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‘Leading the World’
Expanding International Education at MSU
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“We have strong and solid institutional contacts in Spain, France, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, Latin America,” and elsewhere. — Mbare N’Gom, Ph.D., acting dean of Morgan’s College of Liberal Arts
Mbare N’Gom, Ph.D.
Morgan’s new program with Hubei University is part of a much broader initiative to internationalize the University. Through its new Center for Global Studies and Exchange, Morgan is working “collaboratively with academic departments to enhance student and faculty development through workshops, study abroad, internships, exchanges and other relevant international education programs.” “Experiential learning” is a big part of the process, and these learning experiences occur within as well as beyond U.S. borders, says Mbare N’Gom, Ph.D., acting dean of Morgan’s College of Liberal Arts. Internationalization means travel for U.S.-born students and faculty, certainly, but it also means “(bringing) other students to our campus so that they can interact with our students and expose them to other cultures,” Dr. N’Gom says. “…It’s not enough to train our students and prepare them for the international arena. We also need to provide them with the tools that will enable them to communicate cross-cul-
turally, to be able to go into another culture and feel at ease.
with international experiences, that puts you ahead of the bunch.”
Internationalization is both policy and passion for Dr. N’Gom, who was born in Guinea, raised in Senegal, earned degrees from universities in Senegal, France and Spain, and received formal training in international relations and diplomacy. He sees himself as “a genuine product of international education.” His experience and outlook fit well with Morgan President David Wilson’s vision for the University as an institution that “grows the future and leads the world.”
Morgan has the resources to succeed in its international mission, Dr. N’Gom says.
Dr. N’Gom admits that implementing Morgan’s global vision remains a challenge on the grassroots level. “We need to get students more interested in international education…. We need to show them how relevant it is and also show them that it’s an investment,” he says. “Many students are just looking at that finish line of graduation. But if you graduate with only what you learned in the classroom, that might not cut it. If you build capacity on top of what you learned in the classroom,
“We have strong and solid institutional contacts in Spain, France, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, Latin America,” and elsewhere, he says. Dr. N’Gom points to individual success stories, such as Katherine Lloyd, a doctoral student and Fulbright-Hays Scholar who traveled with him and 14 other Morgan faculty to Peru in 2011. Lloyd blogged about the five-week trip and is now working to establish a partnership with a shelter for women in Peru who are victims of domestic violence. A Morgan professor of communication studies, Umaru Bah, Ph.D., is now working as a Fulbright Scholar in Sierra Leone. And Morgan gained great publicity during Dr. N’Gom’s recent trips to Colombia as a member of dissertation committees. “We are becoming ambassadors,” he says. MORGAN MAGAZINE
VOLUME I 2012
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