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A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E R E V E S C E N T E R F O R I N T E R N AT I O N A L S T U D I E S AT WILLIAM & MARY

VOL. 11, NO. 2, SPRING 2019

A Gates Scholar Surmounts Obstacles ALSO W&M ACES EU COMPETITION GAMES: A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE A GLOBAL ENROLLMENT STRATEGY

A PUBLICATION OF THE REVES CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES AT WILLIAM & MARY VOL. 11, NO. 2, SPRING 2019

12 STUDENT & FACULTY RESEARCH 2

2019 Faculty Fellows and Recently Published Books by W&M Faculty

Best Practices in Research, Pedagogy and LIfe

Blockchain innovation, from Williamsburg to South Korea

FEATURES 10

W&M team aces EU foreign policy competition

The Measure of a Man

Everyone Plays

Established in 1989, the Reves Center for International Studies is today one of the premier centers of its kind in U.S. higher education. Its mission is to support and promote the internationalization of learning, teaching, research and community involvement at William & Mary through programs for education abroad, international students and scholars, and global engagement across the university. William & Mary is the number one public university for undergraduate study abroad participation, with more than 50 percent of the university’s undergraduates studying outside the U.S. before graduation. More than 1,200 international students, scholars and their families from nearly 70 countries have come to William & Mary. And the Reves Center encourages and assists numerous international strategic initiatives across the university, including the William & Mary Confucius Institute, which offers Chinese language and cultural activities to the campus and community, and Global Research Institute, co-sponsored by the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, which supports faculty and student collaborations to find solutions to pressing global problems.

W&M IN THE WORLD

REVES INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD – SPRING 2019

A Quest for Knowledge Brings a Spanish Fulbright Scholar to W&M

Kira C. Allmann ’10

Gregory J. Golden

Luis H. Navas ’82

Passport Caravan

Dana B. Bennett

James D. Hunter ’85

Bruce W. Pflaum ’75

Lila Sugerman works to destigmatize periods in India

John E. Bessler ’85

R. Marc Johnson ’04

Michael R. Blakey ’98

Richard C. Kraemer, Jr. ’94

Sharon K. Philpott ’85, Vice Chair

Guillermo S. Christensen

David C. Larson ’75

Breezing through bucket lists

Women in the Field

United Kingdom Bethesda, MD

Williamsburg, VA Singapore

Arlington, VA

Falls Church, VA Hong Kong

Charlottesville, VA Washington, DC Fort Myers, FL

In Their Own Words: Attracting and recruiting international students

John S. Dennis ’78

Donald F. Larson ’76

School of Education news

Scott R. Ebner ’96

Leslie McCormack Gathy ’88

VIMS: Krill range shrinks poleward with ocean warming

Rodney Faraon

Katherine W. Meighan ’92

Barbara Pate Glacel ’70, Chair

Stephanie A. Morse ’92

Alumna Profile: A Q&A with Betty Suchar ’65

Switzerland Boston, MA

Arlington, VA Oak Hill, VA

McLean, VA

United Kingdom Rome, Italy

Tallahassee, FL

Miami, FL

Lake Oswego, OR

White Salmon, WA

Young Ju Rhee ’98 Boston, MA

Janet A. Sanderson ’77 Tucson, AZ

Corey D. Shull ’06 Baltimore, MD

Patricia Trinler Spalding ’83 San Jose, Costa Rica

Nathan Younge Falls Church, VA

FROM THE DIRECTOR

he digital revolution universities are too big and imis transforming higher personal to ensure continuous, education in general, culturally-sensitive relationships and global education with international students, in particular, in dramatic and scholars, alumni, and partner sometimes unsettling ways. The institutions alike. At W&M, in variegated landscape of global contrast, we believe that global access to information technology understanding and global analysis — with data processing becoming are inherently synergistic. We eaever faster and person-to-pergerly embrace innovative technolson communication practically ogies and approaches for global instantaneous for much of the teaching and research, but we world’s population, even while reject “one-size-fits-all” solutions billions of people still live in imto global problems that fail to poverished communities lacking take into account the full diverStephen E. Hanson even reliable electricity — makes sity of cultural, historical, social, Vice Provost for International Affairs responding effectively to technoand geopolitical factors shaping Director, Reves Center for logical change in higher educathe human condition. International Studies tion even more challenging. How This issue of World Minded can we take full advantage of the illustrates these commitments in remarkable new frontiers of knowledge available to a variety of ways. Our undergraduate students win us through advances in artificial intelligence, GIS, prestigious national championships by bringing deep and “Big Data,” while still training students to unregional knowledge and language fluency to bear on derstand and appreciate multiple perspectives in a high-level foreign policy debates. Our faculty and world that remains mired in socioeconomic, politistudents delve into topics ranging from the potential cal, and cultural conflicts and divisions? role of blockchain technology in improving foreign Here at William & Mary, we are developing an aid to understanding Sufi mysticism in the Indoapproach to global education and research that is nesian context. The Reves Center and the Global uniquely suited to helping students navigate today’s Research Institute together work to bring research complex international environment. W&M comutilizing the most advanced technologies into diabines a liberal arts college’s in-depth exploration of logue with explorations of particular cultures and global cultures, intense mentoring of students, and communities through study abroad, connections genuinely interdisciplinarity with a research univerwith students and scholars from around the world, sity’s abiding commitment to cutting-edge analysis and inspiring presentations of global film, theater, of central problems of global concern. Most liberal and dance. The result is a university that truly inarts colleges are too small to sustain global research spires “world mindedness” — at a time we need this partnerships around the world. Most research more than ever.

WORLD MINDED STAFF

ON THE COVER

Editor: Kate Hoving, Public Relations Manager, Reves Center for International Studies

A rainy day in the blue city (Chefchaouen, Morocco). Photo courtesy of Carter Trousdale

Contributing Writers: Ethan Brown ’20; David Malmquist, VIMS; Rachel Sims; Sarah Smith ’19; Prof. David Trichler; Erin Zagursky, University News & Media Graphic Design: University Web & Design

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FACULTY & STUDENT RESEARCH

ANNOUNCING THE

2019 Faculty Fellows MARY FABRIZIO

SHANTÁ HINTON

VIMS FISHERIES SCIENCE

BIOLOGY

“Do National Parks in Nepal Effectively Conserve Biodiversity of Fishes?”

Many nations have established national parks and protected areas to aid in the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems and the species that rely on them, but it is not clear if protected areas contribute to the conservation of aquatic ecosystems and their freshwater fish fauna. Together with colleagues and students from the U.S. and Nepal, I propose to study the impact of protected areas and the effect of the proximity to population centers on fish taxonomic and functional diversity in major rivers in western Nepal. In addition to studying taxonomic and functional diversity, we propose to examine fish population size structure as an indicator of potential harvesting pressure, as well as the overall health of individual fish using fish condition indices.

“Characterizing MK-STYX domain’s role in cellular specialization”

There are external and environmental factors such as extreme heat, UV irradiation or hypoxia that stress cells. Fortunately, cells have protective mechanisms such as the formation of stress granules (SG), large cytoplasmic RNA-protein complexes. They are transient and disassemble when cells are no longer stressed, but if they remain too long, they become toxic, possibly resulting in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. A student-faculty team with examine SG through an international research collaboration at the Lunenfeld-Tatenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, ON.

Recently Published Books by W&M Faculty REUSE AND RENOVATION IN ROMAN MATERIAL CULTURE Co-edited by Molly Swetnam-Burland, Associate Professor of Classical Studies and Diana Y. Ng, University of Michigan, Dearborn

Reuse and Renovation in Roman Material Culture explores the spoliation of architectural and sculptural materials during the Roman Empire. Examining a wide range of materials, including imperial portraits, statues associated with master craftsmen, architectural moldings and fixtures, tombs and sarcophagi, arches and gateways, it demonstrates that secondary intervention was common well before Late Antiquity, in fact, centuries earlier than has been previously acknowledged. The essays in this volume, written by a team of international experts, collectively argue that re-use was a natural feature of human manipulation of the physical environment, rather than a sign of social pressure. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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FACULTY & STUDENT RESEARCH

Each year, a committee of faculty and Reves staff awards Reves Faculty Fellowships to support faculty-student research and collaboration on internationally-focused, engaged scholarship. The initiative is open to full-time William & Mary faculty in all academic units. Proposals are invited from faculty with significant experience in the international arena as well as those seeking to expand the focus of their work to include international, global, and/or trans-national approaches.

PHILIP ROESSLER

ANDREW WARD

GOVERNMENT

CLASSICAL STUDIES

“Mobile Agricultural Insurance and Resiliency to Climate Change: A Pilot Study and New Research Program”

This project — in close collaboration with a team of W&M students who won the Global Research Institute’s Shark Tank competition in fall of 2018 — seeks to better understand how, if at all, mobile agricultural insurance can strengthen farmers’ resiliency from climate change and reduce their vulnerability. This project builds on ongoing research on mobile technology and digital equality. A Reves Faculty Fellowship will support travel to Kenya in summer 2018 to work with the W&M Shark Team to undertake a pilot study of mobile agricultural insurance and show proof of concept; and support grant-writing to scale the mobile agricultural insurance program and directly test its impact on climate change resiliency.

“William & Mary at the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, Samothrace”

The Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the north shore of the Aegean island of Samothrace was famous in antiquity for its mystery cult. The meteoric rise of the Sanctuary in the late 4th to 2nd centuries BCE saw the construction of some of the most architectural adventurous buildings of the Hellenistic period, and the dedication of the famed Winged Victory now in the Louvre. A new five-year research initiative seeks to understand key issues of phenomenology and access long overlooked. William & Mary students will participate in the 2019 excavation season and learn fundamentals of archaeological investigation, following up in Williamsburg with data processing and synthesis.

For more information and a list of previous recipients, visit www.wm.edu/offices/revescenter/globalengagement/revesfacultyfellows

WHAT IS CHINA?: TERRITORY, ETHNICITY, CULTURE, AND HISTORY By Ge Zhaoguang, translated by Michael Gibbs Hill, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies

Ge Zhaoguang, an eminent historian of traditional China and a public intellectual, takes on fundamental questions that shape the domestic and international politics of the world’s most populous country and its second largest economy. What Is China? offers an insider’s account that addresses sensitive problems of Chinese identity and shows how modern scholarship about China — whether conducted in China, East Asia, or the West — has attempted to make sense of the country’s shifting territorial boundaries and its diversity of ethnic groups and cultures. Published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

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FACULTY & STUDENT RESEARCH

Best Practices in Research, Pedagogy and Life Reflections from 2018 Reves Faculty Fellow Oludamini Ogunnaike and Divya Dureja ’21 BY KATE HOVING Professor Ogunnaike did not disappoint.

Why Muhammed Baqir

Dureja at the Borobudur Buddhist temple in Yogyakarta. Photo courtesy of Divya Dureja

he Reves Faculty Fellows program supports a faculty international research project with no restriction on academic discipline, but it must involve student-faculty collaborations on research, teaching, and learning. Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Oludamini Ogunnaike’s 2018 proposal to travel to Jakarta, Indonesia, to conduct research was as articulate and organized as it was innovative. His first application for a Reves Fellowship, it not only met all the requirements, but it also promised to provide a unique opportunity for student-faculty collaboration while bringing a fresh perspective and line of inquiry into a unique spiritual tradition: “The fellowship would support a four-week study of learning

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communities of Islamic Philosophy and Sufism in Jakarta, focusing on the lived practice of these communities in addition to contemporary topics of debate in these traditions (mainly epistemology, the theorization of religious pluralism and gender, and critiques of both modern, Western philosophy and Salafism). The project will explore the vibrant, but grossly understudied, formal traditions of Islamic learning that take place outside of Western-style educational institutions, paying particular attention to the lived and communal aspects of these traditions. Students will learn about the methods and challenges of doing cross-cultural philosophy, as well as research and interview methods, theories, and techniques in their investigation of an intellectual and educational tradition different from their own.”

