GVI: Online Study Abroad Courses

I participated in 8 weeks of the Virtual Wildlife Conservation Internship Program as part of my career internship with GVI. I was partnered with two amazing organizations, one was from Southeast Asia and the other was from California. They both do great conservation work and without this internship I wouldn't have been able to do work with them. I got to do research and learn about primates and reptiles, which I haven't had the opportunity to do before. And by completing my two projects I felt like I got to really contribute to wildlife conservation efforts, and since it was virtual, I got to do it from the comfort of my own home.

I took an online course ‘Wildlife Conservation’ and I’m super happy about it. It gave me the opportunity to understand what Conservation is as a process. It was really useful to read and watch real examples of conservation work (based on studies and projects).
The final assessment wasn’t that hard as I imagined and I passed it with a good mark.
This course is recommended for everyone who is interested in work with Nature and Animals.
I’d also like to mention that I had a wonderful support manager Tami. She was so helpful and always was in touch when I needed her guidance/help.

As the 2nd place winner of the 2021 Gap Years Fair Scholarship by Go Overseas, I decided to use the $5,000 scholarship to enroll in the online course "Foundations in Sustainable Entreprenuership" (along with funding my first year in business as a Global Education DEI Specialist and Content Creator and investing in equipment to expand my content creation).

The course was so awesome and was made up of four other courses:

- GVI Careers in Sustainable Development:

where I learned the basics about choosing a career path that aligns with my values and mission, along with personal branding & marketing

- GVI Impact Measurement:

where I learned about the importance of measuring social and environmental impact in business and the theories behind how to measure that impact

- GVI Leading Teams for Impact:

where I learned about how to implement impact measurement in a team setting and the tools needed to keep teams on their toes on measuring impact

- GVI Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing:

where I learned about the behavioral science behind social entrepreneurs, creating impact, and how to find investors who are aligned with your mission to invest in your business or organization

I gained so much from all of these courses as an entrepreneur in my first year in business and know that I will carry the lessons and tools I learned from these courses with me for life.

Also, I took these courses virtually, amidst the pandemic, and got contracted covid myself while I was taking the courses. Luckily for me, I had an amazing support team from GVI who helped me along the way - thank you Tami!

I've always had a strong desire to be involved in the conservation of our earth, its fauna and flora. The problem is that when you have a full-time job completely outside of this area (I work in the hotel industry), you often don't have much space to be as involved as you'd like. So when the Coronavirus crisis started, I saw an incredible opportunity to be able to get involved in the cause again, following the volunteering I had done with GVI in 2014. I quickly visited GVI's website and saw that they offered online courses for anyone who wanted to learn a little more, in conservation, for my part.
I decided to sign up for the Foundations in Sustainable Development - Conservation course. What I loved was the fact that you could progress at your own pace, with live lectures from time to time (which you can watch later). The courses were very interesting, I feel like I've added to my knowledge, not only in terms of conservation, but also for my daily life. Having been promoted to the position of manager at my work, I was pleased to see that the leadership course gave me a solid foundation to take on these new challenges with less fear and more confidence. I gained knowledge and tips that I use daily in my work. Also, having said that I was not a native French speaker, all the instructors were extremely kind to me, spoke at a pace that suited me perfectly and I felt totally confident to tell if I didn't understand something.
I know that in a few years I would like to change my career to work in conservation and having taken these courses has reinforced this idea, because I felt the involvement of all the participants, the instructors, the workers of GVI and it gives a kind of positive synergy that is hard to ignore.

I’ve just completed the Advanced Wildlife Conservation online learning programme through GVI. This programme consists of 6 courses – Wildlife Conservation, Conservation Science & Research, Climate Crisis & Sustainability, Impact Measurement, Leading Teams for Impact and Careers in Sustainable Development. I loved the flexibility of the programme and being able to work this around my day job. The course material was relevant, topical and inspiring. The online learning platform was simple to navigate. And GVI support was outstanding throughout the process, as always. I have now signed up for a GVI Wildlife Conservation Internship next year and I can’t wait to get into the field and put what I’ve learned through this programme into practice! Highly recommend.

Absolutely loved this course!

You are introduced to the concepts of human-centred design, behavioural science, systems innovation, social entrepreneurship and impact investing through 5 manageable modules which feature engaging case studies, optional in-depth study options, additional resources and weekly discussions.

I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how social entrepreneurs and enterprises are driving social and environmental change and how they're finding innovative solutions to the world most pressing problems. You'll find the course content truly insightful and engaging.

I did the GVI online wildlife internship program and it was so rewarding and educational! Not only was I provided with classes to learn from, but I was also given a project to create which is now going to be used by GVI and other students for further research purposes! They give you a project in your area so I was able to work with an animal that I had never previously heard of which was really cool. Knowing nothing to being an expert on a topic if very rewarding. If the online internship was this amazing, I can't wait until I can do an in-country internship!!

I qualified in Environmental Science about 25 years ago. These well-put-together courses have given me insight into what is happening in this field currently while at same time empowering me to apply what I’ve learned practically in my social entrepreneurship work. As a wanderer grounded by Covid-19, these online courses have been a brilliant way to stay engaged with the world and motivated to plan for when the world opens to travel once again! There is depth and substance here. Highly recommend for your sustainable development journey.