IHEC Blog is Going on Vacation - Again!

Yes, it's true IHEC Blog is going on vacation and this time I'm actually going on a vacation and not just taking time off of work/projects to be with the kids who are out of school. This will be my first long term (ie. more than 3-4 days) in several years. My wife and I have only planned the first half of our trip and we were up to 1:00am last night/this morning trying to plan the second half as well as pack for the unknown.


Here are two pictures of where we are going for the first half of our trip. Can you guess where we are going? Hint~we are loading up the minivan and heading out from Chicago tonight so it's relatively "close"! Leave a comment if you think you know where we are going. After you leave a comment click on the pictures for the answer!

Thomas Jefferson’s Views on Being Educated in Europe

This IHEC Blog post builds off of my post from yesterday entitled “Quotes by U.S. Presidents on the Importance of International Exchanges and the Fulbright Program” and my post last week entitled “American Students Studying Abroad during the Colonial Period.” In my post on American students abroad during the colonial period I provide a quote from Thomas Jefferson stating his opposition to sending Americans to Europe for an education. I’ve been doing some additional research and came across a transcription of the letter Thomas Jefferson (prior to becoming the 3rd President of the United States) wrote to John Banister (Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses) in 1785 on this subject. You can read the entire letter on a University of Groningen in the Netherlands website project here. It's a very interesting read!

Quotes by U.S. Presidents on the Importance of International Exchanges and the Fulbright Program

Recently I posted to IHEC Blog on “National and International Leaders who were Fulbright Alumni” which I found in the abbreviated version of the Fulbright at Fifty publication that is hosted on the National Humanities Center website. Last night while I was doing some research for my dissertation I revisited the Fulbright at Fifty publication and discovered quotes by Presidents Truman through Clinton (as the Fulbright Program turned fifty during the Clinton Administration) on the importance of international exchanges and the Fulbright Program and I thought I would share them with IHEC Blog readers. To bring the list of quotes up to date I found and added quotes by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama:

“…This program is vitally important in widening the knowledge and technical ability of the peoples of the twelve participating countries…”
Harry S. Truman, Letter to the Chairman, board of Foreign Scholarships, on the Fulbright Program, May 11, 1951.

“…the exchange of students…should be vastly expanded…Information and education are powerful forces in support of peace. Just as war begins in the minds of men, so does peace.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks at ceremony marking the tenth anniversary of the Smith-Mundt Act, January 27, 1958.
“I am delighted to sign the new Fulbright-Hays Act. This ceremony has historic significance because it marks full recognition by the Congress of the importance of a more comprehensive program of educational and cultural activities as a component of our foreign relations…”
John F. Kennedy, remarks upon signing the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act, September 21, 1961.
“…International education cannot be the work of one country. It is the responsibility and promise of all nations. It calls for free exchange and full collaboration…The knowledge of our citizens is one treasure which grows only when it is shared.”
Lyndon B. Johnson, message to Congress in February, 1966, on international education.

“This report…is largely devoted to an aspect of the program too often overlooked…the extraordinary…cooperation and assistance…from United States private groups…This private cooperation…gives the program its essential character and effectiveness…”
Richard M. Nixon, message to Congress, June 15, 1970.

“The spirit of seeking understanding through personal contact with people of other nations and other cultures deserves the respect and support of all.”
Gerald R. Ford, remarks to foreign exchange students, July 13, 1976.

“,,,I think one of the wonderful things about the program which you represent is its contribution to the barriers (of culture, events, religion, and ethics) having been broken down…”
Jimmy Carter, at Fulbright ceremony in Hungary in 1996.

“There is a flickering spark in us all which, if struck at just the right age…can light the rest of our lives, elevating our ideals, deepening our tolerance, and sharpening our appetite for knowledge about the rest of the world. Educational and cultural exchanges…provide a perfect opportunity for this precious spark to grow, making us more sensitive and wiser international citizens through our careers.”
Ronald Reagan, The White House, May 1982.

