Center for International Education - Annual Report 2018 by Washington and Lee University

2017-18 ANNUAL REPORT

The Center for International Education

Letter from the Director

It is a pleasure to reflect on 2017-18 in our new annual report. Frankly, it’s almost exhausting! When one has the opportunity to work with so many outstanding students and faculty, it is easy to speak in superlative terms and celebrate their many accomplishments. One almost “gets used to” superlatives. Yet, every year, our students and faculty manage to outdo themselves, and 2017-18 was no exception. The annual report offers a broad overview of the university’s global education activity. Here, I offer a quick glimpse:

• Three of our students won Critical Language Scholarships for summer 2018: Elizabeth McDonald ’18 for Japanese, Emily Austin ’18 for Indonesian and Riley Ries ’19 for Russian;

• Kiki Spiezio ’18 won the Clinton Scholarship to study at the American University in Dubai;

• We celebrated four Fulbright winners (Jeremy Friedlander, Hanna Falchuk, Jared Shely and Carson Bryant);

• Rosalie Bull ’20, Katherine Ingram ’20 and Trang Nguyen ’20 will head to Oxford as we welcome Kenta Sayama, Mohini Tangri and Ben Fleenor back to Lexington;

• More than 100 students went abroad in summer 2018 to undertake language study, service, research and internship opportunities;

• Our faculty hosted numerous international scholars and events, and led more than 200 students on 17 Spring Term Abroad courses. The list goes on and on. It is truly an honor to recount the many accomplishments of our faculty and students.

As we turn to 2018-19, we wish our Program Assistant and CGL Operations Manager Helen MacDermott well as she moves to IT. Meanwhile we welcome her successor, Patrick Sheridan, who joins Latha Dawson (Spring Term Abroad Coordinator), Cindy Irby (Study Abroad Adviser), Hunter Swanson (International Student and Scholar Adviser) and myself in the Center for International Education.

As you peruse the pages that follow, we will already be working with faculty and students on events for 2018-19. Keep up to date on our activities at go.wlu.edu/ global and be sure to visit our offices on your next visit to campus! Best wishes from Lexington and the world!

Connecting with Oxford

In 2018-19, Washington and Lee will send three more students to spend the academic year at Oxford. Rosalie Bull and Katherine Ingram will reside at Mansfield College and Trang Nguyen will be at Blackfriars. They follow in the footsteps of the trailblazers of the university’s renewed relationship with Oxford’s Mansfield College— Kenta Sayama, Mohini Tangri and Ben Fleenor who spent 2017-18 overseas (all class of 2019).

Katherine will study economics and environmental studies as she looks to gain insights into the role that international institutions such as the United Nations play in mitigating climate change. She will investigate “how international trade has failed to address climate change and what types of incentives (or restrictions) will ensure better management of the environment as well as the maintenance of human rights.” In this regard, she will be right at home as she is able to take advantage of the robust programming of Mansfield’s newly opened Bonavero Institute of Human Rights.

Rosalie seeks to mediate the “unreconciled tension between academia and civilization” and “navigate the questions of what it means to flourish as a society and what it requires for people to realize their own capabilities within an imperfect world.” To that end, she will take classes in economics, Marxism, game theory, and Cognition and Culture as she develops her own study of how “the mechanics of society and social infrastructure allow democracy to live up to its expectations.”

Trang will pursue the passion she discovered when she came to Washington and Lee. She began as a business major but found her passion in English literature as a result of courses she took in religion, anthropology and writing. After taking a gap year at home in Vietnam, she returned to W&L and immediately seized the opportunity to study English literature (while also keeping her Chinese language sharp) at Oxford.

As we bid Rosalie, Katherine and Trang godspeed, we look forward to sharing the stories Kenta, Ben and Mohini bring back to Lexington!

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Trang Nguyen, Rosalie Bull and Katherine Ingram

Zainab Abiza Awarded Davis Projects for Peace Grant

Zainab Abiza ’19 was awarded the prestigious Davis Projects for Peace Grant to work with the Dar Taliba Center in the small town of Sidi Yahya Zaer, in the outskirts of Rabat, Morocco. Her project has two emphases: The first phase aims to create a more favorable learning environment for the girls staying at the Dar Taliba Center. The second consists of a two-week summer “boot camp” to improve the girls’ conversational English and prepare them for their English baccalaureate exam.

