International Higher Education Consulting Blog™

Links of Interest for Week of October 30th to November 5th

2009-11-06T12:21:00.000-06:00

It’s been a long and busy week for me and my posts to IHEC Blog were a bit sporadic. Sorry about that. I hope that you find some of the following links I pulled from The Twitter to be of interest:

New report “The Spaces Between Numbers: Getting International Data on Higher Education Straight” (via @CitizenDiplomat)

Evaluation of the Youth Exchange & Study Program: Final Report

Good comment by Yale Richmond on evaluation report of the YES program in the Nov 2 Public Diplomacy Review (via @ivante)

Is the World Our Campus? International Students and U.S. Global Power in the Long Twentieth Century

India Looks to Expand Education Partnerships with United States (via @NAFSA)

U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan & Jordanian Education Minister Al-Ma'ani to lead 2-way video conversation between students

Quality Management and Study Abroad [CIEE Our View series n.15] (via @IDPDRIE)

The Value of a Study Abroad Program for Graduate Students in Psychology (via @AustraLearn)

Public Diplomacy: Lessons from the Past - a new publication by @NickCull (via @andrewkneale)

Explore the types of Fulbright Scholar grants that were funded in 2009-10 by academic discipline (via @FulbrightSchlrs)

@WanderingEds Profiles in International Education series: Jim Buschman of NYU

8,500 people submitted applications for the 2010 Fulbright U.S. Student Program, a thousand more than last year (via @WESFans)

My reply to random person who e-mailed me asking for assistance with their literature review can be found in the comments section (see comment #6) of my IHEC Blog post about this message http://ihec-djc.blogspot.com/2009/11/intercultural-miscommunication-via-e.html

For those of you using Google Reader you can view my shared items at http://www.google.com/reader/shared/international.ed.consulting

International Education to what End? Peace & Justice and Global Citizenship Revisited

2009-11-05T22:21:00.004-06:00

If you are heading to the 2010 NAFSA: Association of International Educators annual conference from May 30th to June 4th in Kansas City, Missouri then you might want to consider submitting a proposal for a new poster session. Here are the details my colleague Bryan McAllister-Grande posted to the NAFSA Research/Scholarship network discussion forum:

The Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship (TLS) Knowledge Community, in partnership with the Peace and Justice Member Interest Group, will be hosting a new poster fair at this year's annual conference. We're looking for innovative approaches to among the following topics:

- social justice

- global citizenship and civil society

- peace, coexistence, and reconciliation

- gender, race, ethnicity, and religion

- public or citizen diplomacy

- major global issues such as poverty, health, environmental change, access to education, etc.

- sustainable development issues involving a peace/justice component

- research that looks at the impact of international education on communities, livelihoods, and international relations

These posters are aimed at both the research and practice level. So we're looking for "best practices" as much as exciting research and theory. (Ideally, poster submissions will highlight these theory-to-practice connections.)

The deadline for poster submission is 11:59pm, November 14th, 2009.

Please note that there will be no electrical hookups for posters, though wireless can be made available (price tba).

Please go to the NAFSA website for more information and to submit a poster proposal http://www.nafsa.org/annual_conference/call_for_proposals/

Make sure to indicate that you are applying for the "International Education to What End" poster fair.

If you have any questions, please contact Bryan McAllister-Grande (bgrande@brandeis.edu)

Intercultural Miscommunication via E-mail or Something Else?

2009-11-04T13:39:00.005-06:00

For several years now I have been receiving requests for assistance or advise from people all over the globe on matters relating to research, selecting graduate schools/programs, starting a career in the field of international education and since I started IHEC Blog and posting to Twitter I’m starting to receive more and more requests from reporters wanting to interview me or requests from reporters wanting to locate certain data and/or people interview who are knowledgeable on their topic they are writing about, requests from publishers for book reviews as well as a whole host of other requests from people. About 2-3 weeks ago I decided to add the following vacation message to my IHEC Gmail account as there has been a notable increase in the number of e-mail messages I’ve been receiving the past 3 months:

“Thank you for your message. I appreciate your interest in my services and will reply to your message as soon as possible. International Higher Education Consulting and IHEC Blog are secondary projects to my family time, my work at the University of Chicago and my doctoral studies so my response time varies depending on my current work and research/writing loads.”

It’s flattering to receive all of these voice and e-mail messages and I work hard to helpful and to reply as quickly as possible. I currently have several e-mail messages in my inbox that require a response and some of the messages may be from IHEC Blog readers so please note that I will reply to you soon and I apologize for the delay. I welcome these messages as they often times provide a learning opportunity for me and a way for me help and to meet/network with new people! I’ve connected electronically with so many great colleagues via the various social/new media spaces where I find myself (and I’m including e-mail when I’m talking social/new media spaces) and I look forward to our paths crossing in person some day in the future. Many of the wonderful connections I’ve made over the years were made because I received a request for assistance or advice over e-mail.

Why am I posting about this to IHEC Blog?