As the focus of his research, Ogunnaike chose Muhammed Baqir, a teacher of Islamic philosophy and a Sufi master, who runs an open learning center called Paramadina in Jakarta. “I met him at a conference on Islamic philosophy and we really hit it off,” explains Ogunnaike. “Most of the people at the conference were either western academics or people from the Middle East or Iran, and we were the only people who weren’t – I’m West African and he’s from Indonesia. We just hit it off with similar personalities and similar interests, and he invited me to come back to Indonesia.” In 2016, Ogunnaike visited Baqir, attended classes at the Paramadina and was impressed. “He’s unique. He uses examples from contemporary movies and even cracks jokes,” Ogunnaike explains. “And then in the next sentence he can talk about Thomas Kuhn and paradigm shifts and Kant, and all of this will be to explain Mulla Sadra, a 17th century Islamic philosopher. He’s brilliant. I haven’t met too many people that can move between these different worlds very, very fluidly.” Baqir also doesn’t fit central casting’s version of a traditional Islamic philosopher. “He looks like an aging rocker, wearing Led Zeppelin t-shirts, jeans and Chuck Taylors. But he’s a fully trained mullah. He trained in Iran for 10 years and is extremely knowledgeable, but he’s also extremely accessible. He combines

FACULTY & STUDENT RESEARCH

Muhammed Baqir (center, in white), Dureja (center, in blue), and Ogunnaike (bottom right) with other members of the tariqah. Photo courtesy of Divya Dureja

this intense, almost encyclopedic knowledge with this almost goofy persona.” This combination of brilliance and flexibility in style and approach, sets Baqir apart. “In the Islamic world, there is the traditional system of education — madrassas or Quran schools — and then there are modern schools, which are taught according to western pedagogical paradigms, with conventional classrooms, pupils in chairs, textbooks, etc. Baqir’s classes combine both traditions in a way that I hadn’t seen before. As someone who studies Islamic epistemology and pedagogy, that was really fascinating to me. I wanted to learn more about it. Plus his community is just so nice and loving and welcoming. They really make you feel like you’re a part of the family.” Baqir is known and respected in Indonesia, and has appeared on a few TV and radio shows, but he is by no means a celebrity or overexposed.

Because Baqir hasn’t written much, he’s not become the subject of extensive research. “And yet, whenever I meet a member of Nahdlatul Ulama (a confederation of traditional Muslim scholars and one of the most powerful religious/political organizations in Indonesia), they all know Baqir,” Ogunnaike notes.

“What are you doing this summer?”

For some people that’s almost a rhetorical question, a way to fill empty spaces in conversation. But not for Ogunnaike, who was the freshman advisor for Divya Dureja ’21. She was struck by his genuine interest. “The impression I had gotten from classmates was that a pre-major advisor was just a person you went to for a code to register for classes, but I felt he was truly invested in my academic life.” Ogunnaike remembers their conversation. “I was asking Divya what

she was doing over the summer, because I ask all my advisees how they intend to make use of their summers. Are they working? Are they doing this or that? She answered me, ‘I don’t know.’” Well, Ogunnaike had an idea; he asked Dureja to accompany him on his Reves Faculty Fellowship research trip. “I was really impressed by her. She was very intelligent. She had international travel experience, so I didn’t feel as if I’d have to babysit her the whole time, and she was taking my Introduction to Islam class, so she would have some of the background necessary.” “I hadn’t been to Indonesia but I had been to India to visit family,” Dureja interjects. “I felt she could benefit from it, and she could mix well with the people there and learn a lot. That totally turned out to be the case,” Ogunnaike continues. “When I WhatsApp Baqir and other people we met during our

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research, they’ll ask, ‘How’s Divya? What’s going on with her?’ Everybody loved her.” In spite of her travel experience and maturity — or perhaps because of it — she also understood the challenges she might encounter. “I was really nervous,” Dureja acknowledges, “I think mainly because I can understand their point of view. Having an American woman coming and asking all these questions about their religious beliefs might not be comfortable for them. They knew [Professor Ogainnake], but they didn’t know me. But that was not the case at all. Everything he said about how welcoming they were was more than true. People there just wanted to get to know us and make us feel at home.”

A long trip across miles, history and traditions

Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world, but it also has a long history of religious and ethnic pluralism; it is an archipelago and each island has its own or several ethnicities and different languages. The national motto adopted on independence was Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, which means unity in diversity. Pre-Hindu and Pre-Buddhist religious traditions still survive on some of the islands, along with Kejawen, (a combination of pre- Buddhist, Hindu, and Javanese religious beliefs), Hinduism, Buddhism and Sufism. Ogunnaike and Dureja started their journey in Bali, in part to recover from the long flight, but also because they could literally follow in the path of history and culture. “One of the things that’s unique about [Baqir’s] group is their view on religious diversity and tolerance of different religions. I wanted us to start in Bali so we could get a sense of the Hindu-Buddhist background, and how that then influenced expressions of Sufism and Islam in Java,” Ogunnaike explains. “When the Islamic Demak Sultanate came to rule most of Java, they took over from the Majapahits,

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the Hindu rulers of Java who then fled to Bali. A lot of old Javanese culture is still there in Java, but it’s not that prominent. On the other hand, it’s the culture in Bali,” Ogunnaike explains. They explored Bali for a few days, visiting sacred temples and attending dance performances. Then they went to Jakarta to begin taking classes and conducting interviews but also con-

“Learning about different people’s traditions and faith gives you a lesson in empathy.” tinued to take some side-trips. Everywhere they went they witnessed the way multiple traditions have survived and co-exist. There were examples of Hindu and Buddhist practices and traditions that survive alongside Islamic traditions. They visited Yogyakarta, which is a major cultural center on the island of Java, and saw Borobudur Temple, which is Buddhist. They also visited Prambanan, which is a Hindu temple, and saw a performance of the Ramayana. But they would always return to the core of their research at Baqir’s community or tariqah [a school or order of Sufism, led by a spiritual leader].

A different kind of classroom experience

“At Paramadina, Professor Ogunnaike and I would attend classes on the Study of the Quran and Islamic

philosophy on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and evenings,” Dureja recounts. “When we were not in class, we sought out members of the tariqah for interviews.” The structure of the classes was a lesson in itself. The Paradamina is located in a strip mall. There are banks and a McDonald’s next to it, so it attracts a wide range of people. Baqir’s educational practice is somewhere in between the official government western style curriculum and the traditional pesantren (what traditional medrasas are called in Indonesia). “It was cool for Divya and even for me to see,” Ogunnaike remarks. “It’s actually very similar to some of the things I’d seen in West Africa.” Baqir incorporates both approaches in the same classroom. “He literally balances both traditions,” Ogunnaike describes. Half of the classroom is like a prayer area. The people from traditional pesantren education sit on the ground in the prayer area just as they would in a pesantren. The people who may have a more western-style educational background sit at western style desks. The teaching combines different approaches. “He will use a blackboard and draw pictures and figures and notes like I do here,” says Ogunnaike. “But then he usually comments on a text, so he’ll either have the Quran open or a work of Islamic philosophy or work of Sufism and he’ll read it and translate it and comment on it just as they do in the traditional pesantren system.” Baqir mainly teaches in bahasa, the Indonesian lingua franca, according to Ogunnaike. But when Ogunnaike and Dureja were in class, he would teach in both English and Bahasa. “He’d be reading something in Arabic, translate it into bahasa, and then translate it into English. He was doing trilingual teaching the whole time we were there,” Ogunnaike marvels. “That was very generous of him and of the people in the class, too. The educated elite in the class are

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fairly fluent in English, but most of the people are from the pesantren, and their knowledge of English is limited. They were all very patient because it slowed down his teaching.”

A true research partnership

Both Dureja and Ogunnaike conducted the research and interviews together. They started with the same standard questions for everyone: 1. What is Sufism? 2. What is Islamic philosophy? 3. What is tradition and what is modernity? 4. How would you explain “the transcendent unity of religions”? “The main thing was to start with where they came from and what their educational background was, and then that would usually transition into how they had gotten to this point in their lives spiritually and how they had found the teaching center. From there we would get to the questions about what they had learned about Sufism,” Ogunnaike explains. To their surprise, they found that their subjects very open to sharing all kinds of personal stories. “I knew some of these people before, but an interview is a totally different setting,” Ogunnaike notes. “I feel I got to understand not only them, but also the broader Indonesian and religious landscape a lot better seeing the different phases and stages that they went through and moved through until they found what they feel is their home now with Baqir. People went through different journeys… people who were born Muslim, converted to Christianity, came back. They were searching for something.” Both Ogunnaike and Dureja found the most impressive outcome from Baqir’s teaching was the community that it created. “This was actually something that Divya added to our research questions,” Ogunnaike says. “I would ask them these questions about Islamic philosophy and Sufism, doctrine and practice and knowledge

and all these things. And Divya would always come in with, ‘What’s the importance of community to your spiritual life?’ The community they have created that stands out the most. They eat together. They check in on each other. They hang out with each other and take care of each other.” They also respect the differences within their community. They come from different ethnic groups and different parts of Indonesia and have very different personalities and different socio-economic backgrounds, Dureja explains. “One of the members is a manager of one of the biggest banks in Indonesia. You also have members who are very poor, but they respect each other. They hang out together. They joke with each other, talk to each other.” Dureja learned that the strength of the community and the reason the members feel such a pull to be there is not about complacency or comfort or safety. “People told me that they came to classes and keep coming back because Baqir made arguments and asked questions that they had never asked themselves before. It was not what they had been taught by their local imam or Sunday school teacher, but they found it intellectually compelling. They kept coming back even when they disagreed with the teaching, because it satisfied their intellectual curiosity. That showed up in a lot of interviews that we did.”

Next steps

Since returning, in addition to doing transcriptions, Ogunnaike and Dureja have both continued extensive background reading on contemporary Sufism in Indonesia. Dureja has written an excellent essay on the trip and what she learned. Their plan is to submit their co-authored article to a scholarly journal later this year. Dureja will continue her studies in pre-med and religion. “I was very sure coming into college that I wanted to be a religious studies major, and felt that even more so now after the

classes I’ve taken and the trip last summer.” She is determined to combine both disciplines. “I don’t know yet what branch of medicine I’ll pursue, but it’s good to be spiritually connected. Learning about different people’s traditions and faith gives you a lesson in empathy. I like that, and I think it will help me as a doctor.” Ogunnaike has invited Baqir to William & Mary to participate in a COLL 300 program in fall 2019. But he is aware that as compelling as Baqir is personally and spiritually, the community, the school and the teaching are not just reflections of one person. Baqir teaches about 85% of the classes but he has assistants and is mindful of the need to train scholars to continue the teaching. “It’s not really about him,” Duraje notes. “People stay for his teaching, because it makes sense, which is what is really important.” Ogunnaike says Baqir explains his role this way, as a lesson in logic, which is a preparatory subject in Islamic philosophy, with a major premise, a minor premise and a conclusion. Baqir teaches the major premise: All men are mortal. The minor premise is: Baqir is a man. The conclusion is: Baqir is mortal. Baqir then explains there’s a middle term which both the major premise and the minor premise share and that disappears in the conclusion. In the example, that middle term is man. The teacher’s goal — Baqir’s goal — is to be that middle term — to connect the student to the truth and disappear.

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W& M ’S G LO BA L R ES E A RC H I N ST I T UT E

Blockchain innovation, from Williamsburg to South Korea BY DAVID TRICHLER

ometimes the teacher becomes the student. That’s just what happened when Troy Wiipongwii MPP ’18 and Professor Mike Tierney ’87 began collaborating on a project on blockchain technology. What is it? The ‘blocks’ in blockchain are transactions, such as a purchase, made via the internet. The blocks are linked together with other ‘blocks’ in a chain using a specific code that includes the identifying code for both the block being added, and the block before it. This makes blockchain a sort of digital ledger and difficult to change, but clearly shows the order in which transactions happened. In addition, blockchain is publicly accessible technology, and is used for keeping records of cryptocurrency transactions, such as Bitcoin. The role reversal between Tierney and Wiipongwii has been enormously productive. Their project has catalyzed partnerships with W&M alumni in East Asia and launched several new business ventures. Wiipongwii, a graduate of W&M’s Master of Public Policy Program, remembers his first meeting with Tierney, a professor in the Department of Government and co-director of W&M’s Global Research Institute. “As soon as I walked into his course on the political environment of policy making, I was talking about tech policy and blockchain as solutions to policy problems. He had no idea what I was talking about,” he said, laughing.