The project combines Zainab’s commitment to service around the world (and, in particular, in her home country of Morocco) and her interest in international relations and public policy. Her diverse passions were manifest in the summer of 2018 as she spent the first half of the summer attending Princeton’s Public Policy and International Affairs Program and then departed to undertake her Projects for Peace work in Morocco.

Projects such as Zainab’s are becoming emblematic of the W&L global experience. They lay the groundwork for a lasting impact and

sometimes sustained relationship between our students and the people with whom they connect over the summer. Two prior winners of Projects for Peace grants established projects that led to return visits and projects by Washington and Lee students. Maren Lundgren ’18 and Yoko Koyama ’19 used funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to spend part of summer 2017 in Cameroon to continue a project started a previous summer by Amirah Ndam Njoya ’16 and Jenna Biegel ’17 under the auspices of the Endeavor Foundation.

Ndam Njoya and Biegel conducted water tests and refurbished an elementary school in the town of Mandetkene. They reported, however, that the school needed a regular source of income to sustain its operations. So, Lundgren and Koyama returned to assist with the construction of a small store that would generate this income. While doing so, they organized a summer engineering camp for the students.

This vision of sustained engagement abroad was already evident among our engineering students, particularly in the work of 2017’s Projects for

Zainab Abiza ’19

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Peace winner, Angel Vela de la Garza Evia ’18. In summer 2017, he worked with students from the Universidad de Monterey, Mexico to refurbish a classroom and operate a STEM camp for primary school students and their siblings at Escuela Primaria Profesor Eduardo Caballero Escamilla in Monterey. During the February 2018 break, Angel, along with fellow engineering student Matt Lubas ’18 (who also was the recipient of the 2018 Global Learning Leadership Award) and Professor Jon Erickson led a group of engineering colleagues back to Monterey to make additions to the classroom and conduct additional STEM activities. Angel and Matt hope to develop an NGO that will continue to support similar projects in primary schools in underserved areas throughout Mexico.

As a partner school of the Davis United World College Scholars Program, Washington and Lee University is eligible to receive Davis Projects for Peace grants. The program is funded by the late Kathryn Wasserman Davis, who established it on her 100th birthday in 2007 as a way to challenge young people to plant seeds of peace throughout the world with innovative projects. At least one Washington and Lee student has won a Davis grant each year since the award’s inception.

Ryder Babik, Anne Rodgers, Abby Hinrichs, Daniel Rhoades, Professor Jon Erickson, Matt Lubas, Angel Vela de la Garza Evia, Anna Soroka, Katarina Martin

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Angel Vela de la Garza Evia ’18 working with students in Monterey, Mexico

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Certificate of International Immersion and Global Learning Leadership Award

The International Education Committee proudly awarded the Certificate of International Immersion to 12 students in 2018. The certificate recognizes not only students’ extensive and immersive experiences abroad but also their efforts to incorporate their experiences into their curricula and enrich campus life upon their return to Washington and Lee.

Certificate of International Immersion 2018 Recipients

STUDENT

Emily Austin

Maria Jose Bustamante

Liza Chartampila

Erin Ferber

Witt Hawkins

Savannah Kimble

Matthew Lubas

Maren Lundgren

Monica Musgrave

Alfred Rwagaju

Kiki Spiezio

Yexinyu Yang

This year’s winners’ experiences included

• studying hydroelectric power in Rwanda

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Indonesia, India

Italy, France, Austria

Denmark, Greece

Peru, Argentina, Spain

Denmark, U.K., U.A.E.

China, Ireland, England

Spain, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico

Switzerland, Morocco, Italy, Chad, Cameroon, Greece

Spain, U.K.

