| Summary: | S news Global honors International Ed. receives award BY HANNAH BURCHILL Concordia is one of five col-leges to win the 2006 Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Interna-tionalization. The award is distrib-uted by NAFSA: Association of In-ternational Educators, which is the top organization for international and global educators, said Mark Krejci, vice president of academic affairs and dean of the college. President Pamela Jolicoeur said that it is an honor to win such a prestigious award that puts Concor-dia on the map. "It means that our profile as a college is rising, certainly, to be chosen," she said. The award was named for Sena-tor Paul Simon who was a leader in promoting international education. According to the NAFSA Web site, the award "recognizes innovative and creative efforts in campus internationalization." The award called for self-nomi-nations, and Concordia's nomina-tion essay focused on six waves of internationalization, curriculum and campus internationalization, impact assessment, the Concordia Language Villages, and the impor-tance of leadership in a successful international program. The first wave, the nomination essay said, was being Concordia's founding by Norwegian immigrants to teach proper English to their childrens. Many of those students later went abroad as teachers or preachers, it said. Wave two occurred after World War II when Concordia urged international students to come here by offering up to a 50 percent tu-ition waver. This wave, focusing on international students, continues today the essay states, as Concordia works with the Massai Girls School in Tanzania, offering full scholar-ships to its students. The May Seminars Abroad program began the third wave, the semester study abroad initiated the fourth, and the exploration semi-nars complete the fifth wave. While many of these waves continue, Concordia now is building the sixth wave by working to expand participation in its abroad pro-grams. Right now Concordia sends approximately 400 students abroad each year, but the goal under this wave is to increase that number to 600 per year by the 2009-2010 school year. Krejci said that although Con-cordia has continuously been on the top lists for international edu-cation, this award proves quality, not just quantity. "It's another indicator of the quality of education of Concordia College," Krejci said, "a quality that separates us from other colleges of our kind." Concordia will be presented with the award on May 24 in Mon-treal, Quebec, at the NAFSA 2006 Conference & Expo, which is the world's largest event for profession-als of international education. Going places with Per International ed. director aspires for growth BY MATT SMIT Per Anderson believes in going places, and under his direction, Concordia's interna-tional education department will do just that. Anderson, who was recently dubbed director of international education, has a firm belief in the importance of his department in a liberal education. This past year Concordia sent 411 students on study abroad programs, a sizeable percent-age of the student body; however, Anderson believes it is still not enough. President Joli-coeur shares this belief—the goals set for the International Education Department suggest that in five years the number should increase by a full 50 percent. If this is achieved, and other colleges maintain their current pro-grams, Concordia will send more students abroad than all but two other colleges in the country. Why is this so important? Because, Ander-son said, there is a growing recognition that travel is vital to a liberal arts education. Just last October, Harvard University, which has a tendency to set trends in the academic world, began making curriculum and policy changes to emphasize the importance of study abroad programs. Now Concordia has a chance to be one of the leaders. Minnesota liberal arts schools in general have begun to adopt this attitude. Of the 20 schools with the most students abroad, five of them are based in Minnesota, with Concordia currently ranking 11th. Anderson said international education is integral because it is 'learning for life," and because with the growing globalization of business and worldwide communication, there is a need for people to recognize how other cultures and nations affect their lives, how to negotiate the differences between cul- Bonnie School of Dance BALLET-TAR JAZZ- HIF> HOR IRISH BALLROOM • LATIN - COUNTRY Winter Classes Starting February 2Sth Registration Taken NOW -9900 I RDH Rentals I Your home with RDHRentals.com tures and take up roles as "global citizens," an idea definitely not new to Concordia, but one which Anderson said the international educa-tion department can assist in teaching. Anderson acknowledges that the depart-ment does face obstacles in reaching its goals. The primary obstacle seems to be making study-abroad programs accessible to all stu-dents. Cost is a factor some students cannot get past: A semester or even a month abroad may require additional thousands of dollars, but Anderson hopes new ways will be found and new programs will be developed to save students' money. Beyond that, the hopes and plans Ander-son has for the department are forward-think-ing. They are talking about expanding the locations for study abroad in Latin America and the Caribbean and hoping for additional opportunities to study abroad in Africa and Asia. They have even proposed a study abroad program that would take students to Antarc-tica. Anderson suggests tailoring some of the study abroad programs to make them more educational and inviting for specific majors so that everyone, regardless of their program of study, can find a reason to venture abroad at least once in their college career. Additionally, Anderson hopes to take advantage of wireless technology in order to develop distance learning programs so that students would not be limited to books, but have a broad curriculum, a library even, avail-able to them online. Especially with exchange programs in places like Bangalore, India an international hub of computer and commu-nications technology would be helpful for students to get the most out of their learning experience. "The saying goes that the world is our classroom," Anderson said. "We want it to be literally our classroom." sometimes we all wish we could go on a COST CUTTERS" restitKcurtr located in the i™""""i (5oo 30th 'TLvt* 5. 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