The David and Leighan Rinker Center for International Learning
Patricia Burak, the former longtime director of the Slutzker Center for International Services at Syracuse University and the editor of a new book published by NAFSA, Addressing Mental Health Issues Affecting International Students, discussed steps international student offices can take.
Rebecca Shaffer graduated from Stetson in 2018 with a degree in Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies. A rewarding college experience, assuredly. Yet not your typical course of study.
Then there was spring 2018. A student-exchange program, one that few other universities offer, gave her a semester of a lifetime — at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
“I took a course on Central Asian politics [with Professor Gene Huskey, Ph.D.] and found out about the Bishkek student-exchange program in 2017,” Shaffer said. “I needed a senior research project, and I wanted to take advantage of my last semester. But nobody from Stetson had gone to Bishkek [on the program] yet, and I was a little nervous about it because I had never been anywhere like Kyrgyzstan before. But I decided to go for it.”
Little-known Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic) is a landlocked country with mountainous terrain bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west and southwest, Tajikistan to the southwest, and China to the east. Its recorded history spans more than 2,000 years, encompassing a variety of cultures and empires. Kyrgyzstan has been at the crossroads of several great civilizations, as part of the Silk Road and other commercial and cultural routes. It attained sovereignty as a nation-state after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Often referred to as one of the world’s “coolest unknown cities,” Bishkek is the capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan.
Upon arrival on the other side of the world, initial trepidation turned into education triumph.
“When I got there, I was really nervous,” Shaffer continued. “It just seemed so remote. But once I saw the mountains, which are breathtaking and really close to the city, and realized how nice the people were, I knew I was in for a wonderful adventure.”
Shaffer, who rented a bedroom from a local Kyrgyz family, was able to immerse herself in the culture, especially because, outside of the classroom, she had to speak Russian and Kyrgyz (a Turkic language that uses the Cyrillic alphabet). As part of the exchange program, she attended the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) in Bishkek, working on her Russian language skills, taking classes in its program in Central Asian studies and pursuing her senior research project, which entailed comparing the use of social media in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and the 2010 Kyrgyzstan revolution.
“I looked at movement-building, the ‘movement as the leader’ concept and effective communication strategies in this kind of environment,” Shaffer explained. “I took a comparative politics approach on how social media affected each of these revolutions.”
A few years ago, Michael Denner, Ph.D., professor of Russian Studies at Stetson and director of the University Honors Program, began talking about the possibility of an exchange program with his former adviser in graduate school, Andrew Wachtel, Ph.D., who just so happened to be the president of AUCA at the time. Typically, AUCA has partnered with Bard College in New York, but Stetson steadily has forged a relationship with AUCA by virtue of its School of Business Administration; many of AUCA’s students are business majors. A reciprocal agreement now has been in place for two years.
“Two Bishkek students came here in the fall, and two others were here last year, but Rebecca was the first Stetson student to go there,” Denner said. “We have a lot of opportunities for study abroad, and Bishkek isn’t a place people are usually familiar with, but more and more students are finding out about it, and we expect more of them to take advantage of the program in the coming years.”
According to Paula Hentz, director of international learning at WORLD: The David and Leighan Rinker Center for International Learning at Stetson, the exchange program represents budding mutual admiration.
“We want to ensure every student is having an international experience in one way or another,” Hentz said. “We have a strong Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies program here and wanted to start a proper student-exchange program in that part of the world. Also, it’s great to have foreign students come to us because it helps internationalize our campus. The Bishkek students have really fun, great attitudes when they come here. They’re outgoing and friendly, and our students are learning about their culture.”
Denner and Hentz spent last summer in Bishkek, along with Mayhill Fowler, Ph.D., assistant professor of history and director of Stetson’s Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (known on campus as SPREES). There were four days of meeting with AUCA faculty, administrators and students. AUCA is known as the best institution of higher learning in Central Asia, with a diverse faculty and students, complemented by top-notch facilities and a faculty well-respected for research.
“We didn’t know what to expect, and we were blown away,” Denner commented. “Plus, the city is beautiful with these majestic mountains towering in the background, communities are really nice, and people are friendly and happy-go-lucky. Few Westerners go there, so they totally embraced us.”