Australia, U.K., Rwanda, New Zealand

China, Dominican Republic, Spain, U.A.E., British Virgin Islands, Leeward Islands

Denmark, U.K, China, Mexico

• guest lecturing on 9th-century Buddhist monuments in Indonesia

• interning with health care providers in Peru

• refurbishing schools and providing fresh water in Belize and Cameroon

Each year, our students set the bar a little higher for their successors. We can’t wait to see what the summer of 2019 brings!

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Emily Austin, Witt Hawkins, Monica Musgrave, Maria Jose Bustamante, Erin Ferber, Yexinyu Yang, Matt Lubas, Savannah Kimble, Alfred Rwagaju, Liza Chartampila, Maren Lundgren, Kiki Spiezio

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Global Learning Leadership Prize

Each year, the Center for International Education recognizes one student whose global experiences and accomplishments embody the spirit of learning and service in such a manner that they stand out even among the many tremendous accomplishments of fellow students. In 2018, the Center recognized Matthew Lubas ’18.

Matt’s global experiences and engagement embrace a remarkable combination of study, service, research and leadership. During his years at W&L, he spent time abroad in Spain, Belize and Mexico. His work spanned studying architecture, learning to develop prosthetic limbs, creating supplies of clean water for underserved communities, and assisting in the development of STEM programs for primaryschool children. But he did not undertake all of this alone. In his junior year, he worked with the

Department of Physics and Engineering to lead a group of students to conduct a water-supply project in Belize. In his senior year, he and Angel Vela de la Garza Evia ’18 led another group of engineering students to Mexico to continue developing the STEM project work started by the latter in summer 2017. On campus, Matt organized lectures by guest speakers, made presentations in departmental events, and organized a session in the biennial Science, Society and the Arts conference.

Matt’s work exemplifies the spirit of global learning and the commitment to community service that we celebrate at W&L. He went abroad to learn and to serve and, upon returning to Lexington, he inspired fellow students to do the same.

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Mark Rush, Director of International Education, and Matt Lubas.

Summer Research and International Experiences

Our 2018 grant winners undertook a number of diverse projects that spanned the globe. All told, the Center for International Education supported the work of 27 students. They studied contemporary and traditional medicine in Pakistan, rural medicine in Mexico and the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh. They did thesis research on the disappearance of the Tahitian language. Others studied Arabic in Morocco and Jordan, and Chinese in Shanghai. Without the support of our benefactors, none of this would be possible. We gratefully recognize and thank:

■ The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

■ The Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation

■ The John M. Evans Endowment for International Experiences

■ The Goldman Sachs Endowment for International Experiences

■ The Rusty Johnson ’86 Endowment

■ The Daniel Miller III and Phoebe T. Miller Endowment

■ The Eric T. Woolley Fund for International Internships

■ The Anthony F. Lotruglio Endowment for Study Abroad

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Clockwise from top left: Eric Herrera ’20 in Mexico, Alex Caines ’21 with school children in Bangladesh, Sawera Khan ’21 and Midha Ahmad ’21 in Pakistan, Brooklyne Oliveira ’21 and Reggie Zhao ’21 in China.

2018 Summer Grant Recipients from the Center of International Education THE

STUDENTS

PROJECT, COUNTRY FUNDING

Zainab Abiza Dar Taliba Project: Educate a Girl, Change the World, Morocco

Midha Ahmad

Davis Projects for Peace

A Myriad of Medical Dimensions: Traditional Medicine in Pakistan Endeavor, Evans

Spencer Alascio Fish Ecology in the Amazon, Brazil Evans

Alexander Caines Safe Water and Rohingya Crisis, Bangladesh Endeavor, Evans

Katherine Dau Florence As It Was, Italy Mellon, Evans

Jackson Ellis Nanotech in German, English, United Kingdom Mellon

Navid Haider Safe Water and Rohingya Crisis, Bangladesh Endeavor, Evans

Julia Hernandez Shepherd Internship, Aya Center, Ghana Woolley

Eric Herrera Health work in rural Mexico CIE top off, Mexico Woolley

Saimon Islam Safe Water and Rohingya Crisis, Bangladesh Endeavor, Evans

Anna Jepsen Excavation in Athens, Greece Evans

Sawera Khan A Myriad of Medical Dimensions: Traditional Medicine in Pakistan Endeavor, Evans