Well, while I reply to and try to assist 95%+ of the messages I receive there are just some messages that I receive that I simply delete and never respond to. The following are two e-mail messages I recently received (Oct. 31st and today, Nov. 4th) from the same e-mail address that I thought I would copy and paste here to share as an example for possible discussion:

--Start October 31st message---
HELLO
I AM A STUDENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND CIVLIZATION AND I AM PREPARING FOR MY DISSERTATION IN LITERATURE ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AFRICANAMERICANS IN THE AMERICAN LITERARY IMAGINATION
BUT I DID NOT FIND CORRESPONDING INFORMATION
SO.IF YOU CAN HELP WITH SOME BOOKS,WEBSITES,OR AMY KIND OF DATA I WOULD BE GRATEFUL
I AM WAITING FOR YOUR ANSWER
--End October 31st message--

No response from me other than my automated reply which I mention above.

--Start November 4th message--
I AM STILL WAITING FOR YOUR ANSWER AND I NEED YOUR HELP
,BECAUSE OF TIME CONSTRAINTS MAY I RECEIVE IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE PLEASE?
THANKS
--End November 4th message—

To be sure, this person and I certainly differ on how to communicate via e-mail. What I’m trying to determine is if I should be more sensitive to this person and chalk it (their rude and demanding e-mail messages) up to an intercultural miscommunication or if I should have different feelings about their e-mail messages? I’ve communicated with thousands of students from all over the world in my day job at the University of Chicago and based on my experience I’m not thinking this is an intercultural miscommunication.

Thoughts?

What’s Happening over on the IHEC Blog Facebook Page

2009-11-03T12:45:00.004-06:00

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me as I’ve been doing lots of catching up with all the things that were neglected during the Fulbright competition and it’s been difficult to post to IHEC Blog. While I value Twitter and will continue to post there I find that Facebook is a happy medium between Twitter and IHEC Blog. Twitter has allowed me to quickly post and retweet interesting information on international education and public diplomacy (see my previous IHEC Blog post on public diplomacy talk on IHEC Blog) and posting to my blog allows me to provide more information about a topic/issue. What I have come to appreciate about Facebook is that I can post items and links I think are of interest and I can do so using more than 140 characters yet I don’t have to spend so much time crafting a blog post, adding hyperlinks and searching for interesting photos. I can provide a lot of information in less time than a blog post. This doesn’t mean that I plan to blog less frequently. It just means that I’m using the IHEC Blog Facebook page more and more and often times the information on the Facebook page will not find its way onto IHEC Blog or to Twitter.

Here is a list of some of the postings to the IHEC Blog Facebook page:

- One of Many Reasons I’m Proud to be a Lab School Parent

- Nice article on the Fulbright Program in the "Tufts Daily" student paper

- The Student Mobility Network at Universitas 21

- Educational Exchanges at The American Club of Sweden

- Inaugural Lecture of the Josef A. Mestenhauser Lecture Series on Internationalizing Higher Education

You can follow IHEC Blog on Facebook at: http://tinyurl.com/IHECBlogFacebook

Links of Interest for Week of October 23rd to 29th

2009-10-30T12:37:00.004-05:00

Continuing my weekly Friday trend, here is a list (a bit brief this week) of some of the most interesting posts that I came across or posted to Twitter this past week:

Institute of International Education launches “Center for International Partnerships in Higher Education”

Latest volume of Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad has been published (via @IDPDRIE)

New Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange website

GlobaLinks Learning Abroad named Small Company of the Year by the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce (via @australearn @asialearn @eurolearn)

NAFSA 2009 Annual Report available

Discussion started on “How to measure impact of international education/exchange programs on US public diplomacy efforts?” on the IHEC Blog Facebook page. Be the first to add your opinion!

New "Research in Internationalization of Higher Education" LinkedIn group

Research Notes: A Brief History of Comparative Education through the 1960s

2009-10-29T13:22:00.003-05:00

When examining the literature in comparative education over the past 100 years it is clear that there has been an “identity crisis” regarding its boundaries and much of the confusion stems from the blurred boundaries of the field. Until the late twentieth century, few authors worked to clarify the distinctions between the two fields of comparative education and international education, and in fact, many authors carelessly used “comparative education” and “international education” either inter-changeably or simultaneously without distinction.

There is certainly an overlap in the histories of comparative education and international education, though comparativists seem to have a stronger sense of who their founding fathers are, what the key pieces of literature in its history are, and when important shifts have taken place.

Unlike international education, the founding fathers of comparative education are much more easily identifiable by those in the respective field. It is rare to find an article examining the early stages of comparative education or even current comparative theory without finding mention of Marc Antoine Jullien, Michael Sadler, and Issac Kandel. These authors provided the foundation of comparative education and serve as a reference point for emerging comparativists. Jullien was an early figure encouraging cross-national data collection, Sadler stressed the importance of looking at society as a whole when considering educational systems, and finally Kandel helped to clarify some of the goals of comparative education. In the mid to late twentieth century, as the field of comparative education strived for rigorous methodology, several authors such as Harold J. Noah and Max A. Eckstein, William W. Brickman, George Z. F. Bereday, C. Arnold Anderson, Erwin H. Epstein, and Irving Epstein helped to challenge and clarify comparative theory.

