CLEVELAND — Why does international engagement matter? I could give every practical reason why international engagement benefits us in Northeast Ohio: trade and investment reasons; business, policy and medical innovation reasons; cooperation in higher education and on global climate change reasons – arguments that I’ve learned to advance professionally. Except that never, not in a single conversation that I’ve ever had with folks about why they are interested in the rest of the world, has it ever been just about the practical business aspect. It has always been about “something more.”

What is that “something more”? And why does it matter? I think the best way to describe that “something more” is that, in learning about the rest of the world, we learn something different about ourselves. It’s a point of comparison that gives us a different perspective. And that perspective yields benefits for each of us on a personal level that we can’t begin to quantify.