Beginning in March of 2017 the Middle East Studies Center began to award the "Global Community Building" badge. Students who earn this badge have communicated effectively with peers at a foreign institution about daily life in two cities, Columbus and the city of the other institution. Their peers have gained a better understanding of what daily life is like in Columbus, and they can now teach fellow Americans about the reality on the ground in Istanbul. They have built enough trust with their Turkish peers to have learned their perspectives on global issues affecting us all, including discussions of historic causes for these issues and how they impact the two cities differently.