In 1954, The School of Education at New York University began a conference that would, at their third meeting two years later in 1956, establish the Comparative Education Society. Early activities of this organization included working to define the field of comparative education as an academic venture, creating study tours abroad, and publishing the Comparative Education Review, which now appears quarterly. Even then, the overlaps in the domains of comparative education and international education were illustrated by the Comparative Education Society changing its name to The Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) in 1968, the name by which the organization is known today. The 1960s saw the formation of the Comparative Education Society in Europe, which prompted the publishing of Comparative Education beginning in 1964. Several other countries, such as Canada, Japan, and Korea followed suit and created comparative education societies.[1]

The World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), a non-governmental organization under UNESCO, formed in the late 1960s and holding its first world council in 1970 with representatives from five comparative education societies including the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, and Canada. The WCCES aims to promote the study of comparative and international education throughout the world and enhance the academic status of this field and to bring comparative education to bear on the major educational problems of the day by fostering cooperative action by specialists from different parts of the world.[2] The organization typically meets every three years in a new country for each Congress.

I hope to be able to pull together a brief history of Comparative Education from the 1960’s to date in the near future.

Previous IHEC Blog on "System Transfer in Comparative Education" is available here.

[1] William Brickman, “Genesis and Early Development of the Comparative and International Education Society” Comparative Education Review 10, no. 1 (February 1966): 9-19.
[2] World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) description of its two specific goals (2006), http://www.hku.hk/cerc/wcces/.

Why Premeds Should Study Abroad

2009-10-28T15:03:00.002-05:00

I was searching through my research notes today during lunch and came across a quote that I copied and pasted from a SECUSS-L post (study abroad listsev) from the mid-1990’s that I’ve been referring to in my advising meetings with premed students on the value of studying/researching/working abroad. This is the type of quote that gets students to listen.

"Spending a year of study abroad is a life enriching, life changing experience. Those of us involved in medical school admissions can well appreciate the value of such experience. When we review an application to medical school, of course, we are interested in grades and MCAT scores. But we're also interested in clinical and researchexperience, as well as other kinds of experiences that impact on the applicant's maturity, leadership skills and sensitivities to people of differing backgrounds and cultures. Spending a year living and studying in another country and culture is truly a transforming and enriching experience. And since so few American students study abroad, only 2%, it would be a unique experience as well. Having a year of study abroad in one's background would be a very positive component of an application to medical school." Dr. Ralph Purdy, ChairMedical School Admissions CommitteeUniversity of California, IrvineOctober 24, 1996

To be sure, premed students shouldn’t study abroad just so they are more competitive in the medical school application process. It’s just a nice outcome of a transformative educational experience.

Promotion of a Better Understanding on the Part of American Citizens of the other Peoples of the World at the University of Chicago in 1923

2009-10-27T12:18:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend I was scanning through a book entitled The Story of The University of Chicago 1890-1925 by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed (1925) and was pleased to find the following paragraph:

"In the very last days of President Judson's administration, Mr. and Mrs. M. Haddon MacLearn and the sons of Mr. Harris, Albert W. Harris, Norman D. Harris, Hayden B. Harris, and Stanley G. Harris, gave the University $150,000 for the endowment of the Norman Wait Harris Memorial Foundation, in memory of Norman Wait Harris, for many years one of the leading business men of Chicago and head of the Harris Trust and Savings Bank. The fund was given in the name of Mrs. N.W. Harris. The income of this endowment was to be expended for the "promotion of a better understanding on the part of American citizens of the other peoples of the world, thus establishing a basis for improved international relations a a more enlightened world order." The first conferences under the Harris Foundation were held at the University during the Summer Quarter of 1924. Lectures were delivered by eminent Men of other countries and heard with great interest." (p. 186-187)

The fact that this endowment was established in 1923 to promote better understanding between Americans and other peoples of the world is impressive and interesting to me. What is equally impressive is that the Norman Wait Harris Memorial Foundation Fund is still in existence and is one of the oldest endowments at the University of Chicago. You can learn more about how the Norman Wait Harris Memorial Foundation Fund is being used here.

Photo: Asia Lecture Series at the University of Chicago 25 to 29 May 1949. The 25th annual institute of the Norman Wait Harris Memorial Foundation in International Relations dealt with Nationalism and Regionalism in South Asia. Speaking at the far right is Phillips Talbot, director of the 1949 Institute, and visiting assistant professor of political science.

Archival Photographic Files, [apf3-01135], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

International Education Offices, Organizations and People on Twitter & Facebook or MySpace

2009-10-26T12:41:00.001-05:00

From time to time I have posted to IHEC Blog about new media (or social networking sites) and the growing number of users in the field of international education. In fact, my last several IHEC Blog posts on Fridays has been a list of interesting links that I pulled from Twitter.

In my opinion, international educators should not underestimate the power and value of new media tools (Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Study Abroad Alumni International, ExchangesConnect, NAFSA’s network discussion forums, etc.). Find a few extra minutes in your day to investigate and to participate!

If you are looking for a place to start, my colleague Penny Schouten has been compiling a growing list of international education programs and colleagues on Twitter and Facebook/MySpace. You access Penny’s list for Twitter here and her list for Facebook/MySpace here.

For those of you attending the upcoming NAFSA: Association of International Educators Regional conferences I thought I would add the following information that Penny posted this past Friday to SECUSS-L:

"The hashtag (#) is used in Twitter so that people can follow a specific conversation. So far the hashtags designated to be used by the regionals are:

Oct 26-29th Region 3: #NAFSAR309
Nov 7-10th Region 6: #nafsa609
Nov 11-14th Region 8: #NAFSA09VIII
Nov 3-5th Bi-regional 10 & 11: #nafsaxxi

If you are tweeting from a conference, please include the appropriate hashtag so we can follow your tweets and find out what's happening at your conference.