“International exchanges are not a great tide to sweep away all differences, but they will slowly wear away at the obstacles to peace as surely as water wears away a hard stone.”
George H.W. Bush, 1989.

“No one who has lived through the second half of the 20th century could possibly be blind to the enormous impact of exchange programs on the future of countries…”
Bill Clinton, May, 1993.

“…By studying foreign cultures and languages and living abroad, we gain a better understanding of the many similarities that we share and learn to respect our differences. The relationships that are formed between individuals from different countries, as part of international education programs and exchanges, can also foster goodwill that develops into vibrant, mutually beneficial partnerships among nations.”
George W. Bush, International Education Week 2001 Message, The White House, November 13, 2001.

“Simple exchanges can break down walls between us, for when people come together and speak to one another and share a common experience, then their common humanity is revealed. We are reminded that we're joined together by our pursuit of a life that's productive and purposeful, and when that happens mistrust begins to fade and our smaller differences no longer overshadow the things that we share. And that's where progress begins.”
Barack Obama, remarks at student roundtable in Istanbul, Turkey, April 7, 2009.
Quotes from Presidents Truman through Clinton were obtained directly from: U.S. Presidents on International Exchanges and the Fulbright Program, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/fbright/presiden.htm, part of the Fulbright at Fifty website hosted by the National Humanities Center, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/

Guide to Scholarships, Grants and Funding Sources in International Education and Other Disciplines (4th Ed.)

The following IHEC Blog entry is a guest post by my colleague Charles (Chuck) Gliozzo, Professor, Office of International Studies and Programs and Director Emeritus, Office of Study Abroad at Michigan State University, that originated as a message he sent to SECUSS-L:

I am delighted to inform you that the 4th edition of the GUIDE TO SCHOLARSHIPS, GRANTS AND FUNDING SOURCES IN INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND OTHER DISCIPLINES is now available. At 271 pages, the GUIDE features three sections:

* General Guides and Databases

* International Education and Study Abroad Resources

* 39 Discipline categories, including Business, Communication, Humanities, Internships, Medicine, Science and Technology, Women's Studies, and many more.

All sections include links to helpful websites and funding information that can lead to other multiple resource references.

The GUIDE is a collaborative project with International Studies and Programs and the MSU library. The GUIDE is based on the GRANTS and RELATED RESOURCES section located in the on-line version here.

A hard copy is priced at $27 including postage and handling. Student cost is $20 also including postage and handling. Discounts will be given for purchase of multiple copies.

To purchase a hard copy, please send a check payable to Michigan State University at the following address:
Attn: Charles Gliozzo
International Studies and Programs, Rm.209
Center for International Studies and Programs, Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan 48824

Many thanks for your continued interest and support of the MSU GUIDE, still going strong since 1995.

Cheers, Charles (Chuck) Gliozzo, Ph.D

Rick Steves’ Book “Travel as a Political Act” available for only $5 for Teachers and Professors

While I was out on “vacation” last week I received an e-mail from Rick Steves (not a personal message but because I signed up to receive his updates) informing me that his new book Travel as a Political Act is available for teachers and professors for only $5. Below I have copied and pasted a small snippet of the details relating to Travel as a Political Act:

- It's eye-opening: Travel as a Political Act starts with the premise that we can't begin to understand the world without experiencing it. Travel connects people to people, it helps us fit more productively into a shrinking world, and it inspires creative new solutions to persistent problems.

- It's personal: Through his own experiences, Rick explains how anyone can travel more thoughtfully — anywhere. And he shares a series of his field reports from Europe, Central America, and the Middle East to show how travel has shaped his politics and broadened his perspective.

- It's good for you: Americans who approach travel thoughtfully — as a political act — can have the time of their lives and come home with a better understanding of the interconnectedness of today's world and just how our nation fits in.