Jiwon Kim Work with North Korean Defectors, Korea Goldman Sachs

Kylie Lee Chinese Language Study, CET Shanghai, China Miller, Evans

Trang Nguyen Photography Internship, Vietnam

Brooklyne Oliveira

Public Opinion and Attitudes Towards Pollution in China

Goldman Sachs

Endeavor, Evans

Cate Peabody Shepherd Internship, Aya Center, Ghana Woolley

Uma Sarwadnya Water Supply, Awareness and Science Camp, Nepal Endeavor, Evans

Anukriti Shrestha Water Supply, Awareness and Science Camp, Nepal Endeavor, Evans

Jake Sirota Honors Thesis Research, Nepal Evans

Jay Smith Tahiti Humanitarian Expedition Mellon

Nicholas St. Pierre Arabic Study, Qalam wa Lawh Center, Rabat, Morocco RR Johnson, Lotruglio

Sierra Terrana Arabic Language Study, CET, Amman, Jordan RR Johnson, Lotruglio

Annalise Thole Healthcare research, Yedea Internship, Citadel Fdn., Accra, Ghana Woolley

Heeth Varnedoe Citadel/Yedea internship, Ghana

Goldman Sachs

Kana White Shepherd Internship, Aya Center, Ghana Woolley

Reggie Zhao

Public Opinion and Attitudes Towards Pollution in China

Endeavor, Evans

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Borders and Their Human Impact

Academic year 2017-18 marked the conclusion of the two-year colloquium on Borders and their Human Impact. The colloquium, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, supported numerous events across W&L’s departments and curriculum, as faculty and students collaborated to study and discuss borders from numerous points of view. In the course of the two academic years, the colloquium hosted 26 events across 14 undergraduate departments, the Mudd Center, Leyburn Library and the School of Law.

The colloquium kicked off its second year with a four-day visit by Dr. Suyog Shrestha and Dr. Abha Eli Phoboo from CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. In their public address, they discussed “Science Without Borders” and addressed the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to scientific study.

They also visited Professor Irina Mazilu’s class on “Applications of Physics to the Social Sciences” and met with STEM students to discuss the importance of training scientists to engage in public writing about their research and its impact.

The colloquium joined with the Williams School to sponsor “Conversations in the Age of Trump,” a two-year series of talks by scholars and journalists to address the sources of and fallout from the 2016 presidential election. First up was Jonathan Rauch (Brookings Institution, The Atlantic) who discussed the circumstances leading to the 2016 election result in his October talk, “Unpresidented: Governing in the Age of Chaos.” In January, Edward Luce of The Financial Times offered a global perspective on the 2016 election in “Trump and the Crisis of Western Democracy.”

Clockwise from top left: Dr. Abha Eli Phoboo, Edward Luce, Dr. Suyog Shrestha, Jonathan Rauch.

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Dr. Vanessa Davies (U. California, Berkeley) closed the colloquium with a profound discussion of the rediscovery of important archaeological research in “An Untold Story of Black Intellectuals and Egyptology.” Dr. Davies’ visit was sponsored by Africana Studies and the Mudd Center.

List of Events

2017-18 Speakers

The center thanks the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its support, which made it possible to conduct a colloquium that highlighted the talents, interests, passion and diversity of the faculty and students.

09/17/17 Suyog Shrestha and Abha Eli Phoboo (CERN)

“ Science Without Borders at CERN, Switzerland ”

Sponsored by the Department of Physics and Engineering

09/19/17 A. James Arnold (University of Virginia) and Clayton Eshleman (author)

“ Translating Aimé Césaire ”

Sponsored by the Department of Romance Languages and Leyburn Library

09/28/17 Tariq Ramadan (St. Antony’s College, Oxford)

“ Equality and Difference: Equality as a Social Requirement and Human Ideal ”

Colloquium on New Frontiers in Global Education, March 23-24, 2018

With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, W&L hosted its first colloquium on global education. Organized by the Center for International Education and the Global Discovery Laboratories, the colloquium welcomed 41 teachers, scholars, administrators and practitioners to discuss the challenges and opportunities posed by the globalization of education as well as its impact on pedagogy, campus cultures and the notion of liberal education. Panel topics addressed:

