Home > Administrative Offices > International Programs

Welcome to the Center for International Programs

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 the academic 2007/8:

  • 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;
  • VSU got the 2007 Heiskell Award - Best Practices in International Education in a national competition organized by the Institute of International Education - New York .

Notes and Events

New International Students 2008

  • 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.
  • Dr. Jane Zahner from the Dewar College of Education has been invited as a visiting professor to Ezsterhazy Karoly College in Eger, a VSU partner institution in Hungary. Dr. Zahner will spend Spring 2009 teaching in Eger and simultaneously teaching on line courses at VSU. This is a great opportunity to build a bridge between U.S. and Hungarian students and faculty.
  • Dr. Thomas J. Manning from the VSU Department of Chemistry led a project where a group of students and faculty in Cuba (Chemical Technnology 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.
  • Dr. Philip Gunter, Dean of the Dewar College of Education, and Dr. Ivan Nikolov, Director of CIP, were plennary session speakers at the 11th Russian American Summer University ( 6th International Youth and Health in the Schools Conference, June 4-6, 2008), organized by our partner institution SIPKRO in Samara, Russia. During the pre-conference period Drs. Gunter and Nikolov conducted graduate seminars for Russian teachers, school and social service administrators, and NGOs from the area. Dr. Gunter's seminar in special education was attended by over 120 participants. Both VSU representatives visited also the city of Togliatti and met with key faculty and staff from Togliatti State University.
  • During 2008/9 VSU will host for a third year the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTA) program. Through this program VSU will offer again Arabic (Nesma Mohamed from Egypt), Chinese (Wang Qin), and Russian (Alena Kirova) . Keiko Fudjimori, a visiting instructor from Japan, will teach the Japanese language and culture classes.
  • The Langdale College of Business summer study abroad program in Germany has realocated this year to Karlsruhe as a collaborative initiative 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, assisted by Drs. Fred Ware and David Kuhlmeier. The students already visited an AUDI plant, and got a lot of other interesting international business experiences.
  • In Summer 2008 VSU conducted two new study abroad programs in Florence, Italy and Osaka, Japan ! Both programs were 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.
  • Natalia Batista from Brazil is the new President of the Society for International Students. Other SIS officers are: Vice-President Minerva Blancaneaux, Belize; Event Coordinator Marcela Leiva, Colombia, Event Coordinator Samantha Chastain, USA, Secretary Teresita Perez, Belize, and Treasurer Ernie Prencke, Colombia.
  • Valdosta State University's former students Vincent Mack (Political Science) and Kathleen Steffen (Business) now participate in the 2007-2008 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.
  • Dr. Babacar Mboup, professor of French from the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, conducted for a secon year a VSU program in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, Africa. Contact him for details at bmboup@valdosta.edu.