Even if you don't have a twitter account, you can see what people are talking about at each conference by going to http://twitter.com/ and putting the corresponding hashtag in the search box."

You can follow Penny on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PennySchouten

Links of Interest for Week of October 16th to 22nd

2009-10-23T12:27:00.002-05:00

Here are some interesting links I have found and posted to Twitter this past week. There are a few that focus on China mixed in with a little bit of Fulbright. I hope you find some of them to be of interest.

LinkedIn group "Research in Internationalization of Higher Education"

"Experience Being Abroad w/ the State Dept." event in DC Nov. 2

US F1 student visas fall 25% in Times of India

60% of U.S. business & industry leaders place premium on new recruits’ international experience, new IIE survey (via @IIEglobal)

Fulbright Program Adapts to Obama Administration's Priorities

National Education Abroad Fair calendar

University of Buffalo and China Collaborate on Language Initiative in Schools (2 min audio piece available)

Top Producing Schools for Fulbright came out in the Chronicle of Higher Education (via @FulbrightPress)

How do you answer: "What are, or should be, the ethics of public diplomacy?" (via @mountainrunner)

Tentatively named my personal international education library & archive the "Bury International Education Library & Archive"

Univ. of Chicago to open new center in China for University’s divisions & schools. Fall '10 opening (via @globalhighered)

U.S. and China marked 30 years of science and technology cooperation (via @dipnote)

Institute of International Education (IIE) Launches Center for International Partnerships in Higher Education (via @globalhighered)

Free & open access “Journal of International Education in Business”

Counting International Student Numbers in Non-English Language Destinations (via @WESFans)

“Who Are You Now” ~ Study Abroad Alumni Survey by The Foundation for Asia Pacific

2009-10-22T12:02:00.008-05:00

The Foundation for Asia Pacific Education is surveying study abroad alumni from the United States and Canada to learn more about the impact study abroad has had one’s life today. All study abroad alumni (meaning it doesn’t matter when you studied abroad) can take the survey so please alert any study abroad alumni you know to this research project and if you studied abroad please try to fit 15 minutes into your schedule to complete the survey. Additionally, all survey participants will receive a copy of the results via e-mail.

If you have difficulty accessing the survey via the button above you can also link to the survey here: http://asia-pacificfoundation.org/survey2009/index.htm

I really like the work that The Foundation for Asia Pacific Education is doing (in addition to conducting this survey) and I previously posted to IHEC Blog about them which you can read here.

The U.S. Department of State Presents a Briefing for International Student Advisors and Study Abroad Advisors in Chicago

2009-10-21T23:35:00.003-05:00

I received the following announcement via e-mail from the International Educators of Illinois group.:

Date: Monday, October 26, 2009
1:00 p.m. Information for International Student Advisors
2:00 p.m. Information for Study Abroad Advisors
University of Illinois at Chicago
1200 W. Harrison
Student Services Building, Conference Room B & C
Chicago, Illinois, 60607

The U.S. Department of State would like to invite you to an outreach event to share the news about our improvements with your community and reinforce the importance we attach to continued international exchanges.

International Student Advisors: The U.S. Department of State would like to invite you to an outreach event to discuss our efforts to attract foreign students and the U.S. visa process. While implementing many new security requirements following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Department of State has also worked hard to provide the best possible service to legitimate students. We'd like to share the news about our improvements with your community and reinforce the importance we attach to continued international exchanges.

Study Abroad Advisors: The U.S. Department of State would like to invite you to discuss passports, travel safety information, and consular services available to American students studying abroad. This briefing will address the services available to U.S. citizens through U.S. Embassies and Consulates while they are abroad. The information presented at these briefings is extremely valuable to anyone working with students studying abroad. It is, however, of particular importance for program leaders who would be called upon to work with the Department of State if there were to be a calamitous natural disaster or terrorist event affecting their study site.

Please join us to learn about these issues. Although we cannot cover questions about specific cases, we will do our best to explain recent changes in the visa process and to answer any related questions.

Please RSVP to: Jennifer Fullick, jfullick@uic.edu
Questions? Please direct to: Paula Williams, williamspa2@state.gov

Map and driving directions may be obtained at:
http://www.uic.edu/index.html/maps_directions.shtml

Hosted By: Office of International Services at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Is Your International Education Data Ready for a Change in Institutional/Organizational Leadership?

2009-10-21T11:56:00.003-05:00

During a meeting at work this morning I was reminded of how a change in institutional/organizational (and perhaps divisional) leadership can change the way you are requested to collect and report data about your international education programming efforts. For example, a few years ago the institution I work for saw a change in University President from a Musicologist to a Mathematician and then a change in University Provost from an Historian to a Physicist. This change in leadership from backgrounds in the Humanities and non-quantitative Social Sciences to backgrounds in the very quantitative Physical Sciences no doubt brought about changes in how the University was to collect, analyze and report data. To be sure, the Musicologist and the Historian valued, wanted and needed the quantitative data to make informed decisions just as the Mathematician and the Physicist no doubt value, want and need qualitative data to make informed decisions. These disciplines, however, vary greatly in their methodological and data analysis approaches and it is these differences we should be aware of when collecting, analyzing and reporting our international education data.

