The Globalization of Self
Welcome to Globeself: Your portal to becoming a global citizen. Our company name, Globeself, derives from the concept of globalizing yourself. To globalize yourself does not merely mean that you learn how to speak the English language, or that you live outside of your country. To globalize yourself means to develop a global perspective, so that you can think, behave and interact on a global level.
The value of a global perspective:
1. Discover your potentials by broadening your perspective and thinking outside of your cultural confines.
When you think about your future path, what limitations might you be putting on yourself? Is your imagination of what’s possible limited by factors such as geography, social values or other people’s expectations — by your own narrow horizons? Once you broaden your horizons you will be surprised to discover a whole new range of paths expanding in front of you, and will thus be able to find the one that excites your passion. As you meet people from around the world and learn about different cultures, customs and ways of thinking, you can break free of your limitations and begin to see the endless possibilities in front of you. Through your newfound global perspective you will discover new paths and realize potentials you never knew you had.
2. Become a global citizen who can take actions in a global society
When you globalize yourself, you become connected to a larger community: the global community. We live in a global world where the problems we face are no longer just national, or local problems — they are global problems. We are all in this together, and when you globalize yourself, you gain the perspective, knowledge and power to affect positive change in the world.
While it is good to learn from media and books, it is also imperative to see what is out there with your own eyes, feel it with your own heart; to experience the wider world first-hand. That enables you to have both an emotional and intellectual response to global issues, and to express genuine concern, and affection, for people all over the world.
Globeself works to help people realize this globalization of self by providing opportunities to gain valuable experiences, to develop useful skills and to broaden your global perspective.
Message from the Founder
Twice in my early life I experienced moments when my horizons expanded. The first time was when I was 15 and I moved to Germany with my family. I was born and raised in Tokyo, and went to an all-girls elementary and middle school, where all the students pretty much thought and behaved alike. But when I relocated to Germany, I suddenly found myself attending an international school, which was full of students from all over the globe. For someone like me — who was accustomed to the predicability of a homogenous culture — life at the international school was a shocking experience. The school was very different from the school I had known in every aspect: from the color of students’ skin and hair, to the way the classes were conducted and the relationship between the teachers and students. The fact that people who spoke different languages were chatting together as friends in the cafeteria was even surreal for me. I had never realized until that moment that I had been living in such a small bubble.
The second experience that broadened my horizons occurred when I was 17 years old. I went to Tanzania to volunteer as an assistant teacher for a month. While staying with local students in a small village, I realized everything that I had taken for granted in my life — such as clean water coming out of the tap, food I could eat whenever I was hungry, blankets I could cover myself with whenever I was cold — were considered luxuries in some parts of the world, if they were even available at all. This was a big eye-opener for me. I felt ashamed that I didn’t know anything about the lives of these wonderful people, and thus I felt destined to come back and work with them in the future. This led me to study International Development in college and to pursue my career as a humanitarian worker.
To get out of your comfort zone and broaden your horizons requires commitment, faith and a lot of energy. But it also enriches your life immeasurably by expanding your perspectives and your potentials; by nourishing your emotions and your imagination. And this broadens your capacity to understand and respect people with varying backgrounds from all over the world.
Life is too short to live inside your comfortable borders. I expanded my borders, and now I’d like to help you expand yours. Globalize yourself and enjoy your unlimited possibilities!
Junko Mabuchi
馬渕純子
Founder
Junko Mabuchi has extensive and unique field experience working for international development NGOs, such as ADRA Japan. She has worked in remote places such as Pagak, a small war-torn village at the border of South Sudan and Ethiopia. After the giant 2004 Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami, she did relief work in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a tropical archipelago of 572 islands in the Indian Ocean. In 2008 she joined UNICEF and served to improve the education system in South Africa. After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, she worked in Fukushima to provide a life-skills based education to high school students who were forced to relocate due to the nuclear power plant explosion. She currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland, with her husband and 3 children.
Junko Mabuchi holds a BA in Development Studies from UCLA and a Masters in International Education Policy from the Harvard Education School.