• International Faculty Perspectives on American Pedagogy and Classroom Culture

• Campus Climate and Its Impact on International Students

• Legal Issues, Privacy Law and Looming Challenges in a Digital World

• Athletes and Study Abroad: Their Impact and Challenges They Face

• Gender, Racial, and Economic Gaps in Global and Higher Education

• Global Competencies and Global Skills for the 21st Century

• The Future of Liberal Education in an Increasingly Illiberal World Participating institutions included James Madison University, Longwood University, RCM&D, International SOS, The College of William and Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, International Studies Abroad, Haverford College and the Liberal Arts Consortium for Online Learning.

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Plenary Speakers

José Bowen , President of Goucher College, addressed questions of accessibility confronting American students who wish to study abroad. An accomplished concert pianist and pioneer in active learning and the use of technology in the classroom, Bowen has been featured in publications across the nation. His book, “Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning” (2012) addresses how to use classroom technology strategically. In his remarks he addressed financial challenges to higher education at home and abroad and the positive impact on student learning that results from their exposure to the diversity of pedagogical styles and environments while abroad.

Bryan Alexander, president of Bryan Alexander Consulting and Senior Researcher, Georgetown University, is an international higher education consultant whose articles have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and Inside Higher Ed. Alexander publishes the monthly online journal “Future Trends in Technology and Education” (FTTE). Drawing upon the extensive coverage of FTTE, Alexander addressed fiscal, demographic and technological trends around the world and the challenges they pose for access to and sustainability of higher education.

The program featured a strategy and planning session for future Global Education Colloquia. Important takeaways included:

Sports: The ambassadorial role of sports and athletes who study abroad is an untapped aspect of global education. Athletes’ potential for community engagement is unlimited and the transcendent role that sports can play in bridging cultural, linguistic and political divides is well documented.

Pedagogy : As increasing numbers of students go abroad, it is important for home institutions to prepare them to engage in a diversity of learning environments: small seminars, large classes, tutorials and online learning are all part of the global learning environment.

Campus Climate and Our International Students: We can better prepare our students to go abroad by reaching out to our international students to learn what obstacles (however small or large) they encounter in their transition to W&L (or any other American host university). Similarly, we can ensure that home campuses are more welcoming by learning from the experiences our students encounter while abroad.

Next Time: We are already laying the groundwork for our second colloquium. Stay tuned!

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Latvia Invaded?

From March 9-11, 2018, Washington and Lee joined with the Virginia Military Institute to host a National Security Crisis Simulation. The event took place in the Ruscio Center for Global Learning and VMI’s Center for Leadership and Ethics.

Some 30 students from Bard College, Brown University, Connecticut College, Dickinson College, Naval War College, U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy, Vassar College, Washington and Lee University,

press conference, with questions from faculty advisors acting as members of the press.

The simulation entailed a cyberattack on Latvia’s government websites. The resulting communications breakdown added to the simulation’s intensity as participants had to distinguish real and fake information while dealing with looming military responses by Russia, NATO and the United States. W&L students played the following roles:

• Deputy Secretary of the Treasury: Luke Teague ’18

• U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations: Khang Truong ’20

• NATO J5 Plans and Policy Advisor: Saimon Islam ’19

• Russian Regional Security Officer: Bianca Chiappelloni ’18

• Deputy Secretary of Defense: Alex Pollera ’18

• CyberCom Liaison Officer: Lilly Wimberly ’18

In the end, peace was secured! The clear impact of cybertechnology on the conduct of foreign affairs was manifest as it introduced an enhanced level of uncertainty throughout the process.

and VMI participated in the event. Politics faculty Bob Strong, Seth Cantey and Mark Rush joined nine colleagues from VMI to serve as advisors to the simulation.