My question is this: Are you and your data collection efforts ready for an institutional/organizational shift in leadership? Thoughts?

IHEC Blog now has a Facebook Fanpage

2009-10-20T12:16:00.001-05:00

This past weekend I created a Facebook fanpage for IHEC Blog. My intent when I first opened a Facebook account was to create a page for IHEC Blog but I experienced a few difficulties in this endeavor so my Facebook account became simply a personal account. Only in the past 2-3 months have I become more active in my Facebook usage and have started to become a fan of and/or joined various groups including:

350.org
Academic Programs International - API
American Diplomacy
AsiaLearn
Aspire by API - High School and Gap Year Study Abroad
AustraLearn
DAAD North America
EducationUSA
EuroLearn
Foundation for Asia Pacific Education
Institute of International Education (IIE)
Join the Movement for Study Abroad
NAFSA Association of International Educators
Scholarships for International Students
Trust Agents
U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy
U.S. Department of State
Wandering Educators
Wide Awake Minds
World Education Services

This past weekend I finally dedicated some time to try and figure out how to create a Facebook page for IHEC Blog and it turned out to be a fairly easy process. As regular IHEC Blog readers know, I also post to Twitter from time to time and for the past several Friday’s I have pulled some of the most interesting links posted to Twitter and compiled them into one post. I will continue to do this on Twitter and will also continue to post to Twitter a link back to IHEC Blog every time a new blog post goes up. I plan to continue to post to Twitter the same as I always have. The challenge to me is to make the content on IHEC Blog Facebook fanpage interesting enough for people to become a fan and follow. To be sure, some topics/information will be posted to Twitter, IHEC Blog and the IHEC Blog Facebook fanpage simultaneously but there will be times when I only post certain information to the IHEC Blog Facebook fanpage and not to Twitter or to IHEC Blog.

If you would like to become a fan of the IHEC Blog Facebook fanpage please visit the site here.

Links of Interest for Week of October 9th to 15th

2009-10-16T12:33:00.000-05:00

Following is a list of interesting links I pulled from and posted to Twitter this past week.

Many overseas students unable to enter U.K. this year due to new visa system (via @IIEglobal)

The top 100 colleges on Twitter (via @WESFans)

39 Fulbrighters have received a Nobel Prize. Explore the Fulbright Program's Legacy of Leadership (via @FulbrightSchlrs)

Australia's international student projections are not sustainable (via @pdxnicolle)

"How I compile the tables of international student fees" by Mike Reddin

Colleges fight for Chinese students (via @pdxnicolle)

The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence is now published

Agreement signed, French & Australian universities will provide mutual recognition of each country's education qualifications

API/JCU Diversity Scholarship Announced (via @APIstudyabroad)

Association of Academic Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean (AAPLAC) conference call for proposals

Congrats to @DavidComp - winner of the Grand Prize flipcam for our "Where in the World is iDrop?" contest! (via @ConnectStateGov)

International Day of Climate Action ~ October 24th

2009-10-15T15:02:00.000-05:00

http://www.350.org/studyabroad

Next up for International Educators is October 24th ~ International Day of Climate Action so be sure to check out http://www.350.org/studyabroad and follow them on Twitter at @350.

http://www.350.org/studyabroad

International Educational Exchange and Climate Change

2009-10-15T12:26:00.003-05:00

This is my second IHEC Blog post today in support of Blog Action Day 2009 (actually my third if you count my introduction post earlier this morning). In this IHEC Blog post I’m highlighting some of the efforts in the field of international education and exchange that bring awareness to climate change as well as the efforts to green the field in the development of more environmentally and socially responsible study abroad programs.

Causes & Social Networks & Listservs

- 350 Study Abroad (http://www.350.org/studyabroad)
- The Green Passport Program (http://greenpassport.ning.com/)
- Sustainabilityabroad -- Sustainability in Study Abroad (http://lists.livingroutes.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabilityabroad)

Standards of Good Practice

- Forum on Education Abroad Sustainability Standards (http://forumea.org/standards-index.cfm)

Institutional Efforts/Programs

-Tulane University’s Carbon Offset Program (http://global.tulane.edu/studyabroad/green.html). Starting in the fall of 2009, Tulane University students studying abroad, as well as foreign students studying at Tulane, will have the option of purchasing carbon offsets for their air travel to and from their study abroad destination. These carbon offsets will take the form of installing energy-saving light bulbs in small towns throughout Louisiana in partnership with the environmental organization Green Light New Orleans (GLNO). A trip will be organized each semester for students who wish to volunteer to personally install light bulbs to offset their air travel to their study abroad destination.

- Connecticut State University System (http://web.ccsu.edu/csuiec/) will be hosting an international education conference (Tomorrow!) entitled “International Perspectives: What Do We Mean by Green”. The conference is designed to provide participants with opportunities to: “Make connections important to raising awareness about global concerns and inter-national issues; Provide opportunities for CSU colleagues to compare curricular strategies among CSU campuses and with the international partners we have in common; and, Learn about promising instructional strategies that help CSU students gain the knowledge and skills required for participation and leadership in a greening economy.

