This is International Education Week, a week that—in light of recent events—may have more significance and importance this year than in most. Years ago, writer (and SUNY alum) Ishmael Reed observed with insight, “The world is here.”
MCC’s mission shares this insight, identifying that our goal is to “educate and prepare diverse learners to achieve scholarly, professional and individual success within a local and global context.” For the past several years, our College has been actively engaged in internationalizing our curriculum and our programming with the recognition that students must understand the world more fully if they are to assume responsibility within and for it. Our graduates are destined to be global citizens; everything they do will be impacted as much by events half a globe away as by those just outside their doors.
In conjunction with this year’s International Education Week, the Institute for International Education released the Open Doors Report. This document focuses on study abroad—both of US students studying outside our borders and international students here in the US. One data point stands out: while study abroad is often seen as the key tool of internationalization, less than 10% of all four-year college students ever do so. The real access point for global education for more than 90% of undergraduates must be curricular and co-curricular programming. MCC’s status as a Tier One college in SUNY’s Center for Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) creates opportunities for our faculty and students to connect with peers around the world, building understanding and enhancing the academic experience. MCC’s innovative faculty are among the leaders in the growing field of Globally Networked Learning, and students engaged in GNL have shown not just an increased understanding of international issues but also increased retention and persistence rates.
MCC’s commitment to international education is longstanding and deep. Whether one points to our three decade long partnership with the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts and Sciences of Trinidad and Tobago; the decades of inspiring work by the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Project; or our more recent engagement with the American Council on Education’s Internationalization Lab—our College understands the power of education in creating bridges between cultures and people, in revealing the strength in diversity.
My thanks go to Director of Global Education and International Services Gale Lynch and the faculty and staff who have put together this week’s outstanding schedule of events and who work every day to bring the world to MCC.
Anne M. Kress
Office of the President
11/18/2015 |