16 June 2008
College Wins Award for Internationalization Efforts
St. Louis Community College makes global education a priority
Washington -- Preparation for pursuing a four-year degree or for entering the work force: that is what usually comes to mind when most people think of the more than 1,700 two-year community colleges and junior colleges in the United States and the almost 7 million students they serve. It can be a challenge to persuade faculty and administrators at two-year institutions that internationalizing the campus -- globalizing the curriculum, creating study-abroad programs and international exchange partnerships -- is a vital part of preparing students for the challenges they will face once they graduate.
“People don’t realize international, global education is not just for international students; it is for American students,” says Grace Liu, the global education coordinator at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park (STLCC-FP), which recently won a prestigious award for its Global Education Committee’s internationalization efforts on this urban campus in downtown St. Louis. STLCC-FP President Morris F. Johnson has made internationalization a priority campus goal.
The award, one of the Institute of International Education (IIE) Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education, was presented March 13 at the United Nations.
American colleges and universities have made progress in recent years in internationalizing their campuses. The proportion of institutions offering education-abroad opportunities has grown from 65 percent in 2001 to 91 percent in 2006, according to a study by the American Council on Education (ACE). The report also says more institutions are investing in international opportunities for faculty, including supporting faculty who lead study-abroad programs (58 percent), providing funding for faculty who travel to meetings or conferences abroad (56 percent), and hosting international faculty (39 percent).
But many institutions still do not see internationalization as integral to their identity or strategy, the ACE report’s authors state.
The STLCC campus at Forest Park is the central campus for a system that enrolls 130,000 students. Forest Park’s student population is 46 percent black and includes students from 70 different countries who speak 80 different languages. A significant number of Forest Park’s students are refugees and immigrants, Liu said.
“We’re trying to send this message to our students: the world is becoming global. When you finish your education, what you are going to deal with will not just be local,” Liu told America.gov , adding: “We can prepare our students with an understanding of different cultures. People are different but people are the same. We have to understand and respect the different cultures. Then it will be easier for them to find a job and it will be easier for them to be successful.”
The engine of internationalization at Forest Park is the Global Education Committee, which reports directly to Johnson. “That’s the backbone” and what could serve as a model for other institutions, Liu says. The 35 administrators, faculty members and staff members who serve on the committee are all volunteers who work throughout the year on five subcommittees to implement the comprehensive internationalization plan.
The subcommittees address in concrete ways everything from globalization of the curriculum and travel abroad to campus activities and community outreach.
Every year, the committee chooses a focus area for its efforts to globalize the curriculum -- in 2007-2008 the Middle East, in 2008-2009 North Africa. By volunteering to globalize one of their courses, faculty can receive a stipend, but must attend an orientation session and workshops. “When the faculty is globalized, when the faculty understands the importance of global education, that’s how students will be globalized as well,” said Liu, who also teaches English as a second language. “When our faculty bring different cultures into their classrooms, we have seen in student writing how much they benefit.”
STLCC-FP also offers a variety of short-term study-abroad trips -- short-term because many community college students cannot afford to spend a semester abroad, Liu said.
The study-abroad experience is transformative, Liu added. “Once students have traveled to another country, once they have started the process of learning about different cultures, it changes them dramatically.” Liu recently returned from leading a group to China, visiting seven cities in seven provinces over a two-week period.
All the study-abroad trips are led by full-time faculty, students receive credit, and scholarships are available for needy students. “We have seen when students come back from study-abroad trips how much they have changed,” she said. “We have seen from students how much it meant to them.”
Another major focus of campus activities is International Week in November, when workshops, guest speakers and films are presented, as well as an international festival. Often, students invite the community to participate. For the festival, students set up tables representing 30 to 40 countries and cook their ethnic food.
Faculty members take international students on field trips to make them feel welcome and a part of the college. “We give training to our faculty on how to work with international students, explain the culture differences,” Liu said. “We also help international students learn about American culture -- what’s the behavior that’s expected in the culture.”
Faculty exchange programs with the United Kingdom, China, Turkey and Macedonia also have played a key role in internationalization. STLCC-FP currently is discussing making student exchange part of its internationalization plan and expanding its Chinese studies program and increasing enrollment in Chinese-language courses.