- Middlebury's Sustainable Study Abroad initiatives
1. Sustainable Study Abroad Grant program (www.middlebury.edu/academics/ump/sap/sustainable/grants.htm)
2. Carbon Offset Program (www.middlebury.edu/academics/ump/sap/sustainable/Carbon_Offsets.htm)
3. Green Passport (www.greenpassport.us/)
4. 350.org (www.350.org/studyabroad)
5. Going Green Guide for Directors Abroad (www.middlebury.edu/academics/ump/sap/sustainable/Going_Green_Guide.htm)
6. resources for students on sustainable travel

More info on all of these programs/initiatives can be found here:http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/ump/sap/sustainable/ or by contacting Stacey Thebodo at sthebodo@middlebury.edu

- Clemson University offers a summer program in Trier, Germany, teaching "Sustainable Energy & the Environment" (http://www.clemson.edu/ces/students/global/studyabroad/summer/germany.html). For more info, contact Jessica Pelfrey (pelfrey@clemson.edu) - Program Coordinator, College of Engineering & Science.

- Brandeis University launched a new “Brandeis Forum on Environmental Crisis” in late September with a blogging-type website (http://www.brandeis.edu/environment/index.html). It is not specifically study abroad, but attempts to include student overseas experiences and global perspectives.

Organizational Efforts/Programs

- GlobaLinks Learning Abroad Sustainable Study Abroad initiatives
1. GlobaLinks NewsWire Participating in Blog Action Day (http://globalinksnewswire.com/?p=1258)
2. GlobaLinks Partners With Colorado Carbon Fund, Nation’s First Statewide Carbon Offsetting Program (http://globalinksnewswire.com/?p=351)
3. GlobaLinks Now Official Green Passport Program Sponsor

- Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Environmental Justice Exchange Program (http://tinyurl.com/yg3xmdh)
Funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State, the educational and cultural exchange will provide leadership training opportunities to 18 Chinese and American women and men, particularly members of minority groups, who are active in environmental justice efforts. Participants in the program will jointly examine the environmental burdens, including climate change impacts, on minority communities and low-income populations in the U.S. and China and will be mentored in designing projects to advance environmental justice for those communities. Applications available now via the link above. (Thanks to @EducationUSAhk for posting to Twitter about this!)

- The Foundation for International Education (FIE) has a Mission for Environmental Responsibly (http://www.fie.org.uk/fie/home/mission) that informs its decisions and strategy both inside and outside the classroom. FIE has a standing committee that meets regularly to ensure that environmental sustainability is embedded in all aspects of operational delivery and in all departments within the company

- IES Abroad’s Go Green Initiative (https://www.iesabroad.org/IES/About_IES/GoGreenInitiative.html)

- Academic Programs International (API) (http://www.academicintl.com/)
1. API offer several academic and volunteer/experiential options for students who are environmentally minded. All of their programs in Costa Rica have at least one course dedicated to environmental or ecological studies. One program in particular at the International Center for Development Studies focuses on environment and sustainability as its main academic theme. There are a number of volunteer and service opportunities for API students in Costa Rica that work towards improving the environment, such as a sea turtle rescue program, and environmental conservation efforts.
2. API also has instituted a project across all of our sites called API Gives Back. The API Gives Back Project in each site may consist of an ongoing volunteer opportunity or a one-day commitment. The goal of the project is to help API students express their thanks for the welcome they received by the local community. Many of these projects also focus on the environment, such as a recent effort by their students in Cadiz, Spain to restore marshlands in the area (here is a link to some of these photos on their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/APIstudyabroad#/album.php?aid=107436&id=31469379342).
3. API's Office Green-Over (talk about serious commitment! – my editorial)
From API:
The inside of our ‘new’ building was completely gutted and rebuilt just for us. It’s all built to code for
today’s standards.
⁂ The new insulation is much more efficient than in older buildings – less energy waste.
⁂ Programmable thermostat - for automated control of the office temperature. No need to waste electricity
while heating or cooling the building at night or during the weekend.
⁂ Motion activated lights - automatically turn off if there is no movement after awhile.
⁂ Window blinds – we can close them when the sun gets too hot to keep the rooms from heating up.
⁂ The ‘new’ cubicles are actually old cubes that were refurbished… we gave the landfill some extra room to breathe!
⁂ Water fountains with fresh, tasty H2O! No more plastic bottles!
⁂ No more plastic cups, plates, knives, forks or spoons. It’s all reusable utensils now.
⁂ When disposable cups are necessary, we now have Eco-Products (check out ecoproducts.com) which are
fully compostable hot cups and were engineered using compostable PLA corn plastic from renewable
resources.
⁂ Individual recycling bins at each desk and a larger one in the kitchen - no excuses for not recycling.
⁂ Don’t forget about our new green technology - the online application and forms system saves lots of
energy, paper, and postage. The new student pens were made from recycled newspaper. We’ll also be
printing fewer catalogs next year to save a ton of paper.
Other initiatives have included printing fewer catalogs and materials (and enhancing their capabilities to do so on demand rather than printing more than what they need and may not use). They also limit the amount of paper materials (brochures) that they send out to general requests, and direct students to their website for online versions and pdfs of their applications, catalogs, etc. They have made a concerted effort to give preference to online applications rather than paper ones, including offering a scholarship as an incentive for applying online. In the near future the vast majority of their forms and communication will be electronic as opposed to paper.

Many thanks to all who e-mailed me and left comments on my announcement that IHEC Blog would participate in Blog Action Day 2009. Very much appreciated!

