New NAFSA Report Features Eight Award-Winning Campus Internationalization Efforts

Carnegie Mellon University, Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Loyola University Maryland, Northeastern University, University of San Francisco, Borough of Manhattan Community College, La Roche College, and the College of the Atlantic Receive Senator Paul Simon Awards for Campus Internationalization

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the nation prepares to celebrate International Education Week (November 15-19), NAFSA: Association of International Educators released its latest report on the outstanding accomplishments of U.S. higher education institutions in the area of internationalization. 

Internationalizing the Campus 2010: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities showcases efforts across higher education to better prepare students for a global economy and an interconnected world, and takes an in-depth look at the five distinguished recipients of the 2010 Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization: Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania; Hobart & William Smith Colleges in New York; Loyola University Maryland; Northeastern University in Massachusetts; and University of San Francisco in California. A hallmark of these 2010 Simon Award winners is the support and participation of their campus leadership, faculty, visiting scholars, staff, students, and communities in creating an integrated global approach to the curriculum, campus programs, and outreach on their campuses. 

Three other institutions included in the report received the 2010 Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for outstanding and innovative work in a specific area or program related to international education. They are the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York, La Roche College in Pennsylvania, and the College of the Atlantic in Maine. 

Named for the late Senator Paul Simon (D-Ill.), both awards seek to recognize institutions where international education is infused into the learning environment. Senator Simon was a strong advocate for international education throughout his career in public service. His efforts were instrumental in the creation of the National Security Education Program, and his visionary leadership remains central to current efforts to establish a national program to dramatically increase opportunities for American college students to study abroad. 

The 2010 NAFSA selection jury included Ron Roberson (jury chair; Howard Community College), Mary Devins (Connecticut College), Jeff Riedinger (Michigan State University), Neal Sobania (Pacific Lutheran University), and Priscilla Stone (Washington University in St. Louis). 

Reporters can access a read-only version of the full report online at www.nafsa.org/itc2010press. Copies of the report will be available for purchase. For more information on the awards, visit www.nafsa.org/SimonAward.

More on the 2010 Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization Winners:

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is highly interdisciplinary and international institution that builds on its technological strengths. Partnerships are encouraged around the world, one of the latest being an engineering class simultaneously taught in four countries. CMU boasts graduate programs in more than a dozen countries, and is one of only six American universities that offer degrees in Qatar. CMU has seen its number of international students double over the past decade, from 1,747 in fall 1999 to 3,518 in fall 2009. "We want every student to have a global perspective and be able to use their expertise to solve real world problems [across] disciplinary boundaries and national boundaries," says Amy Burkert, vice provost for education.

Hobart & William Smith Colleges

Hobart & William Smith Colleges (HWS) committed to a path of internationalization with the selection of then-Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan as president in 1999, and has since been successful in protecting study abroad programs from budget cuts. Gearan's approach includes encouraging students to study in Vietnam, Senegal, South Africa, Peru, China, Brazil, and other "very twenty-first century places," which Provost Teresa Amott says captures some of the "spirit of the Peace Corps." Each year, HWS sends hundreds of students to 32 countries, of which nearly two-thirds are outside western Europe. Another critical component of the students' experience is the emphasis on pre-departure and return programming by HWS' Center for Global Education.

Loyola University Maryland

Loyola University Maryland's mission is to "inspire students to learn, lead, and serve in a diverse and changing world." Many professors include international and service-learning components in their courses; one example is Dr. Elizabeth Schmidt, who sends students from her African history course to tutor African refugee children in downtown Baltimore. In response to student demand, a global studies major was launched in 2006 and continues to grow. More than two-thirds of Loyola's 3,700 undergraduates study abroad, do internships, or perform service oversea. Students choose from 34 semester- or year-long education abroad opportunities in 26 countries. When students return to campus, the Office of International Education recruits them as study abroad ambassadors, and faculty give assignments that build on students' overseas experiences.

Northeastern University

At Northeastern University, a recognized leader in experiential and cooperative education, President Joseph Aoun is building a global university and preparing students to become "engaged citizens of the world." Nearly 1,700 students studied abroad for credit in 2009–10, an impressive 240 percent increase from 700 in 2006–07. Much of this growth is attributed to the expanding Dialogue of Civilizations program, which sends students to countries like Egypt, China, Greece, Mexico and India, to take intensive courses taught by Northeastern faculty over several weeks in the summer. Language programs are growing too. Five years ago, the University offered seven languages – today, Northeastern offers an impressive 13 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, and Swahili. While Northeastern enjoys a growing international student population in Boston, an online MBA program was launched in 2006 in response to a request from IBM, which sought to retain promising managers in India by offering them an online and flexible route to a professional degree.

University of San Francisco

The University of San Francisco (USF) set out ten years ago in its vision statement to become "internationally recognized as a premier Jesuit Catholic, urban university with a global perspective that educates leaders who will fashion a more humane and just world." Rev. Stephen Privett, S.J., USF's president, says the entire campus culture must reflect the institution's global focus, and indeed internationalization efforts are clear across disciplines. At the School of Law, students do human rights work with professors in Cambodia and Haiti. The business school, which is already seen as a source of expertise for Chinese companies with U.S. operations, launched a joint master's degree program in global entrepreneurship management with Jesuit universities in Barcelona and Taipei in 2009. Its first class of students spent four months taking courses in Spain, four months in Taiwan, and four months in California. The longest-running and most successful service immersion program is the one Linda Walsh runs with her nursing students in Guatemalan villages. The international studies major, launched only four years ago, has quickly became the second-largest in the College of Arts and Sciences.

More on the 2010 Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award Winners:

Borough of Manhattan Community College

At the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), a portion of every student activity fee is directed to study abroad scholarships. These scholarships defray approximately 60 percent of the cost of BMCC's programs, which include faculty-led summer courses in Ghana, Italy, Spain, France, Costa Rica, and China. The combination of scholarships and the choice of short-term programs make study abroad accessible for their students, who often need to balance classes with full-time jobs and rigid schedules.

La Roche College

La Roche College's mission statement says the college "fosters global citizenship and creates a community of scholars from the region, the nation, and around the world" and seeks to "promote justice and peace in a constantly changing global society." The Pacem in Terris Institute at La Roche provides scholarships for students from countries facing war and conflict in the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East. It is this program that has laid the foundation for the college to become more internationalized and recruit more foreign students from around the world.

College of the Atlantic

Students studying human ecology at the College of the Atlantic (COA) are able to combine theory and practice through the International Environmental Diplomacy Program. This program sends students to United Nations conferences around the world. Past trips have included climate change meetings in Montreal, Nairobi, Bali, Poznan, and Copenhagen, and other UN environmental meetings in Bangalore, Johannesburg, and Dubai. COA students observe meetings, actively participate in workshops, and have even addressed UN delegates at a plenary session.

With 10,000 members, NAFSA: Association of International Educatorsis the world's largest nonprofit association dedicated to international education. To learn more about our advocacy efforts on behalf of international education, visit Connecting Our World.

SOURCE NAFSA: Association of International Educators