Fowler, a veteran traveler to these parts, points to Bishkek’s globally important location, near both China and Russia. “This was part of the Silk Road, the crossroads of empires,” Fowler said. “They have a non-Western-centered understanding of the world, and for Stetson students, it’s about getting out of their comfort zone and becoming global citizens.”
While acknowledging the difficulty of study abroad in such an unknown place, Fowler believes the experience can set students apart.
“We want to position Stetson for the future as having student-exchange programs in places not necessarily well-known in study-abroad circles. We have students in Warsaw in Poland, Kyiv in Ukraine, etc., and this entire region is an important part of the world. So, we want to be able to offer different but key places like Bishkek as study-abroad locations,” she said.
“The world is a complex place, and I want Stetson students to learn about and experience this world in all its complexity.”
Denner agrees that for students, it is all about broadening horizons, both figuratively and literally.
“In life, you’re limited by your network, so you broaden this network by studying abroad,” he explained. “You simply meet more people, and it’s because of the people you know that makes life interesting.”
The main goal now is to expand the program.
“Can we attract students to Stetson from these incredible places?” Denner asked, rhetorically. “They need to be daring and intrepid to come here, and the same goes for our students going there. Think about what two students from Bishkek can teach students just by meeting and talking to them.”
“It’s about your ability to see other points of view,” Hentz said. “This creates a better understanding of the world around us, our place in the world and how we can make it better.”
Shaffer, currently living in Pittsburgh and working for the nonprofit PennEnvironment, a citizen-based environmental advocacy organization, is interested in going back to Bishkek to do policy development, specifically as it applies to infrastructure and transportation.
Her first trip there, fittingly, helped to provide a bridge.
“Going to Bishkek was such a rewarding experience for me; it opened me up to another part of the world,” Shaffer concluded. “I met amazing people whom I’m still in contact with and who have changed my perspective on the rest of the world. I’m better for the experience and wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Stetson Professor Eugene Huskey, Ph.D., began visiting Kyrgyzstan right after the collapse of the Soviet Union and now is widely considered an expert on the region, knowing many of the movers and shakers in Kyrgyz politics personally. His new book, “Encounters at the Edge of the Muslim World,” published in September 2018, not only is a political science exploration of democratic transition, but also a thoughtful narrative about what it means to learn a new culture, language and place in a time of change, according to reviews.
The book even includes a personal note of support written by the former Kyrgyzstan President Roza Otunbayeva, whom Huskey knew before she was president, and includes the story of famous Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov’s visit to Stetson University in 1991.
March 29, 2019
Editor’s note: This article appears in the Spring issue of Stetson University Magazine, now available online.
-Jack Roth
Stetson’s prestigious Roland George Investments Program will be sending four students to the Final Four championship of the CFA Institute Research Challenge (Chartered Financial Analyst) for Florida, March 2 in Jacksonville.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual collegiate research competition sponsored by CFA Institute-member societies across the state. Globally, the research challenge includes 800 participating universities, 500 industrial volunteers and more than 4,000 undergraduate/graduate students spanning four continents.
During the four months leading up the competition deadline, Stetson students Matthew Sweeney,USA, Luca Zambelli, Italy, Humberto Soares, Venezuela and Bilal Hashmi, Pakistan compiled a research report on Lennar Corp., a publicly traded company in the residential construction Industry. The students then were challenged with competing against the 16 other participating Florida institutions on the overall quality of the report, with each institution reporting on the same company.
In the end, the Stetson team emerged as one of the top four finalists, with Florida International University, Florida State University and Jacksonville University also advancing to the final round of the state competition.
“Having spent over 200 hours on the financial metrics of Lennar Corporation, and conducting a comprehensive industry analysis, the competition became less about the mere quantity of work and more about taking pride in the significance of the work we were doing,” said Soares, a senior finance and economics double major. “It takes more than just financial smartness to perform at a high level in the CFA Research Challenge. At the end of the day, it is about the blood, sweat and tears that you are willing to put in.”
“Humberto and I were looked upon as the experienced senior leaders of the group, with juniors Luca and Bilal being the newbies. But that soon changed when their skills as clever financial analysts soon became very evident,” said Matthew Sweeney, a double major in math and finance.