Please see my earlier Blog Action Day 2009 post entitled “The Human Face of Climate Change” to learn more about what CARE is doing in this area.

If you are aware of other initiatives that should be added to this list please leave a comment about the program/initiative and provide more information and/or a link on where more detailed information can be obtained.

The Human Face of Climate Change

2009-10-15T10:11:00.003-05:00

Climate change is not only about melting ice caps and polar bears. Climate change is about people.

Swinging weather patterns are creating disasters on a scale that human civilization has never before witnessed. For the world’s poorest people – the ones least equipped to deal with its effects – climate change is devastating their crops, livelihoods and communities.

"Climate change is worsening the plight of those hundreds of millions of men, women and children who already live in extreme poverty – and it threatens to push hundreds of millions more people into similar destitution," says CARE International’s Secretary General Robert Glasser. "A concerted international response to this unprecedented challenge is required if we are to avoid catastrophic human suffering."

CARE is working toward a world where poor people can create opportunity out of crises like climate change. But the current reality is that climate change makes poor people even more vulnerable.

For instance, agricultural production will likely decline in the poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Less reliable rainfall will likely affect planting seasons, crop growth and livestock health – and lead to increased malnutrition. In other parts of the developing world, flooding will likely further diminish the quality of already-marginal soil and could cause outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery.

Climate change also is hurling many poor families into “Catch-22” situations. For example, they may select crops that are less sensitive to rainfall variation, but also less profitable. As incomes decline and people are not able to eke out a living, children are forced to leave school, assets are sold off to afford essentials, malnutrition rates increase and large-scale migration ensues. The end result? Deepening poverty for tens of millions of people around the world.

What Must Be Done?

At the international level, negotiations to develop a new treaty to guide global efforts to address climate change will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark in just a couple weeks. The United States must help lead those efforts, and forge a strong agreement that caps emissions, stops global warming and responds to the effects already in motion. We must do this for the sake of all of humanity.

What can I do to help?

First, you can make a tax-deductible donation to CARE to help poor families access the tools and education they need to adapt to the effects of climate change, make efficient use of their existing resources and overcome poverty for good.

Second, if you live in the Unites States, you can write your senators and urge them to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, a critical step toward U.S. leadership in tackling climate change. U.S. leadership is critical to making the Copenhagen negotiations a success.

Third, you can join the CARE mailing list to be kept up to date on CARE’s activities and other ways you can take action in the days counting down to Copenhagen.

To donate, take action and join our e-mail list, please visit www.care.org/climate

Thanks to CARE for this guest post!

Climate Change - Blog Action Day 2009 is Today!

2009-10-15T09:27:00.006-05:00

In a September 29th post I announced that IHEC Blog would be participating in Blog Action Day 2009 and I placed a call to various listservs and networks in the international education community asking for examples and information on what efforts were underway in organizations and programs that focused on climate change. Several people left comments or sent me e-mail messages (plus one I came across on Twitter) and it is these efforts that I pulled together into a post that will go up later today.

Additionally, I have a second Blog Action Day 2009 post scheduled (it will actually be the first post of the day and will go up in an hour or so) about a wonderful organization that you should know about.

As of this post 8,924 Blogs from 148 countries have registered as participating in Blog Action Day 2009 and they are reaching 12,591,007 readers (and these numbers are rapidly increasing). Also, I recommend following Blog Action Day on Twitter (http://twitter.com/blogactionday) to see what else is going on in the blogosphere for Blog Action Day.

공감 (미주 유학생과 새터민 학생에 대한 공감 리포트)

2009-10-14T12:23:00.003-05:00

A short time ago I received a wonderful gift in the mail. One of my former advisees (an international student from South Korea) from my professional work in The College at The University of Chicago sent me a book that she recently published. It was a very nice to hear from her as it’s been about two years since she graduated. Her book is published in both Korean and English which is nice for me as I (unfortunately) don’t speak or read Korean. What is even more interesting is that her book fits perfectly with the theme of IHEC Blog so I thought I would post about it since I finally was able to finish reading her book. Here is a brief description of Empathy: A Light to My Soul (2009) by Jessica Jungmin Lee from the front cover: “The stories of South Korean students in the United States vs. the narratives of North Korean adolescents in South Korea: Reconstructing Identities through ‘SELF-NARRATIVES’”.

I found Empathy: A Light to My Soul to be a very interesting read and one that should be of interest to international educators. If you read Korean you can learn more about this book as well as order a copy of the book from here ('m assuming this is the page for this). Update: The link I provide does not take you directly to webpage for Empathy: A Light to My Soul but rather to a list of books. I think this has to do with the Google translation of the webpage. Fixing this link problem is beyond my technical scope of practice but you can find the book on this page by scrolling to the very bottom and you'll find it. Thanks to my colleague Bettina Hansel over at Intercultural Eyes for catching this!