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Wiipongwii, who had previously run his own tech startup company, ended up writing a memo for Tierney’s class on how the technology could be used to make foreign aid programs more efficient and effective. The potential of blockchain stuck with Tierney. “My own research focuses on bargaining under hierarchy — how do elected leaders get their various agents to implement policy in an accountable way?” Tierney said. “Information problems abound. It turns out, blockchain technology has the potential to solve lots of different information problems that plague policy-makers.” More than a year later, when Tierney was presenting research on the Institute’s AidData Project during a trip to East Asia, he met a W&M alum, Danny Levinson ’96, who worked in the blockchain industry. Levinson asked if some bright W&M students could help him to think through a problem he was facing at work — could we get a more systematic assessment of how different governments in East Asia were regulating this new technology, as well as forecast what they might do in the future? It was music to Tierney’s ears. W&M excels at solving such public policy questions. He immediately thought of Wiipongwii. “He shot me an email that very night,” Wiipongwii recalled. “Writing, ‘You’re the one who is always talking about this. What do you say

we collaborate on this and turn this into a small class next semester?’” They reached out to other students at W&M — some with Chinese language skills, some from the business school and others who had the technical know-how to understand how the new technology might make a difference. With input and financial support from Levinson, Wiipongwii and Tierney developed a course that introduced students to blockchain technology and analyzed changing regulatory regimes in six East Asian countries. Among other assignments, the students worked on a white paper that they presented at the end of the semester, which is now having a realworld impact on Levinson’s work. The team had “a disciplined yet creative research approach,” Levinson explained, functioning as a “well-managed consulting team that could prepare and deliver good market intelligence.” Tierney further reflected that “ideas incubated in William & Mary classrooms, when combined with some serious sweat equity and good partners, can lead to new projects, methods and tools that have an impact in the world beyond the university.” Following the success of the class, W&M’s Global Research Institute, in partnership with the W&M Freeman Fellows program, helped to place Wiipongwii with Kelsey Robarts MPP ’18 at the Art Center Nabi in South Korea. There, Wiipongwii and Robarts worked with the art center’s

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director, Soh Yeong Roh ’84, helping advise blockchain startups and design a blockchain-based reforestry project that is now under review for funding at the South Korean Ministry for the Environment. Asked about Wiipongwii and Robarts, Soh Yeong replied, “Their knowledge about blockchain and also their passion about social impact projects were a definite plus to our blockchain community here in Korea.” Wiipongwii and a business partner are now working on several projects for environmental and social impact. “Even though I’ve been in the blockchain space for years, being at W&M, working with people like Mike, and having the opportunity to go to South Korea through the Institute has given me confidence and opened up professional opportunities,” he said. “It has completely changed my trajectory, and in the next couple of months I’m confident that my partner and I will be running a multimillion-dollar company.” Meanwhile, back at W&M, Tierney continues to explore blockchain, particularly its potential applications in

the international development space. Inspired by the class he created with Wiipongwii last spring, he is experimenting with a blended model of online teaching, led by practitioners in the policy world, combined with Williamsburg-based research projects. This class — a first of its kind on campus — kicks off next year. Wiipongwii and Tierney’s collaboration illustrates what W&M’s Global Research Institute hopes to achieve, supporting teams of students and faculty who are creating new knowledge and providing transformational experiences to help support the next generation of leaders. “I’m thrilled that Troy has been able to combine his education in public policy with computer science and business,” Tierney said. “Turns out, if you have the right collaborative culture within an organization and you build a community where students feel empowered, great things happen.”

W&M’s Global Research Institute, in partnership with the W&M Freeman Fellows program, helped to place Troy Wiipongwii with fellow W&M Master of Public Policy student Kelsey Robarts MPP ‘18 at the Art Center Nabi in South Korea. Courtesy Global Research Institute The cover of the team’s white paper.

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W& M team aces

EU foreign policy competition

team of William & Mary students recently won the Schuman ERIN ZAGURSKY Challenge, a foreign policy contest for undergraduates hosted by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States. This year’s topic was “Supplementing the Minsk agreements: Taking additional steps in support of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and integrity within its internationally recognized borders.” BY

A winning trio. The W&M team that won the Schuman Challenge (L to R): Joseph Bistransky ‘19, Grace Kier ‘20 and George Barros ‘19. Courtesy Stephen E. Hanson

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The 2019 challenge took place in Washington, D.C. Feb. 14-15. Grace Kier ’20, Joseph Bistransky ’19 and George Barros ’19 — all global studies majors focusing on Russian and post-Soviet studies — formed the winning team. According to the delegation’s website, the teams were judged “based on the merits of their contributions to furthering transatlantic dialogue,” with the judges looking for evidence-based analysis, subject matter knowledge and clear and powerful presentations. “It feels amazing to have won,” said Barros, who is also majoring in international relations. “A full three days after our triumph, we are all still exuberant.”

Steve Hanson, vice provost for international affairs and director of the Reves Center for International Studies, served as the primary mentor for the team. Several other faculty members volunteered to provide feedback and advice, including Chancellor Professor of Government Clay Clemens, Associate Professor of Government Paula Pickering, and Mike Tierney, Hylton Professor of Government and International Relations. “The winning performance of our Schuman Challenge team demonstrated clearly what makes a William & Mary education in global affairs so special,” Hanson said. “Reflecting their in-depth training in Russian and East

European studies as well as their capacity for incisive analysis of international issues, Grace, Joseph and George showed true mastery of the complexities of the situation in contemporary Ukraine, generating policy recommendations that were both concrete and realistic.” Seventeen teams from institutions around the country participated, including the U.S. Air Force Academy, George Washington University, Tufts University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Michigan and the University of Washington. Teams of two-to-three students from each school developed and presented over the course of two rounds proposed policies to further transatlantic cooperation in Ukraine. The two top-ranked teams then competed in a championship round. The topic was especially intriguing for Barros who wants to become an expert on Eastern Europe and Eurasia, concentrating on Ukraine, so that he can “help advance liberal democracy, human rights and the rule of law in this critical world region,” he said. Kier recalled that the first step was intense study of the issues and then collaboration and practice. “We prepared for the competition by researching as much as we could about the subject matter,” she said. “We then discussed all of our possible policy proposals with each other and several faculty members. Finally, we wrote our proposal and had several practice runthroughs with faculty and peers.” Bistransky explained more of the process: “We started out with a framing document to include all of our arguments, as if we were writing a paper, then refined that into an outline, then a script. By the end we had a very refined base product, plus all the knowledge we needed to answer possible questions.” According to Barros, the W&M team’s policy proposals were focused on three areas: increasing the ability of the transatlantic partnership to maintain sanctions over time and target areas where Russian concessions are most probable; deepening transatlantic cooperation on information and cyber warfare issues; and enacting civil society and anti-corruption reform policies to strengthen accountability and conditionality. “Each of these three areas are broad policy areas that are relatively broad, so each section

has detailed and specific policy recommendations,” he said. Bistransky concurred. “Our basic premise was that there was no short-term solution to the issue, so we proposed a series of precisely targeted initiatives to put maximum pressure on both Russia and Ukraine while minimizing costs to the West.” The judges for the final round were David O’Sullivan, EU ambassador to the U.S.; Karin Olofsdotter, Swedish ambassador to the U.S.; Julie Fisher, deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Europe and the EU; Ishaan Tharoor, foreign affairs writer for The Washington Post; and Patrick Tucker, technology editor of Defense One. “It felt like sitting in a pressure cooker when we waited for Ambassador O’Sullivan to announce the winner,” said Barros. “Winning was easily one of the greatest moments of my life. I was especially pleasantly surprised when EU Delegation staff said that some of our proposals could become actual foreign policy. It feels deeply rewarding knowing that the results of this academic challenge may actually help address the critical issue that is Russian aggression against the sovereign nation of Ukraine.”

Top: Steve Hanson, vice provost for international affairs and director of the Reves Center for International Studies (far right) was joined by Associate Professor of Government Paula Pickering and Mike Tierney, Hylton Professor of Government and International Relations, in helping the W&M team prep for the competition. Bottom two: The Schuman Challenge team went through an extensive process preparing for the competition, and it paid off with victory over 16 other universities. Kate Hoving, Reves Center for International Studies

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The

Measure of a Man BY KATE HOVING

Walking around a thousandyear-old pirate fortress in the capital city (Kasbah of the Udayas, Rabat, Morocco) Courtesy of Carter Trousdale

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“Bear in mind that the measure of a man is the worth of the things he cares about.” 7.3, The Emperor’s Handbook by Marcus Aurelius

t is safe to say that “the path of least resistance” has no place in Carter Trousdale’s lexicon. Perseverance, enthusiasm, discipline and optimism all have permanent residence, though. This talented young man might be called a Renaissance man — one minute explaining how to play the ukulele, the next, discussing the policy perils of Brexit — except his most characteristic qualities are very much rooted in the Classical age. First hint? Trousdale would like to meet former Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis not as a resume-building experience, but “because we read the same things. I like stoicism and the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and he does, too!” Trousdale ’20 began his William & Mary education in fall 2017 as a sophomore transfer student. However, in truth his journey here began long before, when he was 12 years old. “The first time I heard of W&M was from my grandfather. He taught American history for more than 40 years, and he loves everything about U.S. history. We were reading a book together and came across William & Mary. So I looked it up and signed up to be on the admissions email list when I was 12. I got [the emails] for six years. But I had to wait a couple of years before enrolling.” After high school, Trousdale received a full scholarship to McDaniel College, a small liberal arts school in Maryland, designing his own major in international entrepreneurship and business administration. But he never gave his hope to attend William & Mary, so when he was finally able to transfer, he did. Was the reality disappointing compared to his expectations? Not a chance. “Honestly, it’s heaven on earth,” Trousdale replies. “I wake up every morning feeling grateful to be here.” Heaven, perhaps, but Trousdale’s idea of heaven, which is a crucible of hard work, overcoming obstacles and infinite avenues for his curiosity. “I wanted to be challenged,” Trousdale responds when asked why he ended up at William & Mary. “I love, love being challenged and here I’m challenged to grow by new ideas, conceptions, and perspectives — by

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Quotes are from The Emperor’s Handbook by Marcus Aurelius A new translation of The Meditations by C. Scot Hicks and David V. Hicks, Scribner, 2002

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other students in my classes and pretty everyone who opens their mouth and speaks here at W&M. It’s just an amazing environment.” He always knew he wanted to study abroad. He has been so happy at William & Mary that he was sad to leave campus for a semester. Still, he had his vision of what he needed to do and stayed on track. “When I was looking to study abroad, I wanted something that was new and different. Something that would challenge my preexisting beliefs and whatever conceptions I had about the world,” Trousdale explains. He goes on to qualify that. “But also somewhere where I could communicate effectively in a language that I love. I’d studied French in high school and college.” He chose a semester program to Morocco to study the Arabic and French languages and Moroccan politics, history, and culture. It was managed by CIEE, a third-party program. Funding study abroad can seem to be an insurmountable obstacle, but with the help of the Global Education Office at Reves, Trousdale researched scholarships to fund his study

abroad experience. He would need to demonstrate an excellent academic track record and potential. Intelligence and reason … possess the nature and the will to surmount obstacles in their path. 10.33 Trousdale applied for the prestigious Robert M. & Rebecca W. Gates Scholarship. Donated by William & Mary Chancellor Robert M. Gates ’65, L.H.D. ’98 and his wife Rebecca, Gates Scholarships are merit-based awards for outstanding W&M students with a declared major in international relations, global studies or Africana studies. Awards are for semester and summer study abroad programs. First awarded in 2013, these scholarships are very competitive and require both an application essay and interview. He received $7,500 for the semester program, the maximum amount. Next, he applied for the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. The Gilman Scholarship Program is a grant program administered by the State Department, and is open to

“I love walking and reading, so I’d put on my earbuds and listen to books. I probably read twenty books.”

undergraduate students who are receiving Federal Pell Grant funding at a two-year or four-year college or university to participate in study and intern abroad programs worldwide. This is another very competitive scholarship for $5,000. As he was filling out the application, Trousdale noticed there was the possibility of an additional $3,000 Critical Language Study (CLS) grant, a government initiative to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages that are critical to national security and economic prosperity. “They said, ‘Oh, you’re studying Arabic! Tell us more!’”

