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Welcome to the Center for International Programs

VSU Celebarates International Education Week (October 27 - 31, 2008)
Dr. Schloss Signs International Education Week Proclamation

new pict syktyvkar korea
xmas
red carpet 06
 paris


The Center for International Programs provides institution-wide coordination for the University’s comprehensive range of programs, services and activities in the area of international education. During 2008:

  • 251 VSU students and 18 faculty members participated in study abroad programs; new VSU study abroad programs were added in Italy and Japan;
  • 38 faculty were sponsored by the Faculty Internationalization Fund to present at international conferences and conduct research abroad;
  • 2 international scholars, Drs. Rinas Kashbraziev (Kazan State University, Russian Federation) and Milana Nikolko (Tavrida National University, Ukraine) - recipients of the L. Brown award, taught and did collaborative research at VSU;
  • VSU was a home for 319 international students from 55 countries;

Notes and Events

  • Four VSU students - Ashley Hartt (Political Science), Michael Johnson (Accounting), Jenna Mulvey (Spanish), and Jay Prosser (History & French) have been awarded a paid Department of State internships for Summer 2009. This is a 10- week program when our students will work in different State Department offices in Washington D.C. and abroad. This is our first program of this kind, and what a wonderful achievement!
  • Dr. Oleg Gabrielian, Dean of Humanities at Tavridia National and State University N. Vernadsky - Simferopol, Ukraine completed his IREX grant with VSU. Dr. James Peterson, Chair of Political Science was the program Coordinator and co-director, jointly with Dr. Ivan Nikolov. The program delivery got the highest marks from IREX, the U.S. national academic exchange organization.
  • Dr. Abdulameer Al-Aasam, former Dean of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy from the University of Bagdad, Iraq, joined the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at VSU as a visiting Brown Scholar. This is a joint initiative with the U.S. Institute of International Education Scholar Rescue Fund. Dr. Al-Aasam is a prominent Islamic Studies scholar. He will be with us until June of 2010.
  • Dr. Philip Gunter, Dean of the Dewar College of Education, Dr. Brian Gerber, Director of Curriculum, and Dr. Ivan Nikolov, Director of CIP represented VSU at the COBEC conference in Belize, February 2-8, 2009. They visited with the Belize Ministry of Education and the University of Belize leadership and discuss future collaboration.
  • Dr. Jane Zahner from the Dewar College of Education is teaching as a visiting professor at both Ezsterhazy Karoly College in Eger, a VSU partner institution in Hungary, and at VSU . Dr. Zahner has received a lot of local coverage from the Hungarian press. This is a great opportunity to strengthen the bridge between U.S. and Hungarian students and faculty.
  • The Honorable Patrick Faber, Minister of Education of Belize [and 1998 VSU (Economics) graduate], visited Valdosta on July 28 - 30. Accompanied by Dr. Ivan Nikolov from CIP, he met with Drs. Philip Gunter and Brian Gerber, Dewar College of Education, Dr. Louis Levy, VPAA, Dr. Wayne Plumly, interim Dean of the Langdale College of Business (and Mr. Faber's advisor during his studies at VSU). Mr. Faber met also with Dr. Mathew Richard to discuss past and future study abroad programs in Belize. VSU, with the help of the local community and churches has been assisting the educational system of Belize for close to 20 years. The discussions were focused on furthering and expanding of the collaboration with focus on teacher education, professional and community development.
  • During 2008/9 VSU is again host of the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTA) program. Through this program VSU offers again Arabic (Nesma Mohamed from Egypt), Chinese (Wang Qin), and Russian (Alena Kirova) . Keiko Fudjimori, a visiting instructor from Japan, teaches the Japanese language and culture classes.
  • Dr. Thomas J. Manning from the VSU Department of Chemistry led a project where a group of students and faculty in Cuba (Chemical Technology Institute in Havana) and in the US developed a lab manual entitled “Computer Based Projects for a Chemistry Curriculum.”  It is being distributed free to any academic institution (faculty and students). This joint Cuban-American project has gotten a lot of positive reviews from the higher education community. See http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgnjg7vc_3hrvjshgb.
  • The Langdale College of Business summer study abroad program in Germany 2009 will be offered in collaboration with our partner institution - The Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences. This program is the sole independent business study abroad program among all public universities in Georgia. Dr. Andrew Ostapski is the Program Director, Dr. Fred Ware - the Site Director. Students will visit an AUDI plant, and a lot of other interesting international business experiences.
  • In Summer 2009 VSU will continue our two new study abroad programs in Florence, Italy and Osaka, Japan ! Both programs are with focus on arts, film, and culture. For details and next year participation contact Professor Karin Murray from Arts (Italy) <kgmurray@valdosta.edu> and David Starling (Japan)< dstarlin@valdosta.edu>.

  • VSU Study Abroad program in Guadalajara, Mexico won the 2007 Heiskell Best Practices Award , organized by the Institute of International Education in New York. The program, directed by Dr. Soady, Chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages (MCL), prepares teachers of Spanish and ESL from the VSU region.
  • Valdosta State University's former students Vincent Mack (Political Science) and Kathleen Steffen (Business) participated in the 2008 Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals! They are part of nationally selected group of 75 winners from thousands of applicants. Read Katie's letters from Europe on our Study Abroad page.