Rick Steves has also created a special forum for teachers and professors to access to discuss how Travel as a Political Act “can be used to inspire students to develop a global perspective” which you can access here. If you are a teacher or a professor and wish to bring the concept of travel as a political act into your classroom by using this book as a classroom resource, course text book or recommended reading for students then you should visit THIS webpage to get this special offer.
Some time ago I posted to IHEC Blog about Travel as a Political Act which you can read here.
You can read more about Rick Steves social activism including many articles on developing a global perspective through travel here.

American Students Studying Abroad during the Colonial Period

Following is a paragraph about American students being educated abroad during the colonial period from a manuscript I’m getting published in fall, 2010:

American students have been studying abroad and incorporating this experience as part of their education for centuries. The establishment of Harvard College in 1636, which was modeled after the residential colleges of Oxford, and the subsequent founding of the other colonial colleges began the great tradition of American higher education.[1] Many colonists were concerned about the growing trend of American students studying in Europe even though important individuals such as Benjamin Franklin, who studied in London, and John Quincy Adams, who studied outside of Paris during the colonial period, were pursuing such opportunities.[2] The numbers of Americans studying abroad during this time period were significant enough that several leading American figures such as Thomas Jefferson in 1785 and George Washington a mere ten years later in 1795 voiced their concerns and were highly critical of Americans studying overseas.[3] Thomas Jefferson, in his scorn for sending American students to Europe, is quoted as saying, “an American coming to Europe for an education loses in his knowledge, in his morals, in his habits, and in his happiness.”[4] The Georgia Legislature in 1785 even went as far as to enact a law that penalized young men who were educated abroad by considering these students as Aliens for a minimum of three years after returning home and were thus ineligible to hold a seat in the legislature or any other civil or military office in the state.[5] The end of the American Revolution saw an expansion in the founding of colleges across the newly formed United States of America and the numbers of American students going to Europe to study continued to grow. The first American to earn a Ph.D. degree abroad was Edward Everett in 1817 at Gottingen in Germany.[6] Everett later went on to serve as the President of Harvard from 1846 to 1849.

[1] The order of founding of the American colonial colleges: Harvard College (1636), William and Mary (1697), Yale College (1701), College of New Jersey which later became Princeton University (1746), King’s College which later became Columbia College (1754), College of Philadelphia which later became University of Pennsylvania (1755), College of Rhode Island which later became Brown University (1766), Queen’s College which later became Rutgers University (1766), and Dartmouth College (1769). Obtained from Robert A. McCaughey, Stand, Columbia: A History of Columbia University (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003) with various supporting tables online at <http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/stand_columbia/order-colonialcolleges.html>.[2] Dietrich Goldschmidt, “Historical Interaction Between Higher Education in Germany and in the United States” in German and American Universities: Mutual Influences – Past and Present, Eds. Ulrich Teichler and Henry Wasser (Kassel, Wissenschaftliches Zentrum, 1992) 11-34.[3] William W. Hoffa, A History of US Study Abroad: Beginnings to 1965 (Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Whitmore Printing, 2007), 25-28.[4] Henry Schwaneger, “The Junior Year Abroad: Then, Now, and?” Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, 3 no. 1 (Spring, 1970), 155.[5] Robert H. Bremer, (Ed.). Children & Youth in America: A Documentary History (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1970). Book available via the Humanities & Social Sciences Net Online <http://www.h-net.org/~child/Bremner/TOC.htm>.[6] Ibid.

Some Posts on Study Abroad, Exchange Students, International Education and Citizen Diplomacy in the Twitterverse

I’ve previously posted to IHEC Blog about study abroad and international education in the Twitterverse which you can read here. I thought I would search Twitter for posts relating to topics that I think IHEC Blog readers would find of interest (or funny) and list some of the more interesting Tweets below:

@emmuhbeee: writing a five page thank you note to the study abroad office.