He received both the Gilman and the CLS awards for an additional $8,000. He was on his way. Be ready and welcome it when it is your turn to experience change. For there is nothing like it to heighten your sensibilities and elevate your mind. 10.12

Trousdale was the only William & Mary student on CIEE’s program based in Rabat, joining students from all over the United States. The semester was a mix of classroom study and travel. “I’d say out of those 16 weeks, we went on excursions during 12 of those weekends, so we visited all the major cities in the country.” CIEE places students in homestays, and Trousdale lived with a family in a suburb about 45 minutes from downtown Rabat. He liked the energy and diversity in the capital, sensing it was a truer picture of life in Morocco than that of touristy places like Marrakesh or Casablanca. Although the home wasn’t downtown, “and it’s hard to get taxis into the city,” he made the most of his location. “What I loved was that I had a forest next door and a beach down the road. It was absolutely gorgeous,” he recounts. “I love walking and reading, so I’d put on my earbuds, go for a walk, and listen to books or read them on my Kindle at the beach. I probably read twenty books.” His booklist included lots of history — “history books are fun to me” — one favorite being Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari. “Wonderful. Wonderful book. Fascinating.” The first two weeks in Morocco focused on intensive study of Darija, the Moroccan Arabic dialect that reflects Amazigh (Berber), Spanish and French influences. “My French was more

Clockwise from left: Moroccans of all ages love exercising, running, and walking outside together in this beautiful forest by Trousdale’s house in Temara, Morocco. Sunset on the beach by his house. Walking the cliffs in Amazigh villages in the Ourika Valley in the High Atlas Mountains. Sunset over the blue city, Chefchaouen, Morocco. Photos courtesy of Carter Trousdale

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useful than I’d thought,” Trousdale recalls. “When you take Arabic at school in the U.S., you generally study Modern Standard Arabic, which is very different. I was able to communicate well right away with locals using French. But I also really loved studying Darija.” In addition to appreciating the linguistic legacies from French and other foreign influences, Trousdale was curious about the political and social vestiges of colonization. “A lot of Ameri-

“If we just work together we can accomplish truly amazing things.” cans, when they arrive, assume that the effects of colonialism are universally reviled, that the Moroccans must hate the French and everything they did, but I found it was more complicated than that.” The attitudes varied from generation to generation and personal experience. While his contemporaries might be disaffected, their parents enthusiastically lauded the benefits of the transportation, electrical, telecommunications, linguistic, and economic infrastructure the French built. Trousdale did observe that opportunities for young people are limited and not necessarily dependent on work or preparation. “The major problem [Moroccan] college students face was that, although they are super motivated, hardworking people, they can’t get jobs because there are few openly available jobs.” He attributes that lack of opportunity to what he witnessed as a system that operates largely on connections. By and large, “You’re not going to get a job unless you have an uncle working for the government.” His experiences also reinforced to him how challenging truly effective foreign development aid is. “You could have all the legal infrastructure in the world, all the funding in the world, but unless you have a way of implementing it directly to help the people you’re trying to help, if you filter it through any kind of system of bureaucracy within the country, the money’s not going to go to where you want to go.”

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That said, he sees his future in international relations and management. “I would love to do management/public sector consulting. I would love to work for the defense/security agencies or in military contracting because I find that work both fascinating and crucial for the advancement and protection of our nation.” Upon graduation, he wants to work for a few years to gain some experience in and exposure to various industries, eventually looking to earn an MBA and JD. He will be working at NATO this summer in Brussels through an internship with the State Department. “It’s the marriage of multilaterialism and security that I love about NATO and what drew me to the field of international relations in the first place,” he explains. It will also give him a chance to attend the Women’s World Cup this summer in France. “I love women’s football and can’t wait to pop on over to France and watch the U.S. Women’s National Team.” His love for women’s football, or soccer, stems from the 2015 Women’s World Cup. “I’m always listening to NPR when I’m driving at home (the car doesn’t have a CD player) and they were broadcasting a story about how the final was up in Canada and most of the seats were empty. So I started wondering: why aren’t people watching this? So I said, ‘O.K., I’m going to watch the final match and see how it is.’ It was the U.S. versus Japan in the final, and we scored four goals in the first twenty minutes. I thought, this is awesome! They’re not taking falls, they’re not acting out [like in men’s soccer]. They’re genuinely playing the game!” Don’t fear the future. You will face it, if that is your fate, armed with the same reason that protects and guides you in the present. 7.8 Returning to William & Mary, in addition to his studies, Trousdale works at the W&M Raymond A. Mason School of Business’s Advancement, Development, and Alumni Relations office. “I love problem solving. I love fixing things. What I love is optimizing systems and processes not only for the project at hand but for long-term, so the next people, and the next people after them, can use the same system. That’s why management consulting is my dream career. It would just be so much fun!” On campus, he is in the process of founding Spartan Club, which revolves around intense physical training and culminates in a Spartan Race, a three-mile obstacle course. “We’re creating a community of people who like doing

hard things precisely because they’re hard — people who enjoy taking on challenges and overcoming them. Many students at William & Mary love this kind of thing — they’re out there — but they’re not connected. We want to bring people together from all disciplines and backgrounds into a community.” Every Sunday morning, between ten and thirty likeminded men and women push themselves past perceived limitations to truly become who they are. They’re training for the Spartan Stadion at Nationals Park in D.C. on May 11. “We’re trying to get a William & Mary team together. It will not be easy, but that’s the point.” Trousdale relates with great enthusiasm what’s in store for them: “They have different types of races, but the entry-level ‘sprint’ is three miles and ten obstacles, none of which you know ahead of time. It could be carrying a giant stone, climbing a fifteen-foot wall, crawling under barbed wire, javelin throwing, just all kinds of stuff.” It’s up to you! 1.17 In his essay for the Gates Scholarship application, Trousdale traced his interest in international relations from his experience at Hoffman Estates High School in Illinois. “I come from a town right outside of Chicago — it’s a very diverse area — and my high school was incredibly diverse, less than 30% Caucasian. It was an amazing place, my teachers were wonderful, and my friends came from all over the world.

In the halls, you’d hear conversations in Arabic, Urdu, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Telugu, Turkish, Gujarati, Spanish, etc. So I learned how to say, ‘Hi, how ya’ doing?’ in ten languages, because, as Nelson Mandela once said, ‘if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.’” His experience at school inspired him. “I saw how the world could be, a world where people of all backgrounds can appreciate each other’s cultures and work together to achieve even greater financial, economic, and socio-political victories,” he says. “Because we’re all in the same boat. We’re all humans just trying to make our way in the world. We really don’t need to fight over anything. If we just work together we can accomplish truly amazing things.” Trousdale was able to meet Chancellor and Mrs. Gates at the Plumeri House over Charter Day weekend, to thank them for his scholarship. “He’s been my role model for so many years. I’ve read all his books. I love what he stands for and what he’s done.” He cites A Passion for Leadership, which he read just last year, as being especially meaningful for him. Said Trousdale of Gates, “This is the kind of leader we need, this type of thinking is the way the country should be run. And we need a generation of people who can carry that out now.” Carter Trousdale, it’s up to you.

Rebecca Gates, Carter Trousdale and Chancellor Robert Gates met at Plumeri House after the Charter Day ceremony. Opposite: Sahara sunrise set for two, Merzouga, Morocco. Photos courtesy of Carter Trousdale

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A W&M Professor, Games, and How They Connect Us BY RACHEL SIMS

ou can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation,” Dr. Michele Bates King tells me with a smile. “Are they competitive or relaxed? How do they communicate disappointment or success? Are they strategic? How do they connect abstract ideas?” Anyone who knows the Professor of Speech at William & Mary has experienced her contagious excitement for the topic. “No matter who you are, you’ve played games. You did when you were a kid, and you probably still love it as an adult.” Dr. Bates King has been studying games for a long time. So long, in fact, that she was just a kid when she began her unofficial research. “Growing up I loved board games. During the summers my brother Eric and I would put board games out and play all day. We would play for hours and hours.” She was interested in verbal and nonverbal communication in college, studying Speech Communication and later Corporate and Professional Communication for her graduate degree. Later, when she was thinking about research options for her doctorate, her advisor left her with one piece of advice: whatever you do, you better love it. “I asked myself: what do I love so much? Board games! But what was I going to do with that? I didn’t really know much about it, but took a class on Entertainment Education and fell in love with it.” Her research has since taken her around the world and back, connecting her with Board Game Studies experts all over the globe. In 2006 she presented her paper “Visual Rhetoric and the Board Game of Life” to researchers in Brazil, discussing how the visual packaging of the beloved game of Life has changed over decades with its subsequent representation

and reflection of society. What did it say about culture, society, and family? Who’s on the front of the box…and who’s on the back? What does that signify? In 2010, Dr. Bates King presented in France on BP-produced board game Offshore Oil Strike, and presented in Belgium the following year on Konane, an ancient Hawaiian board game. An avid member of the International Society for Board Games, she’s connected and presented with game experts around the world — from Tom Werneck, German board game creator and co-founder of the prestigious Spiel des Jarhes (Game of the Year) award, to David Parlett, author of the Oxford History of Board Games. Perhaps her excitement and love for games is so contagious because it takes us all back to childhood…back to something that’s inside all of us. From every part of the globe, play is something we’ve all done, something we all do. “It is just embedded in who we are,” Dr. Bates King tells me. It also disarms us. Dr. Bates King has found it so effective in her public speaking classes that she makes her students play games throughout the semester, breaking down what can be

Dr. Michele Bates King — known to keep a stash of games in the trunk of her car for easy access. Photo by Andrew King

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a formidable class for many and creating comfort and connection within her class. When she brings board games into the classroom, she finds that even her reserved students become passionate and animated. So she uses games as a teaching mechanism, telling her students that she wants to see that same passion present in their speeches. One of her favorite teaching games, Tribond, is a card game where players are given a list of three items and must determine what they have in common. The game is about connecting objects and ideas, teaching speech students to connect their topics with ideas they care about. She uses Code Names to teach audience analysis and how to hone their 3-5 minute speeches to what is most necessary. “It helps them think about organization, content, and delivery — and you do that through play,” she tells me. Jenga, another favorite, is also helpful. “When you’re speaking in front of people, you need to learn to calm your nerves…to learn to control yourself and your breathing. Jenga teaches that.” Clearly her classes are a success. Dr. Bates King has a board full of thank-you notes in her office from former students who have used their public speaking skills after college. She says she stays in contact with as many as she can. Some have gone on to work at the NFL, and from time to time she’ll get a call from them asking for help on a speech they need to give at a charity event. She simply walks them back through the

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basics of creating a speech. “I tell my students, even when they’re out of the classroom and finished at William & Mary, I’m here.” She’s also learned a lot from the international students she’s worked with — about games that vary across cultures and the various favorites from different regions of the world. Last summer Dr. Bates King worked with the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, the flagship program of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) hosted by the Presidential Precinct, during their two weeks at William & Mary. The program “brings African civic, business, and community leaders for academic coursework, leadership training, and networking at U.S. colleges and universities” (yali.state.gov/mwf ), and this was the fifth year Presidential Precinct and William & Mary hosted the fellows. Each year the YALI students’ experience culminates in a day of presentations based on their respective areas of interest and expertise. Dr. Bates King worked with them on their speeches, helping them connect ideas and refine their presentation — but not before she made them play games together. “When you teach a particular game — from one culture to another — you are bringing a part of your world into theirs. I learned a lot from YALI fellows about games in their own cultures.” An expert on nonverbal communication, Dr. Bates King helps her students understand what

communication transcends culture — and what does not. She explains that some nonverbal communication — like hand gestures, tone, or stance — are not easily interpretable. In some cultures a smile can signify embarrassment. In some a hand gesture may mean “OK,” whereas in others the same gesture might express profanity. Additionally, tone — how you speak, as opposed to content — is nonverbal and can vary in significance across the globe. Cross-cultural communication skills are increasingly important in our connected world, and Dr. Bates King helps students learn communication skills they will likely use throughout their lives. Communication in any culture is about giving and receiving information — something Dr. Bates King takes to heart because she also loves learning from her students. “I tell my students on the first day of class, I never work a day in my life. I get to learn so much from them.” She tells me their speeches cover a variety of fascinating topics, from hog wrestling to serial killers. When asked what she hoped to do in the future, Dr. Bates King’s eyes lit up. She told me she once walked into a café in France, and instead of serving coffee or food, the café served up a menu of board games. “I’d love to do that — to have a board game café in Williamsburg,” she tells me. She also hopes to offer a class on “Gamers and Gamification” (how games are

Opposite: YALI Fellows learn how to play CodeNames. Photo courtesy of Presidential Precinct

played and negotiated) to William & Mary students in the future. One thing is certain: Dr. Bates King loves teaching, loves learning — and loves using the power of play to facilitate both. Play is a global language, embedded in who we are. It has the power to connect us — across boundaries, ages, and cultures — even across the world.