Call for Poster Proposals - New NAFSA Poster Fair

2009-10-13T12:07:00.000-05:00

My colleague Bryan McAllister-Grande from the Office of Global Affairs at Brandeis University and the Research/Scholarship Network Leader for NAFSA: Association of International Educators sent the following message to a variety of international education listservs/discussion forums and I wanted to further promote this call for poster proposals on IHEC Blog as many readers may find this opportunity of interest. Following is Bryan’s post:

*INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION TO WHAT END? PEACE & JUSTICE AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP REVISITED*

NAFSA 2010 Annual Conference
"The Changing Landscape of Global Higher Education"
May 30-June 4, Kansas City, MO

The Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship (TLS) Knowledge Community, in partnership with the Peace and Justice Member Interest Group, will be hosting a new poster fair at this year's annual conference. We're looking for innovative approaches to among the following topics:

- social justice
- global citizenship and civil society
- peace, coexistence, and reconciliation
- gender, race, ethnicity, and religion
- public or citizen diplomacy
- major global issues such as poverty, health, environmental change, access to education, etc.
- sustainable development issues involving a peace/justice component
- research that looks at the impact of international education on communities, livelihoods, and international relations

These posters are aimed at both the research and practice level. So we're looking for "best practices" as much as exciting research and theory. (Ideally, poster submissions will highlight these theory-to-practice connections.)

The deadline for poster submission is 11:59pm, November 14th, 2009.

Please note that there will be no electrical hookups for posters, though wireless can be made available (price tba).

Please go to the NAFSA website for more information and to submit a poster proposal http://www.nafsa.org/annual_conference/call_for_proposals/

Make sure to indicate that you are applying for the "International Education to What End" poster fair.

YouTube interview with researcher & co-author of “Cultural Borders and Mental Barriers: The Relationship Between Living Abroad and Creativity"

2009-10-12T12:18:00.000-05:00

There has been some recent buzz in several media outlets and in the blogosphere on some recent research focusing on creativity and living abroad. I just discovered this INSEAD Knowledge series video (10:34) interview with William Maddux, one of the co-researchers/authors, on YouTube. I won't summarize the research or the interview in this post as I just wanted to put this on your radar.

Here is the non-APA, non-Chicago Manual of Style citation should you want to track down the article:
“Cultural Borders and Mental Barriers: The Relationship Between Living Abroad and Creativity” by William W. Maddux from INSEAD and Adam D. Galinsky from Northwestern University published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 96, No. 5, 1047-1061 (2009)

2009-10-09T12:14:00.000-05:00

This is the fifth Friday that I’m posting to IHEC Blog with links of interest I’ve pulled off of Twitter this past week. I’ve changed the title and focus of this weekly post slightly…I hope you find some of these links of interest. As always, topics/titles are live links so please click away!

GlobaLinks NewsWire to participate in Blog Action Day 2009

Record number of applications received! (via @GilmanProgram)

Nat'l Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (abroad); up to $30K/year (via @uhhglobe)

"International students could pay off Australia's debt, says Bernard Salt"

What are you doing for International Education Week, November 16-20, 2009?

"US voices concern over Turkmenistan’s bid to stop students traveling to foreign universities"

"Exchange We Can Believe In"

International Student Travel Video Contest 2009

Dissertations relating to Peace Corps (via @

PeaceCorpsWiki)

Thinking global: Victoria's action plan for international education [September 2009] (via @IDPDRIE)

Complete information on the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship Programs (via @

CitizenDiplomat)

Interested in teaching for global justice or international education? check out AAC&U's social network (via @sharedfutures)

Study abroad isn't just for foreign language students (via @pdxnicolle)

International 'Leapfrogging'

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DavidComp

Two-Week Summer Graduate Seminar on Study Abroad in Rome, Italy

2009-10-08T12:07:00.001-05:00

Loyola University Chicago’s School of Education will again be offering a unique opportunity this summer for graduate students to participate in a two-week (July 4-17, 2010) graduate seminar focusing on U.S. students who study abroad at Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center Campus.

The seminar is ELPS 429: U.S. Students Abroad: Lessons from Rome in Cultural Immersion (see the summer 2009 syllabus here) carries 3 graduate level semester hours and will be taught by Terry Williams. I’m a doctoral student at Loyola in Comparative and International Education and while I never took this course, due to work conflicts, I’ve only heard positive feedback from those I’ve known who have taken the course. Terry Williams has taught this same course in Rome for several summers now.

If you are interested in this graduate level seminar please visit Loyola’s website for summer programs here and you can reach Terry Williams at twillia@luc.edu.

Of special note: The John Felice Rome Center is the oldest continually operating U.S. university program in Italy.

IHEC Blog posts will be sporatic this and next week...

2009-10-07T11:46:00.000-05:00

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program 2010-2011 season is in HIGH gear for me right now and I truly look forward to October 20th when I mail the box of 69 undergraduate applications from the University of Chicago this year! Don't get me wrong...I LOVE the Fulbright program and, more importantly, talking to students about their research, study and English teaching assistantship plans abroad. With that in mind I hope that regular IHEC Blog readers will be patient as I won't be able to post every Monday-Friday as normal during this week and next week. My evenings at home and lunch hour are consumed with Fulbright related work. Additionally, I'm trying to do a little research for my dissertation, tentatively titled Towards the Development of a Methodology to Measure Public Diplomacy Outcomes of International Education Programs, and both of these activities limit the amount of time I have to think of and prepare the daily IHEC Blog post. If you would like to become a regular/frequent/guest contributor to IHEC Blog please read my post from Monday with more details.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program I'm working on is not to be confused with the equally prestigious (arguably more prestigious) Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship Program. The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy has some really good information about this program on their blog which you can read here.