@ryanknapp: @JoshFeinberg A pro basketball team in Spain is offering a 10wk study abroad to LA for one lucky fan who buys season tickets.

@SunRaeShines: Off to see the gorgeous study abroad advisor, Marco about moving to Spain... Together

@MondoChallenge: @DavidComp Where do you plan to go? What about volunteering during your gap year with GapGuru! http://bit.ly/MFpwr

@DavidComp: Parliament of Australia, Senate Inquiry into the Welfare of International Students at http://tinyurl.com/pktmv4

@DavidComp: List of movies/TV shows where characters go abroad is growing quickly. Know any? Add your comment here http://tinyurl.com/ql4h9g

@MahaMojaddidi: Omg there's a fine exchange student at my house!

@crez104: Fez is hilarious! Fun fact: Fez stands for "Foreign exchange ztudent" (OK it's "student")

@KaylieeeRae: the gorgeous exchange student fron germany sits next to me.

@lanemoseley: If any of you have ideas on why international education is more important now than ever before, I'm taking calls.

@FulbrightSchlrs: International Education Administrator Awards are available to Japan, Korea and Germany. Visit http://www.cies.org/IEA/ for more information.

@planetecole: Citizen diplomacy at work: Quote from teacher friend on her training at Oregon State U. "Americans are kind, not like the movies at all."

@CitizenDiplomat: New US Center blog post: Three Fulbright Scholars from Ukraine/Russia looking for housing in the DC Area - http://bit.ly/mg5cz

As you can see, some posts are interesting, funny or informative. Think about how Twitter can benefit you! If you want to follow me on Twitter you can find me here.

IHEC Blog will be a bit inactive this week...

...as well as from August 31st to September 4th. This week I’m out of the office with my kids who are out of camp so my blogging time during lunch is now gone. Additionally, my host brother from when I was an exchange student in Rosenheim, Germany in 1988 is visiting with his family and this is their last week in town and that is also making it more difficult to post to IHEC Blog. I enjoy watching my 4 year old son and my 7 year old daughter play and communicate with their new German friends! The week of August 31st to September 4th I’ll actually be on vacation and do not plan to be connected electronically very much.

Some bloggers and social media types may say that not posting as I regularly do (which is Monday to Friday) while I’m on vacation is a mistake and that if I planned better I could have enough messages prepared and scheduled to post while I’m out. IHEC Blog ranks #4 on my list of things that matter and is well behind family, job (University of Chicago), and researching for and writing of my dissertation so finding time to pull together multiple posts to have scheduled to post is very difficult.

International Education Week 2009 Website Officially Launched

I just received an e-mail alerting me that the International Education Week (IEW) 2009 website has officially launched. Be one of the first to add your institutional activities and events to the site. To learn more about International Education Week please read the IEW Fact Sheet here.

One of things that I really like about the site is that it has information on the Flat Stanley Project as I think it’s a great activity for young children to begin learning about other people and lands across the globe. I really want to instill a love for international travel, intercultural understanding and mutual respect in my three young children and I plan to post to IHEC blog about Flat Stanley and Flat Stella, Toot & Puddle and Sesame Street in the future!

National and International Leaders who were Fulbright Alumni

This IHEC Blog post came to me from a comment left by Sabrina Faber over at planet école on a previous post entitled “Foreign Students Yesterday, World Leaders Today”.

The Fulbright at Fifty (1996) publication, which is now available in an abbreviated format on the National Humanities Center webpage, provides an interesting list of Fulbright alumni from both the United States and abroad who are/were national and international leaders. You can view this list of Fulbright alumni here. Please note that this list of Fulbright alumni is through the year 1996 and could use some updating to bring it up to date.

Who (Fulbright alumni 1997 to date) should be added to this list? Please leave suggested names in the comment section.

IHEC Blog Highlights - Wandering Educators!