Above: 2018 YALI Fellows play Lakota. Photo courtesy of Presidential Precinct Lakota Photo by Andrew King A Board Game Café in Copenhagen, Denmark. Photo by Dr. Michele Bates King

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W&M IN THE WORLD

RAY MOND A. MAS ON S CHOOL OF B US INES S

A Quest for Knowledge Brings a Spanish Fulbright Scholar to William & Mary BY KATE HOVING

Miguel Bardají Horno studies in the McLeod Business Library at the he Raymond A. Mason School of Business. Photo by Kate Hoving

iguel Bardají Horno MBA ’20 may have officially set foot on campus in August, but his journey to William & Mary actually began Saturday, September 23, 2017, at 11 am. That was when Business Dean Larry Pulley ’74 and Executive Director of Fulbright España Alberto López San Miguel met in Pulley’s office on the second floor of Miller Hall to sign an MOU establishing an award for one Spanish Fulbright candidate each year to pursue the two-year MBA program in the Raymond A. Mason School of Business. The meeting occurred during a break in the 2017 United States-Spain Council Forum, held at William & Mary for the first time. U.S. Senator Timothy M. Kaine (D-VA) was the Honorary Chair of the United StatesSpain Council, a non-profit organization created in 1996 to build stronger relationships between the public and private sectors in both countries. Senator Kaine’s office helped make the initial inquiry to William & Mary through Teresa Longo, acting director of the Reves Center at the time, and the details for the relationship were worked out in a just a few weeks, in time for the conference. “Within the ultimate goal of increasing the understanding between the people of different countries, Fulbright strives to offer grantees the best training opportunities in their

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field of study while they get to know the U.S. culture,” says Alberto López San Miguel. “The collaboration with W&M provides a unique opportunity to offer a spot at a top MBA program not so widely wellknown in Spain. Additionally, W&M’s location in a historic medium-sized town procures an ideal setting for the Spanish candidate to learn about the U.S., its society and traditions.” It also makes study at William & Mary more accessible, explains Mason’s Director of MBA Admissions, Amanda Barth: “Since candidates from Europe have many less expensive regional options for MBA study, the Fulbright scholarship support makes it possible for candidates like Miguel to challenge themselves with a truly global immersion in the United States.” Although not a lot of time passed between the MOU and Bardají Horno’s matriculation at Mason, this first Spanish Fulbrighter is already proving himself an asset to his classmates and the university.

Learning as a goal, not just a process

“I took a personality test at Mason, as all MBA students do, and my main strength is Learner,” Bardají Horno reveals. According to the StrengthsFinder, Learners have a strong desire to learn, to continuously improve through learning, and are energized by the gaining and processing of something new and useful. Although

the test is a helpful tool, this couldn’t have come as much surprise to him or any of his previous teachers or employers. Bardají Horno’s educational and professional journey has been from the beginning both multidisciplinary and international. He was born in Zaragoza — Spain’s fifth-largest city, located in Aragón — and rich in history and multiple traditions, from its 5th century B.C. Iberian beginnings, to Roman settlement, to four centuries of Muslim rule, and finally when it became Zaragoza and the capital of the Kingdom of Aragón. Bardají Horno received his Bachelor of Laws (and an award from the “Miguel de Cervantes” cathedra of the Spanish Army for being the top student) and Bachelor of Science, Business Administration and Management from the Universidad de Zaragoza, gaining the two degrees in six years, with a study abroad experience in Angers, France. He received his Master of Arts in European Economics from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, again the top-ranked student in his program. He is fluent in English, Spanish and French, and is as versatile professionally as he is linguistically and culturally. He has worked as a consultant in public sector policy, serving the EU account for Deloitte Consulting in Brussels, and practiced corporate law in Madrid and Zaragoza. He is equally skilled and comfortable in both private and public sectors, policy and

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real estate, negotiation and mergers and acquisitions. This diverse experience and cultural sophistication made him especially appealing to Mason. “Miguel was an outstanding candidate for admission into the program with his breadth and depth of experience in Law,” recalls Barth. “His glowing academic history and competitive GMAT scores demonstrated his ability to handle the rigor of our MBA curriculum, but his incredible professional experience and his collaborative disposition are the greatest added value to our learning community.” For Bardají Horno, each academic and professional choice he has made has been strategic, designed to broaden his capabilities and experience. At the time of his Fulbright application, he was looking for an educational opportunity that would help him grow professionally and prepare him for his next step. “That’s part of what I’m doing here — getting a taste of different disciplines to be able to better say, ‘This is what I want to do,’” he explains. “That’s one of the things that appealed to me about the Fulbright. I have the chance to pause my career for two years and reconsider things.”

The Path to the Fulbright

When Bardají Horno learned about the W&M Fulbright opportunity, he was working in Zaragoza as a corporate attorney. He got a phone call on a Friday afternoon from the Fulbright office, telling him there was a new program and encouraging him to apply. He had previously applied in 2015, and made it as far as the interview, but there aren’t many opportunities for MBA programs, and his application was put on hold. (It’s still not as common an area of study for the program. When he met his cohort of fellow Fulbrighters from Spain, he was the only MBA student in a group that includes musicians, graphic designers and even a circus artist.) The Fulbright seemed like the right opportunity for him, but he didn’t know anything about William & Mary. “It was evident the Fulbright officials really liked the university,

especially the program officer. He was from Virginia, and he reassured me that it was a very well-known university and one of the best ‘Public Ivies’ in the country and steadily moving higher in global rankings.” Bardají Horno was not fazed that Williamsburg was not in a large urban area. “I didn’t care that much because my first master’s degree was in Bruges, which is a beautiful town, but really, really small,” he recalls. “I knew that living in a small place allows you to focus more on your studies and you get to know your classmates better.”

Miguel Bardají Horno and Amanda Barth, Director of MBA Admissions. Photo by Kate Hoving

and energizes him. Approximately 40% of the Full-Time MBA cohort is comprised of international students, representing more than 20 diverse countries. “I have a multidisciplinary training, I’ve lived in four countries now, and I’ve met people from more than 60 countries. I really thrive where there are international perspectives.” Bardají Horno had studied business in Spain, but the classes and focus differ from those in the U.S., and he is enjoying those differences. “In Spain the curriculum is more theoretical, and you memorize information. It’s the opposite here, more practical and geared toward real-world applications.” In his first opportunity for electives, he has chosen data science and financial statements analysis. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to come here. I wanted to explore technology and more scientific approaches. I think they are the future.” One aspect he had not foreseen was how much he has come to appreciate his Mason colleagues who are active military or veterans. “They’re really interesting people, some of the top performers here. And they bring so many different and valuable experiences.”

Academic and cultural differences

The intersection of economics and psychology

Bardají Horno has seen first-hand the challenges of cross-cultural interactions in school and in business. “In my first job working in public policy in Brussels for Deloitte, we ran an executive training program for the European Commission that sent executives from European companies to Japan and Korea. The EU had commissioned a study from an Oxford economist to learn why the EU wasn’t trading as much with Japan and Korea as it was with other countries. The study showed that the issue wasn’t geographic distance — because Australia is just as far as Japan and Korea, and the EU traded a lot with Australia — but the “distance” of language and culture,” he recalls. In his case, though, the global diversity at William & Mary inspires

Each incoming student, whether from Richmond or Riga, brings their own intellectual interests and philosophical approach to their studies. Bardají Horno brings an enthusiasm for behavioral economics. “I love behavioral economics. Because it’s very much at the intersection between psychology and economics, it was not traditionally taught in economics,” he explains. “Economics was about how all humans are basically rational and we make optimal choices. They operated on the assumption that we were like machines or robots, and we’re actually not.” That view was challenged by Daniel Kahnemann, “an Israeli-American psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002. That was almost 15 years ago by now,” he

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explains. “Last year the Nobel Prize was awarded to Richard Thaler, who is an economist at the University of Chicago. So it’s becoming more mainstream, with two Nobel Prizes in 15 years. Now in academic circles the seminal paper from Kahneman and his colleague Amos Tversky is one of the 10 most cited papers.” Bardají Horno gains momentum as he describes the friendship and collaboration between Kahneman and Tversky, a friendship described in The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis. For Bardají Horno, the process and personalities are as intriguing as the ramifications of their work. “I think it’s fascinating because they worked so closely together, that they literally flipped a coin to decide who would be the lead author of their first paper and for the rest of their careers they just switched back and forth. And they were polar opposites, Tversky was this extrovert with so much energy and Kahneman was a moodier introvert.” In much the same way, Bardají Horno brings not only a knowledge of policy and procedures from Spain and the European Union, but also intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. Although he assumed as an MBA that he was a little bit different from his fellow Fulbrighters, he really does have the most important quality of a successful and effective Fulbright recipient: a passion for ideas that transcends — and potentially transforms — national and academic borders. We look forward to seeing the impact he has in Williamsburg and in his career and studies, wherever his journey takes him.

CIEE Passport Caravan Visits W&M for the first time BY KATE HOVING

n January 31, 2019, the Colony Room of the Sadler Center was transformed into a passport application office. Thanks to a partnership between the Global Education Office (GEO) at the Reves Center and the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), eightyfive William & Mary students submitted their passport applications for free. To be eligible, students had to be an undergraduate freshman, sophomore, or junior, who had never had a passport. Students did not need to participate in a study abroad program in order to qualify. CIEE's Passport Caravan is sponsoring passports for 10,000 students around the country as part of its participation in the national Generation Study Abroad™ initiative. Developed in 2014 by the Institute of International Education, the initiative seeks to double the number of U.S. students studying abroad by 2020 by breaking down the main barriers: cost, curriculum, and culture.

CIEE representatives Craig Jefferson, Manager, Institutional Relations, and Meg Swoboda, Event & Marketing Senior Coordinator, gave checks to the registered students and answered questions about CIEE programs. The students impressed Jefferson. “They arrived before their appointment time, and some were even in suits! It just goes to show how these students recognized the opportunity CIEE and the Global Education Office provided. William & Mary students are definitely ready to explore the world and positively represent the U.S.” 24

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The passport agents were staff from several U.S. Postal Service branches across Virginia.

Liz Smith ’21 applied for her first passport at the Caravan because she received a W&M – St Andrews First Abroad Scholarship. This GEO program provides students in their first year at W&M a funded introduction to study abroad by visiting the University of St Andrews over spring break; students who have never left the U.S. experience international travel in a supportive environment. First Abroad participants live in dorms, visit courses, participate in co-curricular activities, and learn about university life in Scotland. The program includes a scholarship for a subsequent semester or summer study abroad program.

It’s all about removing barriers. A new passport costs $145 in 2019. Getting a passport can be intimidating – both as a process and as a financial burden. “CIEE brings the passport agents to them on campus, provides payment, and facilitates the process,” explains Jefferson. “GEO made it as straightforward as possible. The students meet with the passport agents right on campus between their classes and walk away knowing a passport is in the mail.” Students could even get their photos taken.

