September 2009
GW's International Community
In July, a casual visitor to GW’s campus might have easily distinguished the university's physical boundaries. But by the end of August, GW’s global reach became apparent to any passerby, as the campus filled with students from across the United States and over 100 countries worldwide.
Who are the members of GW’s international community? They are some 2,400 international students representing 124 countries, including exchange, graduate, and undergraduate students from all schools and disciplines, as well as about 300 Visiting Scholars, who bring with them a wealth of professional expertise and diverging perspectives in fields ranging from law to public health. It also comprises the approximately 900 GW students who study in over 50 countries each academic year and an additional 220 who enroll in overseas short-term summer programs led by GW faculty. Together with a year-round student body and faculty that already represent hundreds of nationalities, languages, and beliefs, these are the individuals who shape GW’s international character.
Last month, the International Services Office welcomed 500 new international students in a two-day orientation that began with remarks from President Knapp. The Office for Study Abroad also hosted 43 exchange students from 13 countries at an ice-breaker reception. A listing of some of the exciting international events taking place this fall on campus and beyond is posted in the calendar alongside this column.
As we launch this first issue of our newsletter, we celebrate the spirit of across-the-globe collaboration here at GW, welcome our international visitors, and wish our traveling students and faculty bon voyage.
New Website for Study Abroad
The Office for Study Abroad is proud to announce the relaunch of its website (http://www.studyabroad.gwu.edu/). The enhanced site greatly increases the resources available to students exploring studying abroad opportunities through the use of an on-line database called Studio Abroad. Through Studio Abroad, much of GW's study abroad application process has been moved to a secure, customized, web-based platform. Students can now search GW's list of approved programs, request advising, apply for scholarships, and chart the progress of their applications on line, any time day or night. The new site features a number of tutorial videos explaining how to use the on-line resources as well as a video version of Study Abroad 101, the general information session on how to start the study abroad process.
GW's Undergraduate Fulbrighters
Last spring, eighteen undergraduate students at GW were awarded the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship, named in honor of the late Senator William Fulbright (JD, 1934), who introduced legislation that established the program in 1946 with the goal of fostering mutual understanding among nations. Of the eighteen 2009-2010 awards to GW undergraduates, eleven are full study research grants and seven are English teaching assistantships. Aside from their impressive number, the 2009 Fulbright Fellows also represent a broad geographic reach. According to Paul Hoyt-O’Connor of the Center for Undergraduate Fellowships and Research ( www.gwu.edu/~fellcent ), increasing numbers of Fellows are choosing to travel beyond the Western European countries. The destinations for this year’s fellows from GW include Indonesia, Estonia, Bahrain, Russia, Senegal, China, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador.
"The typical GW student tends to be especially internationally oriented," says Hoyt-O'Connor, describing a characteristic that is clearly evident in the roster of 2009 Fellows, whose interests range from international affairs and law, anthropology, and linguistics to ethno-musicology, education, and environmental sustainability. Many are already proficient in at least one foreign language and studied abroad while undergraduates at GW. While some have plans to continue their post-graduate education upon their return from overseas, others have already held professional positions in business, communications, and government. Hoyt-O’Connor observes that Fulbright fever seems to be spreading around campus. Applications to the program, one of the largest of the 70 or more fellowship and research programs for undergraduates administered at GW, grew from 33 in 2007 to 55 in 2008. The Center for Undergraduate Fellowships and Research, Hoyt-O’Connor says, is working now to build an alumni network of fellowship recipients to help returned Fulbrighters connect with each other as well as other students interested in what they’ve learned and where they’ve been.
GW's Center for Global Health-Moi University, Kenya--Building a Partnership
Last spring, GW's Center for Global Health partnered with Moi Univeristy in Kenya to win a $50,000 planning grant awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Higher Education for Development (HED). The Moi-GW award comes as part of the Africa-US Higher Education Initiative, started by USAID to encourage partnerships for the advancement of higher education in sub-Saharan Africa in several priority areas such as engineering, health, environment and natural resources, science and technology, education, and business. One of few partnered grant recipients in the field of public health, the Moi-GW match creates a promising team with the difficult but reachable goal of helping Kenya build expertise and local capacity to reverse worsening trends in maternal and child health due to HIV/AIDS and the "brain drain."
In late August, the partners, represented by Dr. Diana Menya from Moi University and Dr. Anne Peterson from GW, presented a draft strategic plan at the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative Conference in Accra, Ghana, where individuals from foundations, the private sector, the World Bank, the African Union, USAID, HED, and other grant recipient university partners convened. In addition to sharing their plan and networking with key players in the diverse sectors--agriculture, water and sanitation, and education included-- that affect public health, Peterson and Menya were able to identify essential opportunities that may eventually help make their plan reality.
In the meantime, Dr. Peterson and others at the Center for Global Health continue to take steps in that direction. On September 14-16, 2009, Peterson, along with Dr. Jim Sherry, Dr. Sangeeta Mookerji, and Tova Reichel of GW, attended the first annual meeting of the Consortium for Universities in Global Health (CUGH) at the National Institutes of Health, where they presented a poster on their abstract titled A Multi-Country Partnership to Advance Global Health Education and highlighted the challenges, opportunities, and potential impact of the partnership between GW's School of Public Health and Health Services, Moi University School of Public Health, and a third partner, BRAC University's James P. Grant School of Public Health. Together they assert that institutions of higher education are an inadequately tapped resource for disseminating global best practices and helping ministries of health better address the health needs of their citizens. "This exciting partnership will benefit GWU students, ground our global health research, and build "South to South" interaction," says Dr. Peterson. "It has the potential to improve faculty performance and research opportunities in new ways that have yet to be tried."