UNC’s Center for International Understanding has partnered with SAS to develop a new tool to better understand the state’s “global” footprint.
Leoneda Inge: The Global North Carolina Heat Map is believed to be the first of its kind. Adam Hartzell is executive director of The Center for International Understanding. He says the idea is to find out how global we really are.
Adam Hartzell: It puts together a unique blend of factors. One is demographic measures, economic measures as well as education measures. And one of the really neat things it does is it breaks it down on a county-by-county level.
For example, you can click on a county and find out how many residents are foreign born or how many foreign-owned companies are in a particular county.
Hartzell says he can see the global information being used for economic development or for enhancing k-12 foreign language offerings.