ABOUT CIEE

Council on International Educational Exchange Founded in 1947, CIEE is the country’s oldest and largest nonprofit study abroad and intercultural exchange organization, serving more than 300 U.S. colleges and universities, 1,000 U.S. high schools, and more than 35,000 international exchange students each year. CIEE operates 61 study centers in 43 countries, sponsors international faculty training programs, teach abroad programs, and various specialty and custom programs for secondary, post-secondary, and international students. Visit www.ciee.org

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Lila Sugerman works to destigmatize periods in India BY ETHAN BROWN ’21 Photo courtesy of Ethan Brown

Reprinted by permission of The Flat Hat. Sugerman is the daughter of W&M alumni Andrew & Sarah Sugerman.

illiam & Mary’s Global Research Institute welcomed 15-year-old Lila Sugerman to Williamsburg for a sneak preview and discussion of the documentary she co-produced, “Period. End of Sentence.” The full screening was part of the Global Film Festival. The film, which was the only Academy Award-nominated (and ultimately Academy Award-winning) documentary with an exclusively female cast, investigates how insufficient access to sanitary products in rural India often prevents young women from obtaining secondary education. The Global Research Institute’s director of programs and outreach, David Trichler, introduced Sugerman: “The goal of these lunch talks is not to go too deep, but we talk about something that’s interesting, and to bring someone that’s doing interesting things in the world, and then we have a conversation afterwards,” Trichler said. Sugerman began working alongside her peers at Oakwood School in Los Angeles, California, to create a formal organization devoted toward the empowerment of young women in Hapur, a rural area outside of Delhi, India. Access to women’s education is limited in India, and girls face institutional restrictions and social barriers that cause many to fail to complete secondary school. According to Sugerman, these obstacles are intensified when girls get their period because, for many

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Indian families, menstruation is considered a taboo topic. Sugerman also explained that for poorer Indian families, many must choose between purchasing sanitary products and essential goods, like food, due to limited financial resources. Sugerman said that lack of access to pads often forces girls to stay home instead of going to school, which makes it increasingly difficult for them to complete their secondary education. Furthermore, Sugerman also explained that girls face intense social pressure from boys when they attempt to attend school while on their period, often suffering from taunts and shaming by their male counterparts. According to Sugerman, she and her peers recognized that as young, privileged women in southern California, they had a unique ability to foster dialogue about periods and access to sanitary products from across the globe. Among the motivating factors for the project’s creation was how strongly Sugerman and her partners identified with the girls in India, especially due to their shared age and experiences. “This [organization] is pretty much run by 15 girls, half are alumni, half are still in high school,” Sugerman said. “Everyone is under the age of 25, except for our teacher advisor.” Sugerman’s organization, eventually dubbed The Pad Project, sought to aid girls in India by setting up machines that produce affordable and biodegradable sanitary pads for their communities. The Pad Project obtained nonprofit status in California two years ago, and after announcing

plans to film its efforts in India, sparked media attention and rapid financial backing. “We used Kickstarter to raise all our money … we raised $200,000 altogether,” Sugerman said. “The main way we did this was through trailers, commercials and reaching out to companies.” The money was allocated to the establishment of pad machines in Hapur as well as to the filming of “Period. End of Sentence.,” which sought to encapsulate The Pad Project’s work in a short documentary. The documentary, which draws from over three days of footage, has been screened at twenty film festivals in the United States and India. The film, which integrates interviews of young women in India alongside depictions of the machine’s impacts on Hapur, is available on Netflix International. Despite the project’s success and the film’s critical acclaim, Sugerman intends to tweak aspects of The Pad Project before expanding the program to other countries. Moving forward, one of her primary objectives is to be more selective with the infrastructure that the project uses, rather than blindly choosing whatever technology is most readily accessible. “If we had looked into it more … with time, things become more innovative, and there are more options,” Sugerman said. “When we were first [starting the project], we just picked out a pad machine, and it was like, the only one there.” Beyond an intensified selectiveness for the pad machines they send to India, Sugerman also expressed

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the project’s interest in fostering a stronger partnership with its Indian collaborators through sustained communication and open dialogue. Sarah Baker ’19 echoed these concerns and expressed her hope that The Pad Project’s goals would not dissipate following its recent media hype. “I know after the Oscars and the hype dies down a little bit, and when [the project] intends to expand, I wanted to know what [their] plans

were to keep this project strong and sustainable in this one community,” Baker said. Sugerman emphasized that The Pad Project is continuing to subsidize the pad machine’s operation in India, and that her team engages in frequent Skype calls with peers in India to ensure an open line of communication. Furthermore, the project is sponsoring travel to Los Angeles, California, so several of the women featured

in the film can attend the Academy Awards Feb. 24. “We really want to stay in contact with the communities that we work in,” Sugerman said. “That’s the biggest part of the nonprofit; we care about the communities we work in, and we really want to have communication with them.”

Breezing through bucket lists Anee Nguyen ’19 discusses her travels throughout Europe as a student at St Andrews BY SARAH SMITH ’19

Reprinted by permission of The Flat Hat.

or Anee Nguyen ’19, William & Mary has become a home and a place she deeply loves. She’s only called the university a home for three semesters — for the rest of her college career, she’s studied at the University of St Andrews as a member of the joint degree programme. There, she traveled to 13 different countries in nine months, fulfilling a goal she strived to complete before her 21st birthday. However, Williamsburg, Virginia has become a place she cherishes more than the various places she visited abroad, and she’ll be sad to leave when she graduates in May. “I just love William & Mary,” Nguyen said. “I can’t even pinpoint anything because it’s so great to be surrounded by people who share similar interests and values, I love being able to walk everywhere, I love being so close to Colonial Williamsburg. It’s so nice to have a real campus again, I love being able to sit down in Sadler or in Swem even and just take in that this is where I am, I am actually here, I haven’t been back in so long. It feels weird to be back in such a great way, coming home to something familiar.”

Nguyen initially didn’t anticipate applying to the university or the joint degree programme. A tour of the campus and her mom’s insistence that she write an extra essay helped her solidNguyen at the windmills in ZaanseSchaans, 20 ify her decision. In the joint de- minutes outside of Amsterdam. gree programme she is an English Photo courtesy of Anee Nguyen makes you passionate. That’s the major, and she has a minor in education studies with a concentration reason I want to be a professor … because I loved going in depth on one in equity policy. Nguyen dreams of becoming a topic.” After her freshman year, Nguyen teacher, an occupation that effectively integrates both her major and mi- participated in W&M Washington nor. She strives to become an English Center’s D.C. Summer Institutes. She professor who publishes both aca- took Assistant Vice President for Studemic works and children’s books. dent Engagement and Leadership Both a middle school English teacher Drew Stelljes’s Leadership and Comand a College course, Revolution and munity Engagement Institute course, Romanticism, have influenced her which opened her eyes to a different understanding of education. along the way. “Professor Stelljes is just so good “I knew I wanted to be an English teacher because my seventh grade at teaching you how to learn more English class made me love English about yourself through reflection,” and teaching,” Nguyen said. “As I got Nguyen said. “Talking to these peoolder and since then, I’ve done a lot ple about their experiences, it wasn’t of teaching practice, I’ve had my own about trying to learn motivations, it practice and worked as an assistant was about human connection, which for K-12 [schools]. I love teaching, I had never really experienced before I love being with other people, and in an academic setting. It was helpsharing this sense of learning and a ful to understand myself and we all love for English and a love for what got really close. We were focused on

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Anee Nguyen at Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. Photo courtesy of Anee Nguyen

learning about each other, learning how to interact with each other.” On the other side of the ocean, Nguyen spent two years studying at St Andrews where she regularly hopped onto flights to other countries, lived in castle-like residence halls and attended fashion shows. She took study breaks walking down the local beach and said she became very close with other joint degree programme students. Then, on Instagram she saw another girl who had traveled to 21 countries by her 21st birthday, inspiring her to do the same. Prior to realizing her goal, she had already visited the United States, Canada, France, Vietnam, England and Scotland. Then, she visited Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Wales and the Vatican before her birthday. “I loved traveling — the physical act of traveling,” Nguyen said. “Although I am not a big plane person anymore. I am a little bit averse to them because a lot of the flights I went on were discount flights so they

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were bumpier. … Everywhere I went was so beautiful and I went in different seasons so I experienced the world at different times of the year. There’s tons of history. We tried to hit all of those big landmarks and I tried to take a lot of pictures to remember where I’ve been. It’s such a wild experience that I went to all of these places and I got to go with people that I barely knew. I feel so much closer to them. To experience different things, languages, currencies and food, the experience of traveling brings you so much closer together.” Despite the fun of cheap roundtrip flights and fashion shows attended by the likes of Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, Nguyen said that being a part of the joint degree programme forces students to adapt to two very different settings. Because of this, Nguyen serves on the board of the WaMStA Student Partnership, a social partnership for students in the programme both at the College and at St Andrews. She helps facilitate other board members who help students within specific majors and advertise events on social media.

“When I first got into the programme, I was a little sad because I knew William & Mary was going to be my home and it still is,” Nguyen said. “So leaving was incredibly hard. My best friend in my life I made here on campus, it was hard leaving her and starting all over again at St Andrews. The first semester my second year was really tough, I had never been so far away from home and it was hard getting adjusted and working into a new headspace.” But Nguyen eventually adjusted to the change, and now uses that process to help other students manage the same transition through the Student Partnership. “Being able to adapt to both of them is a skill that I admire in people in the programme,” Nguyen said. “It’s cool to experience different types of learning, different styles of socializing, academics.” Now that she’s back where she feels most at home, Nguyen is working to make the most of it before graduation. She said she’s enjoying being back with her best friend, exploring everywhere from Colonial Williamsburg to the Earl Gregg Swem Library and soaking in the campus in anticipation of how it might change in future years. “There are tons of things at William & Mary that I didn’t experience as a freshman,” Nguyen said. “I hope that I make the most of whatever is coming. Go to more events, go out more, meet more people and make those connections. [I want to make sure] that if I ever come back as an alum that there are a lot of connections here for me. There’s so much here that is going to change but that isn’t going to change.”

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W& M L AW S CHOOL

Women in the Field Symposium Highlights Role of Women in Building Post-War Constitutions Around the World BY LAW SCHOOL STAFF Post-Conflict Constitution Building L-R: Professor Christie Warren; Justice Gresa Caka-Nimani; April Powell-Willingham; and Melanie Allen J.D. ’21. Photo by David F. Morrill

November 12 symposium hosted by the Law School’s Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, made possible, in part, by generous funding from the Reves Center for International Studies at William & Mary, shined a spotlight on the substantive constitutional work women have been doing for decades in countries recovering from conflict. In 1946, Beate Sirota Gordon, a 22-year-old naturalized American citizen living in occupied postwar Japan, participated alongside General Douglas MacArthur in the drafting process of Japan’s post-war constitution. Over the course of seven days, Gordon wrote two clauses enshrining women’s equality and equal civil rights for women, including in financial, marital and family issues. Since then, women have been working in conflict and post-conflict settings for many years, advising on constitutional issues in war-torn environments that are often difficult and dangerous. On November 12, the Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding (CLS/PCP) hosted a symposium that shined a spotlight on the substantive constitutional work women have been doing for decades in countries recovering from conflict. During her opening remarks, Christie S. Warren, Professor of the Practice of International and Comparative

Law and Director of CLS/PCP, emphasized that women who do this work are–and have to be–tough. Conditions are not easy, and the fields of constitutional law and post-conflict constitution building remain for the most part male-dominated. April Powell-Willingham, former Director of the United Nations Office of Constitutional and Legislative Affairs in Baghdad and former Head of the United Nations Joint Constitution Unit for Somalia, began with a question for the standing-room-only audience: “How can those in a society overcome fear and suspicion amongst themselves in order to build trust and move forward in peace?” This question has arisen time and again in the countries in which she continues to work, most recently in Afghanistan and South Sudan. Building trust may not seem like a priority immediately following conflict, genocide or war crimes, but its absence negatively impacts progress on the substantive work involved in constitution building, including with issues such as federal frameworks, institution building, decentralization and capacity building. Justice Gresa Caka-Nimani, Justice of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, provided a riveting account of the constitutional process in her country, which coincided with the drafters’ gradual realization that inaction by the Security Council would necessitate a declaration of Kosovo’s independence. Discussions with the

Albanian majority and Serb and other minority groups about options for decentralization, rights for minority groups and control of the narrative of the conflict, which reached an apex during heated disagreements about the contents of the preamble to the new constitution, were contentious and at times dangerous. Caka-Nimani, who traveled from Pristina for the symposium, stated that contributions by international actors were useful during the constitutional process both to provide a framework of international standards while also mitigating passions of the drafters, many of whom had lost family members during the war. Melanie Allen, former Project Director for International IDEA’s Constitution Building Processes Programme at the Hague–and a current 1L at our law school, spoke of the need for inclusivity, not merely participation, during constitutional processes, as well as in the wording of the constitution itself. Allen, author of “Constitution Assessment for Women’s Equality” and former interim Director of IDEA’s Nepal office, emphasized that language alone does not guarantee or even necessarily promote gender equality in constitutions. Instead, each constitutional issue must be analyzed for its substantive impact on women’s development, or lack thereof, especially in post-conflict environments.

