GEO Newsletter - Spring 2025

Spring quarter 2025 hasn’t been without challenges in the international education landscape. We welcome, value, and support our international student and scholar community at Western. At the moment, though, the greater international student population is being targeted and scrutinized in distressing ways. International students bring global perspectives to our classrooms. Our U.S. and international students create lifelong friendships and professional networks. International students and scholars innovate in U.S. research and industry, and international students contributed $43.8 billion and supported 378,000 jobs to the U.S. economy in the 2023-24 academic year. We’re hopeful that the international student and scholar community will be recognized for all that is positive about their presence in the U.S. and that they are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. 

Still, we have also made good progress this year at Western in our efforts to promote global learning and greater peace and intercultural understanding through people to people academic exchange. We have welcomed and supported nearly 200 international degree-seeking and exchange students at Western this year. By the end of the fall - summer 2024 - 25 year, 429 students will have studied abroad on credit-bearing programs, while 609 students will have participated in non-credit international programs. Finally, our Global Studies Minor has nearly 60 declared students, which requires a study abroad experience, world language learning, and the study of interdisciplinary global studies content. 

Our students are learning about the world they live in and building friendships and networks that transcend borders. 

-Ryan Larsen, Ph.D.

Congratulations to International Student Advisor Karissa Ringel here in the Office of Global Engagement, who is the recipient of a Fulbright International Education Administrator Award in Japan this summer. The IEA Program offers international education professionals and higher education leaders an opportunity to participate in a two-week intensive seminar to learn about the host country’s education system and to create networks among U.S. and international colleagues.  Application dates for 2025-2026 vary by country, with France, Senegal, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Germany hosting Fulbright delegations.

As we near the end of the academic year, we’d like to share a brief update regarding the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Despite uncertainty regarding federal funding, the application review process continued for the 2025-2026 cycle.  Many applicants received a final decision later than usual due to additional scrutiny by the State Department. The Fulbright office continues to solicit applications for 2026-2027 and has listed 384 awards in its database. The deadline is September 15.

Western faculty or staff considering applying for a Fulbright Award or hosting a Visiting Fulbright Scholar are encouraged to contact Mark Greenberg here in GEO. As a Scholar Liaison to the Fulbright office, he receives regular updates on the status of the program, can refer resources like upcoming webinars and office hours held by Fulbright staff, and is available to discuss ways to navigate the current political climate as you prepare a proposal. 

GEO and the Center for Instructional Innovation recently wrapped up their spring workshop series for the 2024-2025 cohort of COIL Faculty Fellows. Over the span of four sessions, the ten participating faculty members learned about ways that virtual exchange can add global perspectives to the curriculum and help expand students’ intercultural knowledge.

“I loved participating in the COIL workshop,” Paqui Paredes shared with us afterward. “It was relevant, engaging, helpful, and very hands-on. We learned about the value of COIL in implementing a global engagement component in our courses, we were able to draft course goals, assessment strategies, engagement activities for the students, and even a syllabus. We also learned about technology tools that will help in the implementation of COIL. Most especially, we had a chance to work with a group of peers that are also committed to engaging students in intercultural perspectives. The organization of the workshop was such that the group developed a true sense of cohort. I recommend participating in the workshop to anyone who is interested in adding a global engagement component to their courses!”  

Applications for the 2025-2026 COIL Faculty Fellowships are due February 6.  There will be a reminder announcement in the fall. 

Congratulations to this year’s COIL Fellows

• Steve Bennett, Health and Human Development
• Emma Chen, Elementary Education
• Nabil Kamel, Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy
• Francisco Laso, Environmental Studies
• Cathy Reidy Liermann, Environmental Studies
• Yudong Liu, Computer Science
• Claudia Liu, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
• Paqui Paredes, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
• Sheila Webb, Journalism
• David Yang, Special Education and Education Leadership

Western’s Office of Global Engagement has partnered with the American Center for Mongolian Studies to launch “A Steppe Closer: Cross-Border Collaboration and the Making of New Knowledge.” The joint initiative builds upon the goals of both organizations to support and promote the study of Mongolia by highlighting international research partnerships between Mongolian scholars and their colleagues abroad, including the collaborative projects underway at Western. 

This spring’s inaugural series of three online presentations were delivered in both Mongolian and English with simultaneous translation. Each presentation included remarks from the Mongolian scholar as well as their U.S. research partner.  Featured topics included gendered barriers to working in the field of environmental conservation, the experiences of Mongolian women returning to the countryside after living in urban areas, and efforts to preserve the way of life of nomadic herders. 

Congratulations to Hilary Schwandt (Fairhaven) and Chimgay Tserendorj (Western Libraries) for receiving a John C. Street Research Award in Mongolian and Inner Asian Studies for 2025.  Professor Schwandt’s research seeks to better understand abortion and post-abortion health care in Mongolia from the perspective of providers and their clients.  Professor Tserendorj’s project explores the history and provenance of the early 18th-century xylograph Üliger-ün Dalai -- a 1939 edition of which is housed in the Western Libraries Special Collections and Archives.  Applications for 20205 Street Research Awards are due on February 6.

“A Steppe Closer” and the Street Research Award are funded by the John C. Street Endowment in Mongolian and Inner Asian Studies.