Your journey to make the world a better place starts here

At Global Development, we don’t sit still. Here our students engage with real-world issues at home and abroad to deliver lasting social benefit to all. We connect science to the needs of people to improve lives, reduce inequality, protect the environment, and actually change the world for the better.

Undergraduate Majors and Minors

Leaf in the shade

Global Development

Major and minor

The Global Development major responds to the need for innovative and critical thinking on the concept and practice of development. It prepares students to interpret problems, clarify solutions, develop leadership and foster positive social change. Students receive comprehensive training in the key ideas, issues, and debates central to global development. All students take a breadth of interdisciplinary coursework in development scholarship and practice and gain depth in a concentration of their choice, selecting from social and economic development, agriculture and food systems or environment and development.

Community Food Systems

Minor

Education

Minor

Leadership

Minor

  • Identify and grow your strengths with Cornell's Leadership minor, which is available to all students across the university. The minor empowers students to be more actively engaged, reflective and effective citizens with a deeper understanding of the complexities, dynamics and interdependencies of life. 
  • Learn more about the Leadership minor

Development Sociology

Major

International Agriculture and Rural Development

Major

Video spotlight

Meet Eli Newell ‘24, an undergraduate in global development who seeks to boost environmental health by using a key ingredient that is readily available – urine. Under the mentorship of Rebecca Nelson, Eli's work revolves around a growing field of research: circular bionutrient economy. With research partners from New York to Kenya, this work seeks to recycle nutrients from human and agricultural waste into fertilizer, which ultimately reduces pollution, improves sanitation, and promotes food security.

Students in the field

Learn how students in Global Development stepped out of the classroom to engage with communities.

Field Note

Lauren Chuhta ’26: Fostering connection at the forefront of global change
Meet Lauren Chuhta ’26, a double major in Global Development and Communication at Cornell CALS. Before coming to Cornell, Lauren explored local and global food security challenges through experiences with FFA and the World Food Prize Foundation...
  • Department of Communication
  • Department of Global Development
  • Communication
Three individuals on a farm

News

  • Department of Global Development
  • Global Development
Group tour on Costa Rican farm

News

A new undergraduate minor in global development at Cornell will enhance students’ global perspective and ability to contribute to equitable solutions for the most urgent challenges facing people and the planet. Starting in fall 2024, the minor...
  • Department of Global Development
  • Agriculture
  • Applied Economics
Four students seated in the Daniel G. Sisler Global Development Student Hub

News

The hub honors Daniel G. Sisler, Ph.D. ’62, who was an inspiring teacher, beloved mentor and world-renowned hunger fighter who touched the lives of over 12,000 students during his 34-year career in Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life...
  • Department of Global Development
  • Global Development
Student organizes buckets

Field Note

As a Laidlaw scholar , Jensen Njagi ’25 spent the summer doing community-based translational research in his home country of Kenya. As a Global Development major, Jensen is driven by a purpose to improve community health while considering the...
  • Department of Global Development
  • Agriculture
  • Environment

Faculty-led study trips

Where are they now?

Learn more about where a Global Development education can take you.

Ben Fields graduation
Ben Fields '20
Hannah Fuller holds produce at the grocery store on campus
Hannah Fuller '19
A headshot of Alexander King
Alexander King '15
A female in a blue shirt and blazer with brown hair and glasses standing in front of a pine tree
Connie Potter '16
Anastashia Alfred at Oracle
A woman in a red jacket smiles as she is photographed in front of water
Keelin Kelly '20

Contact Us

John Sipple headshot
John Sipple

Professor

Department of Global Development

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Department of Global Development

John Sipple
Pk-12 education
Sociology of communities
Policy
Lynn Morris headshot
Lynn Morris

Undergraduate Program Coordinator

Department of Global Development

Lynn Morris
Heidi Mouillesseaux-Kunzman headshot
Heidi Mouillesseaux-Kunzman

Senior Extension Associate

Department of Global Development

Director, Education Minor

Department of Global Development

Heidi Mouillesseaux-Kunzman
Community development
Civic engagement
Engaged learning and research