Over the past two and a half years I’ve become more active in/on most of the social media tools available (Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, Ning, Google Reader) and in particular those that pertain to international education and public diplomacy. I’ve been blogging since February 2007 and pushing related content on Twitter since February 2009. Additionally, I’ve joined numerous social networks/communities relating to international education over the past couple of years. Some are great and some are not so great…

One site that I think is really great is WanderingEducators.com which you can access here. I really like the content that WanderingEducators.com publishes. Rather than paraphrase what WanderingEducators.com is about I thought I would copy and paste the following snippet from their website:

“An international community of traveling educators, WanderingEducators.com is a resource for discovering extraordinary travel destinations, fascinating people, and global artists and photographers, among our many published articles. As well, WanderingEducators.com has over 35 editors, representing nations around the world and a plethora of intercultural and travel-related areas...”

You can learn more what WanderingEducators.com is all about here. IHEC Blog readers on Twitter will want to follow Wandering Educators at http://twitter.com/WanderingEds.

List of Movies/Television Programs where the Characters go Abroad

I’m starting to compile a list of movies and television programs where the young characters (roughly 14 years of age to somewhere in their early 20’s) go abroad and I need the help of IHEC Blog readers. While I’m primarily looking for movie and television characters from the United States who go abroad I would also like to learn of characters from any nation travelling to another country. Here is my very, very brief list:

- The Olsen twins
Passport to Paris (1999)
Winning London (2001)When in Rome (2002)

- The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003) - middle school trip to Rome

- Beverly Hills 90210 Brenda and Donna go to Paris

- Toot & Puddle which will be a topic of a future IHEC Blog post! (see photo above)

If you know of any movie or television characters who traveled abroad please let me know by adding the information to the comment section. This IHEC Blog post is in many ways a continuation of my most popular post entitled “Portrayal of Exchange Students in Movies on TV in the U.S.” which you can read here as well as a related post about Matthew McConaughey’s upcoming comedy film called Exchange Students which you can read here.

It should be noted that the above list of Olsen Twins and Lizzie McGuire movies and the 90210 television show does not reflect my personal viewing habits. Well, Toot & Puddle are enjoyable to watch with my children! I simply heard a colleague mention these at a session during the recent NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference in LA.

Universitas 21 Announce Joint Ph.D. Program

Universitas 21 has announced that fourteen member institutions have established a joint Ph.D. program. The Memorandum of Understanding signed in May 2009 by Vice-Chancellors and Presidents from the universities of Auckland, Birmingham, British Columbia, Delhi, Dublin (University College), Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hong Kong, Korea, McGill, Melbourne, Nottingham, Queensland and Virginia:

“enables doctoral students to embark on joint degrees which will considerably enhance their research and employment opportunities on an international scale. Unlike a number of other joint programmes, this MoU gives an over-arching framework for universities to create tailor-made programmes of study for each student, taking individual research needs into account and enabling collaboration with another of the network’s universities.”

This is certainly an interesting collaboration in higher education and one to watch!

Universitas 21 is an international network of 21 leading research-intensive universities in thirteen countries. You can learn more about Universitas 21 here.

The Bridge Year Program at Princeton University

Attention all high school students: seriously consider Princeton University in your choice of college applications! I recently learned about an exciting and innovative international education opportunity for admitted freshman students at Princeton University that I thought I would alert IHEC Blog readers to. I won’t summarize all of the Bridge Year Program details in this post as I encourage you to visit the program website to learn more. However, I have copied and pasted a snippet from the Bridge Year Program website to give you a taste of what Princeton University is doing:

“Designed especially for incoming freshmen, Princeton’s new Bridge Year Program allows you to defer your enrollment for a year while you serve the public good in another country. You’ll do challenging, meaningful work in a school, social service agency, clinic, or another community service organization. Your nine months of service will give you both an international perspective and a deep appreciation for the importance of serving society and the world. When you return, you’ll enter your first year at Princeton University with a wealth of experience and maturity.”