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IN THEIR OWN WORDS

JENNI FRANKLIN Senior Assistant Dean of Admission Regions: International Students, U.S. Citizens Oversees, U.S. Territories, and St Andrews Joint Degree Programme Applicants

STEPHEN SECHRIST Director, International Students, Scholars, and Programs

A new focus in admissions

SS: Jenni Franklin started at William & Mary fall 2018. Tim Wolfe, Associate Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admission, created this position that is specifically focused on international — and he recruited for that. JF: It’s not necessarily a new position in our office, but it is the first time that this position has been filled with the intention of having someone who is fully focused on international admissions. I think it’s important to have an international perspective on a college campus. It allows for students to share their perspectives both ways, and it gives them the opportunity to

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A Conversation with Jenni Franklin and Stephen Sechrist

grow in a space where [personal and intellectual] growth is already happening. SS: I was on the search committee for Jenni, and during the interview… JF: That wasn’t nerve racking at all… SS: … what really struck me about Jenni was that her passion for diversity and admissions really came through. When she accepted the position, we were all excited. W&M has been doing international admissions for years, but to have someone who is formally and officially dedicated to that, who brings the background that Jenni has, was a huge step. To me the mission of a university is to create and share knowledge. We are here to help create a better understanding of our world. And if you want to do that — if you want to tackle these problems that transcend borders, political and social borders — you have to have perspectives from all areas of the world, all aspects of society. You can’t do that if you don’t have a strong global community at the university.

JF: I love finding the students who are ready to take on the work of the institution. You get to see how it changes a student’s life and changes the culture on your campus too, to allow for this growth of international perspective, growth of diversity, growth of understanding of each other.

Attracting and recruiting international students

JF: I think it’s the same answer for domestic students as it is for international students. This is actually my 16th year in college admissions. As an admissions professional, you observe what other colleges do well. William & Mary has always been on my radar as a place where a lot of personal and academic growth happens for students. If you’re walking into the classroom here, you’re the type of student that is ready to take the next step — ready to let the faculty blow your mind a little bit. And so when you are working with high schools and you see the student that is ready to take that next

step and ready to push beyond what they know, you understand William & Mary would be a great fit. International students who are willing to come to the United States are already working in that direction, and I think that in their applications it’s fairly easy to see the type of student who would be a great fit here. SS: I hear sometimes in [higher education] in general, people say, “Oh, you work with the international students,” as if it’s something other…. JF: Yeah, something ethereal and scary. Maybe a little bit different… SS: And consequently international students are not seen as individuals. But William & Mary does a good job of remembering that students are all individuals, whether you’re talking about a group of 20 or a group of 100 students from a country. JF: The beauty of my role is that I do get to know them as individuals. When we get their applications, they send us two essays, we have letters of recommendation, and we see their list of activities and involvement. We learn their stories.

Global Enrollment Strategy

SS: William & Mary offers a worldclass, quintessentially American higher education experience, with excellent opportunities for students to learn and to grow here academically, socially and professionally. When I look at attracting the best and brightest from around the world, having a global enrollment strategy is really important. What’s exciting is that we already have so many pieces in place. They just have to be coordinated. For example, we’re developing scholarships with Advancement to help bring students here who never would have dreamed of William & Mary. Our Global Ambassador Scholarships are recruitment scholarships for international students. We work closely with the admissions office on identifying students for them. JF: I think it’s a combination of a lot of just using the resources that we have and the contacts that we

have through faculty, through alums, through other staff members and through our professional organizations and relationships, things like that. I have an email folder that says “international team” and it’s folks around campus, who either work with international populations or travel internationally, and folks who can be resources for us. We work with alums too, who have done college fairs for us through Education USA and other organizations. SS: We have always had faculty and

“When I look at attracting the best and brightest from around the world, having a global enrollment strategy is really important.” staff already going abroad for professional reasons and now we’re starting to connect with them asking, “Hey, while you’re abroad, why don’t you visit a couple of high schools in Peru or Nigeria while you’re there to help spread the word about William and Mary?” So, case in point. Amanda Barth, the director of MBA admissions traveled to Latin America [in February] to recruit for the MBA program. She offered to visit some high schools and alumni. So Jenni and I said, “Great, let’s see your itinerary.” We identified a couple of dates and narrowed down a list of high schools in those cities. We use published rankings of high schools and connections that Jenni has through International

ACAC (International Association for College Admission Counseling). I also reached out to an alum from Lima who has offered to help in the past and asked, “If you were to name four high schools that you think we should visit, what would those be?” JF: We also have students in our database from Lima and other places [Barth] is going. I ran reports based on where we’ve had students who have applied in the past, the high schools from which students have applied as well as students who are on our mailing list for one reason or another.

Strengthening an alumni network

SS: Tapping our alumni network is key. I recently worked with an alumnus from Moldova, he was an American working for the State Department in Moldova, and he covered an education fair for us back in June. Jenni, you worked with one from Mexico? JF: Yes, in Mexico, Keabra OpongBrown ’16 worked for the State Department there. She was great. She did a fair for us. In fact, she reached out to us and asked, “We’re having a college fair. Can I represent William & Mary?” And we said of course! We mailed her materials, and she sent us back contact cards of students who came and talked with her at the college fair. SS: That’s what I really love about this work: building connections among students and alumni. JF: We could talk about this all day. I think for me that’s always been the piece of admissions that’s been the most important: the relationships that you build and maintain. SS: But we still have a lot of work to do in terms of getting our name recognized globally. I think we are a great university. We offer an excellent education, so being able to introduce William & Mary as an option to that high school student in São Paulo or that graduate student in Tokyo who wants to do their MBA here, that’s really important work.

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JF: And they have such a rich experience. They have a lot to add to our community. To me it’s not necessarily always about giving the student the opportunity as much as it is giving our community the opportunity to learn and grow from each other. SS: We’re an elite university and have thought, people will recognize us, right? And that’s true in some parts of the US, in some parts of the world. For instance we have excellent name recognition in China now. But that’s a development that has really happened in the last five or six years. JF: Not all cultures are mobile. The Chinese culture, particularly the types of students that would be interested in William & Mary, are mobile and are interested in the world and traveling to the United States. There are other regions where it’s just not part of the culture that they know and grew up in, so it’s more of a reach. It’s not necessarily something that is going to be in the forefront of their minds. So being able to do some outreach is essential.

one of the most important pieces of my job to understand because I need to be able to put their transcripts into context. I do not have any recruitment travel on my calendar at the moment because that has never been a part of the office’s budget. I will likely participate in a fall trip funded by the St Andrews Joint Degree Programme. I think once we’ve put something together that we feel is a worthwhile

course of the next year. An overarching theme is building the connections we’ve talked about. JF: And it’s a lot of long-term things, too These changes don’t happen overnight, and we’re very well aware that we can put some things in place right now that can be beneficial and helpful. But we know it’s going to take steps over time. And because admissions is so cyclical every year you take one step forward, one step for-

use of William & Mary’s time, money, energy and effort to be in a particular location to meet with students and to do some significant recruiting, it will make more sense for me to go. SS: And it’s also part of her overall plan or strategy, to say here’s what we need to do to get William & Mary to that next level and here’s what that would cost. We have a list of things that we want to achieve over the

ward, one step forward. SS: Yes, it’s a long process. But the fruit of it you see when the students come here, when they arrive, and they’re at orientation, and you meet them. And then when they’re here, and you can advise and guide them and even stay in touch after they graduate and they’re alumni. It’s great.

Next steps

JF: Someone from William & Mary has always gone to the International ACAC conference every year, so I will certainly attend this year in London, Ontario. I’ve never been to Canada, and I fully expect that that will be also a transformative experience for me. I’ve learned a lot since I’ve been here, but there is a lot to know in my world in particular. In different countries, the grading scales, curricula and expectations in the classroom are different, and that for me is probably

GLOBAL AMBASSADOR SCHOLARSHIPS To advance the diversity of our global student community, the Reves Center for International Studies administers the Global Ambassador Scholarships to incoming freshmen and undergraduate transfer students from abroad. These competitive, one-time scholarships range from $5,000 to $10,000 and are made possible by the generosity of donors.

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Global Ambassador Scholarship Southeast Asia funded by W&M Alumnus Michael Blakey ’98 Global Ambassador Scholarship Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India funded by Professor Emeritus Alan McLeod Global Ambassador Scholarship Russia, former Soviet Republics, Eastern Europe funded by W&M Alumnus Gregory Tepper ’87

S CHOOL OF ED UCAT ION

Barko-Alva recognized with statewide Latinx Leadership Award BY STAFF was not for her, she graduated from high school and enrolled in college with the support of a social studies teacher and a cohesive support system. She maKatherine Barko-Alva (right), assistant professor of ESL/Bilingual Education at the School of Education with Dania Matos (left), jored in English and William & Mary’s deputy chief diversity officer, and Bobby Oliver planned to apply to (center), adjunct instructor. law school, wanting to focus on immigration issues. Howeaching with compassion and hope” ever, through a chance opportunity has been the guid- working with bilingual families and ing mantra for As- students, Barko-Alva discovered that sistant Professor Katherine Bar- education was the key to support. Building on her own experiences ko-Alva as she developed William & Mary’s first master’s concentration as a bilingual student, she has worked in ESL and bilingual education. Af- as a teacher, facilitator, advocate and ter launching this past fall, the pro- now as a researcher and professor gram’s first class of students will to understand the complex relationship between language and learning graduate in May. Her ability to inspire young peo- to develop new methods of teaching ple to pursue a career in ESL and English language learners. This past fall, she shared her story bilingual education, along with her research and service related to bi- along with her research as the keylingual education, was recognized note speaker at the Virginia Teachrecently with the Latinx Leadership ers of English to Speakers of Other Award from the Virginia Latino Ad- Languages (VATESOL) annual convisory Board, which advises Virginia ference. Two current School of EdGovernor Ralph Northam on issues ucation students, Emily Chaumont of concern for the Latinx community ’18, M.A.Ed. ’19 and Emma Muñis in Virginia. The award highlights the ’18, M.A.Ed. ’19, also presented at work of individuals “working toward VATESOL. Both students are comthe empowerment and progress of pleting the ESL dual endorsement program, which prepares students to the Latinx population in Virginia.” The challenge of succeeding in teach in ESL and dual language setschool while also learning a new lan- tings in addition to a concentration guage is one Barko-Alva knows all in either elementary, secondary or too well — as a teenager, her family special education. In collaboration with Gladys fled Peru due to social and political turmoil and immigrated to the Unit- Krause, assistant professor of math ed States. Though a strong student, education, Barko-Alva is continuing she struggled to learn in her new to pursue research in an elementary classroom due to the language bar- school where the student population rier. Despite being told that college is approximately half native English

“T

speakers and half native Spanish speakers. Barko-Alva and Krause can observe how students process learning in different languages within the context of core academic subjects (i.e., language arts, math, social studies, and science). The foundation of her research examines how teachers make sense of language use for academic purpose in dual language and ESL classrooms. She explores how teachers negotiate language practices designed to facilitate the integration of language and content during instruction. Understanding how students learn in their native language and applying that knowledge to comprehending English, also known as cross-linguistic transfer, is an important key in successfully educating bilingual students. In addition to theoretical and practical study of language acquisition and instruction, William & Mary’s program in ESL and bilingual education focuses on supporting students and families, as well as enhancing the additive impact that students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds bring to the classroom. Rather than diminishing the student’s native culture and language, new teachers learn strategies for integrating content and language instruction in a way that values students’ skills, languages and perspectives while broadening their knowledge in a new environment. “I want to help bridge the gap between content and language knowledge as an ESL teacher,” says Eliana Marrs M.A.Ed. ’19. “Advocating for my students is also a key piece of the profession that makes me passionate about the field.”