When asked about joining the team, Zambelli, a junior management and finance major, noted: “I did not know if I could do this, I had never done anything like this before and I felt as if I was way out of my comfort zone. But then, little by little, I felt a part of the team and knew that I could make a positive difference.”
The collective efforts of the team are what ultimately drove their success in producing the “highest quality research paper in the eight years that the Stetson University Roland George Investment Program has participated in the research challenge,” commented K.C. Ma, Ph.D., the Roland George Chair of Applied Investments and director of the George Investments Institute.
Not surprising, given their success, the students sacrificed much of their free time to prepare, including the majority of their winter break.
“Spread all around the world, we had many a skype call with our director, Dr. Ma, in Taiwan, and Luca, who was home in Milan, Italy, for the break,” said Hashmi, majoring in finance and economics.
Since being a part of the CFA Institute Research Challenge, Stetson has placed a team in the Florida Final Four six out of the eight years, including one Florida Championship.
Could this be a second big win?
-Nate Smith ’19
See related article here.
Zoe Weaver, ‘19, one of WORLD’s outstanding student employees, is winner of the October 2018 Student of the Month Competition at Stetson University.
Our Student Employment office hosts the monthly competition. The office seeks meritorious nominations from employers for student employees who exemplify Stetson’s Professional and Career Readiness Competency themes. This month’s theme is Professionalism and Productivity.
Stetson’s Professional and Career Readiness Competencies are the basis of each month’s theme and represent skills most sought by employers: critical thinking and problem solving, professionalism and productivity, teamwork and collaboration, communication, digital literacy, leadership, global and intercultural engagement, and career navigation. Our student workers practice and master these competencies in their campus work roles. Stetson employers are encouraged to help student employees recognize and build competencies to enable better articulation of transferable skills when students interview for internships, jobs, and post-baccalaureate educational opportunities.
Wendy Viggiano, who serves as Stetson’s international learning program coordinator and Weaver’s supervisor, offered praise as part of the nomination application.
“From the first day of work, Zoe has gone above and beyond, exceeding expectations. She has been instrumental in helping acclimate all of our international students during orientation. She led several orientation sessions, assisting in any small or large task asked of her, and always offered to do even more than asked.
Recently, Zoe organized with her WORLD Ambassador Team a panel on Immigration. She coordinated faculty, staff, and students from around campus to speak about their experience immigrating to the United States. Zoe was the main coordinator for the entire event and was the moderator for the panel. As a student employee, Zoe has anticipated the needs of our center, solving problems before we even ask for help. “
Zoe Weaver, a global development major, envisions her work experience at WORLD as critical to her future endeavors.
“Working at WORLD has not only connected me with students from all over the world and taught me how I can best support them, but has also introduced me to an environment in which all workers truly care about the job they do. The WORLD center and its staff have been an important part of my experience at Stetson, and although I am graduating soon, I am sure they will continue to serve the international community in ways unmatched by any other office on campus.”
Article written by Ally Topliff,’ 19 (political science) and Roxanne Lewis, international student and scholars coordinator at Stetson University
Cathy Day will serve as Peace Corps Prep faculty coordinator for the 2018-2019 academic year. The Peace Corps Prep program at Stetson University prepares students for international development fieldwork and potential Peace Corps service.
As coordinator, Dr. Day will work with Stetson’s Peace Corps Prep Leadership Team to facilitate academic engagements that include faculty course-approvers and academic administration.
Dr. Cathy Day is a visiting assistant professor of environmental science and studies at Stetson University. She earned a Ph.D. in geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During her doctoral studies, she served as adjunct lecturer at both UW-Madison and New Mexico State University, where she taught a course on the geography of sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Day has conducted fieldwork in New Mexico as well as Niger, West Africa. Her research examines the relationships between climate change and rural livelihoods.
Dr. Day has experience as a certified middle and high school science teacher as well as service as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She was an agricultural volunteer in Niger for three and a half years (2004-2007) and lived in the same village where she subsequently conducted research for her second master’s degree in geography. In rural Niger, she helped villagers organize to build agricultural wells, initiate dry season gardening projects, create a grain bank, establish a school for the village, and carry out a variety of literacy and health education activities. For village projects, Day raised funds through Peace Corps Partnership to further extend the quality and quantity of projects that villagers could create on their own.