Students played roles as members of the national security council, NATO representatives, and diplomats from the United States, Latvia, the EU and Russia. The event concluded with a mock

The simulation was the final event conducted under the auspices of a seven-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the Project on Civilian-Military Educational Cooperation. The grant supported joint seminars, exercises, curriculum development workshops and social events at and among the participating institutions. Previous simulations addressed conflict in the South China Sea, a crisis regarding Iran and nuclear arms, and conflict between Russia and the Ukraine.

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Visiting Fulbright Scholar-InResidence Studies Works of Former W&L Professor I-Hsiung Ju

Dr. Ling-ting Chiu, a Fulbright Scholar and assistant professor of history at Soochow University in Taiwan, spent the summer at Washington and Lee studying the works of former W&L professor and artist Professor I-Hsiung Ju. She worked with Thomas Camden ’76, head of Special Collections, and Michael Kopald ’73, a student of Professor Ju, as part of her ongoing analysis of traditional Chinese literati painters who went overseas to practice and refine their art. Literati paintings are done in black ink and bold yet delicate brushstrokes, often focusing on beautiful landscapes and the expressions of nature.

In an August 24 interview in The Columns (columns.wlu.edu), Chiu discussed Professor Ju’s impact on fellow literati artists and his role in the “East-West” transfer of artistic traditions:

“I’ve spent a lot of time studying literati in Taiwan,” Chiu said, “but at W&L, my interviews are different. These students are now 60 or 70 years old, but when they talk about Professor Ju, they get teared-up. They were so inspired because his teaching wasn’t just about skill or painting, but about life and philosophy. When the students entered university, they thought he was just teaching literati painting, but when a literati painter paints, he shares a piece of himself. So, when they were taught, it wasn’t just how to paint; it was about the life and the personality of the teacher. And they still carry that with them.”

Kopald echoed these sentiments as he warmly described Professor Ju’s impact as a teacher. He was “like a fire that was always burning, as he would lead us as a teacher and help us follow our interests as a mentor.” In describing Ju’s skill as an artist, Kopald noted that some of his works were amazingly simple “demos” that he would craft while teaching a class.

In her public talk, Dr. Chiu revealed that, due to the destruction of much of Ju’s work in a tragic house fire at his family’s home in New Jersey, Washington and Lee is now the world’s principal repository of his work. The Center for International Education is collaborating with Special Collections to publish Dr. Chiu’s study in the 2018-19 academic year.

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Global Comings and Goings…

In 2017-18, the CIE was busier than ever. We sent more than 200 students abroad for Spring Term courses led by Washington and Lee faculty. Another 100 studied abroad during the fall and/ or winter terms.

Our work with international students continues to expand in several directions. We now work closely with our foreign language teaching assistants (FLTA) in their capacities as teachers and visiting students. FLTAs always play an integral role in the various modern language departments and add a different dimension of interculturality to the university community. Their presence is always welcome in the classroom, where they share firsthand cultural experiences. Outside the classroom they lead and monitor daily scheduled conversations, host activities within their respective departments and the Center for International Education, or become friends with

students. Some enroll annually in the Methods for World Language course and are introduced to pedagogical strategies “foreign” to them.

In September 2017, Dick Kuettner, director of the Global Discovery Laboratories, arranged for FLTAs to attend the annual meeting of the Foreign Language Association of Virginia (FLAVA) in Williamsburg. Sofia Hernandez, Franziska Auer, Mililani Ganivet and Israa Salah learned, shared and networked with K-12 and post-secondary teachers and professors from Virginia and abroad, and experienced colonial America with members of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Drawing upon their experiences at the conference, from the methods course, and through application of old and new trends in teaching at W&L, they presented and discussed their observations about multicultural, multinational pedagogy at the spring Colloquium on New Frontiers in Global Education.

Mia Liu (Chinese) Michiko Nakada (Japanese) Israa’ Salah (Arabic) Sofia Hernandez (Spanish) Mililani Ganivet (French) Franziska Auer (German)

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Thanks to the efforts of International Student and Scholar Adviser Hunter Swanson, the center expanded its outreach to all international students by initiating a new annual survey of their interests and concerns. We found that more than half of international students were especially interested in securing employment

ISCD 2018 featured the following sessions:

in the USA immediately after graduation, and a quarter intended to attend graduate school. The center collaborated with the Office of Career and Professional Development (CPD) to host W&L’s first International Student Career Day (ISCD) in January 2018.