SPRING 2019

V IRGIN IA I N ST I T UT E O F M A R I N E S C IENCE

Adélie Penguins Adélie parents and chicks on Avian Island along the West Antarctic Peninsula. Note how their krill-rich diet and feces stain the surroundings pink. Photo courtesy of Donna Patterson-Fraser

Krill range shrinks poleward with ocean warming BY DAVID MALMQUIST

These krill — recovered from a penguin’s stomach through a non-invasive procedure called lavage — show the importance of the shrimplike crustaceans to the penguin diet. Photo courtesy of D. Patterson-Fraser.

Southward contraction will alter Antarctic marine food web

A new study based on careful analysis of 90 years of scientific catch data from the South Atlantic Ocean shows that the geographic distribution of Antarctic krill has contracted nearly 300 miles southward in concert with ocean warming, raising concerns for international fisheries managers. Krill — free-swimming, shrimplike crustaceans — play a central role in Antarctica’s marine food web, transferring energy and carbon from phytoplankton and zooplankton to fish, penguin, seals, and whales. Changes in krill distribution are thus of considerable concern to both scientists and commercial fishery interests.

WORLD MINDED

The study, in this week’s Nature Climate Change, was authored by an international team comprising scientists from the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and the U.S. The lead authors are Drs. Angus Atkinson of the U.K.’s Plymouth Marine Laboratory and Simeon Hill of the British Antarctic Survey. The U.S. authors include Dr. Deborah Steinberg of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, a member of the National Science Foundation’s Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research program. PAL-LTER examines the long-term effects of climate change on the ocean ecosystem west of the Antarctic Peninsula. “We found that the geographic distribution of krill has contracted southward by about 440 kilometers since the 1920s,” says Atkinson. That contraction matches a pronounced warming in the team’s study area — a part of the Southern Ocean known as the Scotia Sea — where ocean surface temperatures have increased by 1.6°

Fahrenheit during winter and 3.6° F in summer between 1925 and 2006. “The northern waters have warmed and conditions throughout the Scotia Sea have become more hostile, with stronger winds, warmer weather, and less ice,” says Hill. “This is bad news for young krill.” “Antarctic krill are adapted to the cold,” adds Steinberg. “Due to global warming, the habitat they can survive in has shrunk and moved farther southward where waters are still chilly enough. Krill are central to the Southern Ocean food web as the main food source for whales, penguins, and seals. This decrease in the northern part of their historical range will thus affect this sensitive polar ecosystem.” A particular concern for Steinberg is how contraction of the krill’s distribution might affect carbon cycling. Krill play a significant role in the “biological pump,” moving carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the deep sea, where it contributes nothing to

VIMS professor Deborah Steinberg with krill collected from the icy waters of the Southern Ocean. Photo courtesy of P. Thibodeau/VIMS.

global warming. Southward contraction of the krills’ distribution could hinder the pump’s effectiveness.

KRILLBASE

The team based their analysis on a unique dataset called KRILLBASE — itself the result of a multi-year, multinational effort by many of the same scientists. “This is a nice example of international cooperation in Antarctica,” says Atkinson. “It’s only when we put all our data together that we can look at the large scales of space and time to learn how populations of key polar species are responding to rapid climate change.” KRILLBASE compiles data on krill abundance from 15,194 scientific net tows conducted between 1926 and 2016, plus data on krill length, sex, and maturity-stage recorded at more than 11,000 sampling stations during 47 seasons between 1926 and 2014. The full dataset — compiled from old notebooks, the authors’ datasets, published reports, and submissions by both researchers and commercial netters — comprises data from 10 nations and includes more than 1 million measurements of krill length. A substantial part of KRILLBASE is the zooplankton data collected by Steinberg and colleagues as part of the PAL-LTER program. “The Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research program is now in its 27th year, and

Steinberg (R) and Marine Technician Josh Mitchell retrieve a plankton net from the icy waters of the Southern Ocean along the Antarctic Peninsula. Photo courtesy of P. Thibodeau/VIMS.

combining its data with these other datasets allows for an even longer term and geographically broader analysis of climate impacts on this important species,” notes Steinberg. Whereas analysis of KRILLBASE shows a poleward contraction and decrease in the species’ geographic distribution, it also shows an attendant increase in mean body length. “Individuals in the current krill population average 6 millimeters longer than those in the 1970s,” says Atkinson. “That’s about a 75% increase in their mean body mass.” This discovery contradicts the more common finding of reduced body size of species in response to warming, but the team’s findings support mechanisms to explain this — an increasingly unfavorable climate leading to much fewer young krill replenishing the population, coupled to increasing survival rates. This has led to a smaller population dominated by older and larger krill. “Our analysis reveals a species facing increasing difficulty in replenishing itself and maintaining high numbers at the northern edge of the Southern Ocean,” says Hill. “These changes appear to be driven by the global climate. Continued precautionary management of the krill fishery is important but is no substitute for global action on climate change.”

SAM

One feature of global climate that appears to have an outsize impact on krill populations is the Southern Annular Mode, or SAM, a periodic north– south shift in the westerly wind belt that circles Antarctica. During positive SAM events, the wind belt contracts towards Antarctica, bringing warmer temperatures and reduced sea ice, conditions unfavorable to the survival of young krill. “The sharp decline in survival of young krill over the last 40 years coincides with a trend towards increasingly positive SAM anomalies,” says Steinberg. Because climate models project a continued increase in positive SAM anomalies over the next 50 years, the researchers warn of the potential for further contraction in krill distribution in the decades ahead due to continued warming and sea-ice loss.

SPRING 2019

Alumna Abroad A Q&A WITH BETTY SUCHAR ’65

Where were you born? What do you consider your hometown? I was born in Newport News, Virginia as my father worked in the shipyard during the Second World War. Afterwards we moved to the Eastern Shore of Virginia near Cape Charles where I spent my childhood enjoying the water, wonderful seafood and freshly harvested potatoes, strawberries and more. Why did you choose to attend William & Mary? My father insisted that I apply to an in-state college plus two of my mother’s sisters had attended W&M and urged me to follow in their footsteps. Most Virginia colleges in the 1960’s were single sex and I was convinced that attending a co-ed institution would be more like the real world.. What was your major? I majored in sociology, a favorite of the 1960’s, which enabled me to study the various changes occurring at the time. Did you have a favorite course and/ or professor while you were at W&M? Virginia history was my real love and living in Williamsburg with all its connections to early American history seemed like a wonderful opportunity. Do you have a favorite memory of your time at W&M? Colonial Williamsburg presented all freshmen in 1961 with a free pass. The free access to all the attractions led to considerable exploration and inspiration.

WORLD MINDED

How do you think your experience at W&M has affected your life and decisions you have made? W&M gave me the encouragement to try things and fostered my natural curiosity. When I think of W&M, I think of the people I met there. What career path(s) have you pursued? I took the Federal Government Management Examination and quite by accident was assigned to the Office of Education. This turned out to be a fantastic opportunity, as Lyndon B. Johnson had just introduced The Great Society programs designed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice by providing funding for higher education. I was involved from the beginning in the implementation of various student financial aid programs. This allowed me to subsequently work for the City University of New York and finally the College Entrance Examination Board where I became the Executive Director of the College Scholarship Service. Do you have any current projects/ passions you would like to share? After I moved to England in 1978, my husband and I opened an antiquarian book store in Bath and I began an exploration of books and publishing. While running the book store, we learned about the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution a non-profit institution which now sponsors about 130 lectures each year. We both volunteered and it is now almost a fully time activity for me. [Suchar was elected Chair of Trustees/ Directors in March.]

Do you have any advice for current students? Having worked in a variety of areas, I have found that being able to express your ideas clearly and effectively is most useful. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for advice. I wish that I had tried harder to find various mentors on my way through life. Is there any advice you wish you’d received? I was generally independent and wish that I had become more involved in team projects. It is helpful to be a confident individual but being able to work well with others is something to cultivate and to value. Do you think international experience as a student is helpful in future life and career? Definitely, however, I only traveled abroad after I had graduated with my William & Mary roommate, Kathie Weise Astor. We were like the ‘innocents abroad’ open to exploring all the differences, and in the 1960’s there were more differences. Plus, we had several very local experiences like the day we arrived in Munich and there were no room vacancies. In desperation, we accepted the offer of our taxi driver to sleep in his bed while he continued to drive. I also was invited to a home in Greece for several days which gave me an opportunity to see how this family lived and to learn something about politics as the father was a member of their legislature. Once settled in England, I found the real benefit of living abroad to be the perspective you gain about your home country. Seeing the world from another viewpoint allows you to make less biased judgements.

D onor P rof i l e

Your Gift Matters. Alan McLeod with Canadian Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, who served as Chief Justice from 2000 –2017.

DR. ALAN L. MCLEOD, PROFESSOR EMERITUS

As a young man, Dr. Alan McLeod left his native Australia for the US to pursue his Ph.D. in English literature at Pennsylvania State University. He went on to pursue a productive academic career, including several professorships at US universities, the deanship of the School of Arts & Sciences at Rider University, and a Fulbright professorship at the University of Mysore in Karnataka, India.

Wishing to provide opportunities for future generations of scholars, he funds a special scholarship for international students from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and India. His gift has had a transformative impact on the students he has supported, helping launch careers and make possibilities, realities. In the words of one student who benefitted from his generosity, “I would not be able to undertake these first vital steps in my dissertation research without the support provided by your scholarship fund…I am never sure these letters fully convey the deep thanks felt by emerging scholars to the people who support their work. Scholarship is never a solo endeavour and your support is integral to the success of my dissertation. Thank you for your support of me and my research, and for your support of Commonwealth students at William & Mary.”

With the support of private donors, the Reves Center awards a number of scholarships to international students each year. These scholarships help alleviate financial hardship, make educational opportunities possible, recognize achievement, and allow W&M to attract top students from around the world.

To learn about

making donations

to the Reves Center International

Scholarship Fund or to other Reves

Center Scholarships,

contact Judy Davis at jcdav3@wm.edu.

FACEBOOK.COM/INTERNATIONALWM @ INTERNATIONALWM

200 South Boundary Street Williamsburg, VA, 23185 Telephone: 757-221-3590 Fax: 757-221-3597

REVES CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES @ INTERNATIONALWM

The world awaits . . .

STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS offered by the GLOBAL EDUCATION OFFICE (GEO) Summer Faculty-Led Programs Australia: Adelaide Brazil: Rio de Janeiro Bhutan: Taktse (2020) China: Beijing Czech Republic: Prague England: Cambridge France: Montpellier Germany: Potsdam Ghana: Accra Greece: Athens/Nafplio Guatemala: Polochic Valley India: Bengaluru/Goa Ireland: Dublin* Ireland: Galway Italy: Florence Italy: Rome/Pompeii Mauritius: Pamplemousses (2019) Russia: St. Petersburg Rwanda: Kigali ** South Africa: Cape Town Spain: Cádiz Spain: Santiago de Compostela

Winter Programs Beijing (2019) Oman (2019)

W&M-Sponsored Semester Programs

Argentina: La Plata England: Oxford France: Montpellier (currently suspended) Spain: Seville

Undergraduate Exchange Programs

* Program in collaboration with the Raymond A. Mason School of Business

** Program in collaboration with the School of Education

Australia: University of Adelaide Austria: Vienna University of Economics & Business Canada: McGill University China: Tsinghua University England: University of Exeter England: University of Nottingham France: L’institut d’Études Politiques de Lille France: Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III Japan: Akita International University Japan: Keio University Netherlands: Leiden University Scotland: University of St Andrews Singapore: National University of Singapore South Korea: Yonsei University Wales: Cardiff University

William & Mary's World Minded Spring 2019