICAM) will host a Fall 2024 Symposium (September 30-October 4) to explore these questions through public lectures, poetry workshops, and storytelling events.

Symposium Events

The HNGR Podcast

Welcome to our podcast where we reflect and learn together to accompany communities worldwide toward justice and fullness of life.

Listen to the HNGR podcast

Practicing Proximity: Human Needs and Global Resources Partner Responses During COVID-19

Interns on the Field

HNGR is an academic certificate program that integrates multidisciplinary coursework, a six-month internship, field-based research, and whole-person formation through experiential learning.

Agriculture in Nicaragua

Kelly Wilson (Environmental Science, '16) interned with Fundacion San Lucas, exploring themes of water resource management, sustainable agriculture, and community engagement.

Clinical and Public Health

Laura Pax (Biology, '17) interned with a palliative care program that cares for individuals dying of HIV/AIDS.

Street Vending Economics

Janice Leung (International Relations, '15), interning with La'o Hamutuk, conducted research on the efficacy of street-vending and the informal economy.

Education in Zambia

Hayley Rost (Elementary Education, '17), interning with Partners for Life Advancement and Education Promotion (PLAEP), worked in Musonda Community School.

Theology in Indonesia

Collin Flake (Philosophy/Biblical and Theological Studies, ’17) accompanied PeaceGeneration, an organization that seeks to build peace between Christians and Muslims throughout Indonesia and SE Asia.

Law in Cambodia

Basye Peek (Anthropology/Pre-Law, ’17) worked with Hagar International, assisting the legal support team that seeks justice for victims of trafficking.

Christian Camping in India

Abrahm Duarte (Christian Education, ’17) spent six months interning with The Fishermen Trust, a Christian camping and leadership development organization in south India.

Mental Health in the Philippines

Abby Beck (Psychology, ’17) interned with Samaritana Transformation Ministries, researching dance and body-movement therapy as mediums of processing trauma.

Gender and Violence in Ecuador

Jonah Karls (International Relations, ’17) worked with Paz y Esperanza, researching the role that Latino masculinity has in effecting gender violence.

John Stott Endowment Initiatives

Provides an opportunity for College departments to nominate and host individuals directly involved in addressing the wide array of human needs to spend 1-4 months during the academic year (August-May) at Wheaton College, for the purpose of interacting with the campus community in both formal and informal ways over the course of her or his stay. Past recipients include Rev. Dr. D. Zac Niringiye. Use the link below to view a video of Dr. Niringiye's chapel message.

Learn More about these Initiatives

Supports faculty research and creative projects on core themes of poverty/wealth, injustice, violence/peace, human dignity, environmental impacts of human activities, and flourishing of the earth and its inhabitants.

Impacts the Wheaton campus long-term by investing deeply in faculty development through a significant international engagement with core themes and the partnership-based approach of the Human Needs and Global Resources Program.

David Kasali speaking at 2017 HNGR Symposium

Symposium in Human Needs and Global Resources

Since 2005, and with the generous support of the John Deere Foundation, the annual Symposium convenes approximately three hundred guests each year, including Wheaton College students and faculty, researchers, religious leaders, social activists, and global health practitioners to recognize and celebrate the work of leaders from across the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America to confront injustice and pursue human and environmental flourishing.

- 2018: For the Healing of the Nations: Global Health and the Environment

- 2017: A Child Shall Lead Them: Youth and Transformation

- 2016: A Well-Watered Garden: Cultivating Hope and Transformation

Join us for the Spring 2019 Symposium, to be held on 21-23 March 2019, and save the date for a special Fall 2019 Symposium in honor of John Stott on 6-8 October 2019. Check back here for further information.

Learn More About the Symposium

Meet the Team

Led by Laura S. Meitzner Yoder, Ph.D., our six-person staff seeks to be a warm and welcoming community for students, staff, and faculty at Wheaton College and for our friends from around the world.