• an overview of employment authorization options for student visa holders presented by Hunter Swanson;

• a career development workshop tailored to the unique needs of international students presented by Kip Brooks, the assistant director of CPD;

• a summer internship panel comprised of international students who previously participated in competitive summer internship or research experiences;

• and an overview of work visa options after graduation presented by experienced immigration attorneys from McCandlish Holton, PC.

More than a third of W&L’s international students attended the event. They provided tremendous, positive feedback that will enable us to expand the scope of future ISCDs. Ezekiel Piantoni ’18 (Argentina) said that events such as ISCD are “crucial for international students.” Ezekiel is now working with Goldman Sachs as an Investment Banking Analyst after spending two summers with them as an intern.

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Gunn Scholars Coming Home THE

A foundational part of our international student program is our administration of the John M. Gunn scholarship that supports one visiting international student for an entire academic year. Alfred Harrison, vice chairman and director of Alliance Capital Management Holdings L.P., created the scholarship to honor John Gunn ’45, professor emeritus of economics at W&L.

Since the scholarship’s inception, W&L has hosted 21 Gunn Scholars from 12 countries. In 2018-19, we welcome Suha al-Nahari of Yemen. Suha comes to us from the American University in Cairo. She will study economics during her time with us. In Winter Term 2019, we will welcome Felix Yeboah (Gunn ’06) back to campus. Felix is assistant professor of international development in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. During his visit, he will meet with faculty and students and give a public lecture on food security in Africa that draws upon his recent study, “Youth for Growth: Transforming Economies through Agriculture” that was published by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in March 2018.

Meanwhile, Prof. Richard Bidlack (History) will collaborate with Bermet Zhumakadyr-kyzy (Gunn ’10) and several other Gunn Scholars from Kyrgyzstan to develop a new Spring Term course in conjunction with the American University in Central Asia. Bermet graduated as valedictorian of the American University of Central Asia in 2012. Upon graduation, she was hired by AUCA to supervise its international students. She next took a research and analysis position with Human Rights Watch in Bishkek before traveling to Malmo, Sweden, to work for an NGO that helped immigrants, mainly Muslims, integrate into Swedish society. She currently works for an IT start-up firm designing apps for mobile phones. All the while, she has also worked periodically as a research assistant for several Western scholars. Bermet has returned twice to W&L to give guest talks on her human rights work.

It is a pleasure to befriend so many international students from across the globe. The opportunity to share the W&L experience with them is all the more profound thanks to the impact that faculty such as John Gunn have had on so many of our students and the love they share for those faculty and the university.

Bermet Zhumakadyr kyzy (Gunn ’10)

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Quick Facts

Total number of students abroad in 38 countries 2017-18:

Study Abroad: 104 students

Spring Term Abroad: 210 students

Summer: 62 students

International Students: 83

Number of countries: 31

Center for International Education Staff

Mark Rush Director, Waxberg Professor of Politics and Law rushm@wlu.edu

Cindy Irby Assistant Director and Study Abroad Advisor cirby@wlu.edu

Patrick Sheridan Operations Manager, Kenneth P. Ruscio Center for Global Learning psheridan@wlu.edu

Credits:

Writers: Lindsey Nair, Drewry Sackett

Layout: Billy Chase

Photos: Kevin Remington and Patrick Hinely ’73

Front Cover: Allysa Bower ’19

Other photos are courtesy of the students.

Hunter Swanson Associate Director and International Student and Scholar Advisor hswanson@wlu.edu

Latha Dawson Spring Term Abroad Program Coordinator dawsonl@wlu.edu

The Center for International Education 204 W. Washington St. Lexington, Virginia 24450 go.wlu.edu/global

Back cover: clockwise from top left: Jay Smith with hosts in Tahiti, Saimon Islam working with children in Bangladesh, Trang Nguyen interviewing in Vietnam, Hunter Swanson with Fall 2018 international students, Fall 2018 students attending St. Andrews along with their guide.

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go.wlu.edu/global