Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR)

Founded at Wheaton College in 1976, Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR) is an interdisciplinary certificate program that equips students to confront the multiple challenges faced by peoples and nations of the Global South. Comprising substantial portions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, these regions face overwhelming challenges, including poverty, hunger, exclusion, underdevelopment, conflict, injustice, ecological disasters, and major health concerns. At the same time, these regions are endowed with substantial human and natural resources which are their hope and future.

In partnership with host organizations worldwide, HNGR combines classroom study with field-based service-learning internships in which students participate in transformational initiatives that enable people to live whole, secure, and productive lives. HNGR aims to promote in students a commitment to confronting human needs through their lifestyle and vocational decisions. Since the Program's inception, more than 600 students have participated in HNGR internships in 63 countries worldwide.

The HNGR internship is a six-month service-learning internship in the Global South and is at the heart of the HNGR experience. The internship contains three essential elements: cross-cultural experience to broaden the vision of the world through immersion in the host culture; service in order to gain experience in development work by volunteering in projects that further a host organization's work and mission; and, an academic project that engages intellectually with global challenges, and integrate the student's major into the internship experience.