Best of all…the Bridge Year Program is tuition free! You can learn more about this program here. You can learn more about how Princeton is internationalizing campus here.

Interviewed about being an International Education Blogger

During the NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference in Washington D.C. (May 2009) I was interviewed on video by Ruth Marie Sylte of Manitou Heights (Conversations about Crossing Cultures and Bridging Divides in the Information Age) about being a blogger. Here is our conversation:



I want to thank Ruth Marie Sylte for making and posting my first and only video to YouTube! You can view Manitou Heights YouTube channel here.

Dear President Obama, What's Your International Education Policy?

Dear President Obama,

I know that your time is precious and is primarily focused on the U.S. economy, our health care system and, perhaps most importantly, our engagement in two wars so I don’t want you to divert your time away from these important matters. When you do have a few spare moments it would be great to learn about your international education policy for the United States!

Towards the end of his Presidency, Bill Clinton issued a White House Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on April 19, 2000 with the subject: International Education Policy. The international education community here in the U.S. was excited to see their important work recognized by President Clinton in the form of an executive memorandum. To my knowledge, President Bush never issued a memorandum related to his international education policy during his two terms in office. We know you support and understand the importance of U.S. students and scholars studying/researching abroad as well as the importance of welcoming international students and scholars to our colleges and universities here in the U.S. It would be great if we could hear if you have an international education policy (and what that policy is) in a more formal manner!

Thank you in advance for your consideration,

David Comp
Hyde Park, Chicago

P.S. You can learn more about and download President Clinton’s executive memorandum on his international education policy here.

The Economic Impact of International Students – New Paper Released Today

Today a new paper released today entitled Exports of Educational Services Attributable to the Overseas Industry in Australia by Bob Birrell, Co-Director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University, calls into question the methodology used to calculate the economic impact of international students. I won’t summarize in this post as Geoff Maslen at University World News, exclusive publisher of this report, wrote a great article about this. You can read the University World News article which links to Birrell’s paper here.

For those IHEC Blog readers looking for a solid and informative news source on higher education matters across the globe should subscribe to University World News (free subscription). Visit the University World News home page here to see the value in their work and you can subscribe here.

Photo by williamnyk

The Canadian Education Centre Network Is No More

As I was reading Not-So-Foreign: A Bulletin for International Education Professionals (Vol. 8, Issue 24, July 2, 2009) I came across a news piece entitled “Canadian Education Centre Network. 1995-2009 (RIP)” informing that the Canadian Education Centre Network (CECN) closed its doors on July 1st. I must admit that I was familiar with CECN by name only but it is an interesting development in Canadian international education affairs that I only read about in Not-So-Foreign. You can read the full Not-So-Foreign article about CECN here.

Not-So-Foreign: A Bulletin for International Education Professionals is published by Higher-Edge and you can access their past issues as well as subscribe for free here. I really like Not-So-Foreign and highly recommend you request a submission.

Additionally, Higher-Edge also publishes Overseas, Overwhelmed which, after a quick glance through their past issues, seems to be an additional resource that you can subscribe to for free. I just subscribed here.

As you can tell, this post really has less to do with the demise of CECN and more to do with the free publications of Higher-Edge!

Upcoming Conference on Integrating Study Abroad into the Undergraduate Curriculum

IHEC Blog readers, particularly those of you in the Midwest, might find the upcoming conference entitled “Integrating Study Abroad into the Undergraduate Curriculum: Transforming On-Campus Teaching and Learning” scheduled for November 6-7, 2009 at Beloit College to be of interest. Hosted/sponsored by Beloit College and Kalamazoo College with the assistance of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.

What is of particular interest to me is that Peggy Pusch, Executive Director, Society for Intercultural Education, Training, and Research/Global Network, will be the opening plenary speaker and that R. Michael Paige, Professor of International and Intercultural Education at the University of Minnesota, will be the closing plenary speaker.

You can learn more about this excellent and moderately priced conference here.

Photo credit: daniel9d