Today’s global economy links us all in deep and important ways. Thanks to instant, inexpensive digital communication, local events can and do have immediate and far-reaching worldwide impacts.

At the University of Utah, we believe passionately in building a connected world, one where students from Utah, from across the country and from around the planet learn and work together, enriching their educational experiences and building cultural awareness and mutual respect for the benefit of all.

Our multicultural society thrives when we embrace and understand different perspectives—and when we recognize that in diversity is strength.

The U strives to provide opportunities for students and faculty to engage in transformative international partnerships, teaching, research, study and service opportunities that promote intercultural competence and understanding in a 21^st century world. Among other global partnerships, the U is a founding member of the Incheon Global Campus in South Korea. Each year, the U also hosts study abroad programs for thousands of students and welcomes hundreds of international visitors and students to campus. At the U, we are proud to be a welcoming and nurturing place for students of all backgrounds to study, work and learn from one another.

Over 50 years ago, astronaut William Anders snapped an iconic photograph of the Earth—a vibrant blue object with swirling clouds—against the blackness of space and above the gray and lifeless moon. Known colloquially as Earthrise, this photograph of our shared home was taken during a time of great social turbulence and uncertainty. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy had just been assassinated; antiwar protests convulsed the nation; the Prague Spring tantalized, then dashed, hopes that the Cold War might end. At the same time, there was a glimmer of progress: the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, banned housing discrimination based on race, religion or national origin.

Fifty years later, Earthrise still reminds us that we are all passengers in the fragile lifeboat that is planet Earth, bound together by our collective humanity. It is a small place, one with a future that will be shaped by the aspirations and dreams of the world’s children.

Utah. We imagine a global world. Then do, building a shared future. For all of us.