In a later role as regional leader, she collaborated with a local staff person on establishing new Peace Corps posts. That role also included the management of a regional budget, administration of local staff, outreach and cooperation with local and regional government agents, support of volunteers in their village work, and the funding and organization of regional training projects in the region’s central Peace Corps post. Day also organized the establishment of the first-ever, nation-wide volunteer advisory council to assist in better communication between volunteers and the country-level Peace Corps staff who were based in Niamey, the capital.
With experiences living abroad in France, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Niger, Cathy speaks French, Spanish, Hausa, and a smattering of Arabic. Dr. Day is excited about her contributions to managing a program that trains potential future Peace Corps Volunteers.
To learn more about Peace Corps Prep, visit stetson.edu/other/peace-corps-prep.
Do you desire to internationalize courses you are offering in the summer or fall but are not sure how to do that? Does it feel like the courses you teach are just not a good fit for including cultural competencies or global perspectives? Then come and learn from your colleagues about how they embed global learning in their courses and its impact on student learning and performance. Come prepared for lively discussion and bring your ideas to share with others.
World Lunch and Learn featuring Dr. Rachel Core
Thursday April 12, 2018
12:00 pm-1:00 pm
WORLD @ 635 Bert Fish Road
All Faculty/Staff Welcome
RSVP via the Outlook Invitation
Lunch available at 11:30 am
https://blog.stetson.edu/faculty-engagement/2018/03/march-14-world-class-lunch-learn-internationalizing-the-curriculum-resources-for-faculty/
Relations between the U.S. and Cuba have changed dramatically in recent years. Former President Obama re-established ties with Cuba, easing restrictions on travel and trade, but the Trump administration has suggested a tightening of restrictions and this week the United States voted against a U.N. resolution condemning America’s economic embargo against Cuba. While the future of relations remains uncertain, Stetson University is preparing to host its second Cuba Forum, featuring an engaging debate on the “Prospects for Democracy in Cuba.”
The Forum is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 9, at 6 p.m. in the Marshall & Vera Lea Rinker Welcome Center, 529 N. Woodland Blvd., DeLand, Florida, 32723. The event is free and open to the public. Expert panelists will include Richard Feinberg, Ph.D., professor of International Political Economy in the School of Global Policy & Strategy at the University of California, San Diego; Angel de Fana, a former Cuban political prisoner; and a special guest from Cuba to be announced at a later date.
Last year, Stetson’s Cuba Forum focused on economic issues. This year, the event will focus on the political aspects of Cuba’s transformation, according to William Nylen, Ph.D., professor of political science and director of the International Studies Program at Stetson University, who organized this event along with David Hill, Ph.D., professor of political science at Stetson.
“While Cuba is not a democracy, or engaging in a recognizable process of democratization, a loosening of economic restrictions typically brings an influx of foreign influence in the form of tourists, investors and entrepreneurs with new ideas,” said Nylen. “During the evening we will explore the potential impact of these changes. Each panelist will be asked to express their opinions on the prospects for democracy to emerge in Cuba and for greater personal freedoms of the Cuban People.”
The panel will be moderated by Eugene Huskey, Ph.D., professor of Political Science, Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at Stetson University. Since 1999, he has held the William R. Kenan, Jr. Chair at Stetson. Stetson’s Cuba Forum has been co-sponsored by Leopoldo Fernandez, a Cuban exile, Stetson Alumnus and international business leader, alongside Stetson’s President Wendy B. Libby, Ph.D., and Stetson’s Latin American Studies Program.
Richard Feinberg
Richard Feinberg is Professor of International Political Economy in the School of Global Policy & Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. He is a Nonresident Senior Fellow – Foreign Policy, Latin America Initiative – at Brookings Institution, based in Washington, D.C., and authored three reports assessing Cuba’s economic reforms on foreign investment, the country’s private enterprise and the emergence of its middle class. He is the author of the 2016 book, “Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy.” on foreign investment.
He has enjoyed a distinguished career as diplomat, policy advisor, corporate consultant, university professor and author of over 200 books and articles on international relations. His four decades of engagement with United States foreign policy spans government services — in the White House, Department of State and Department of the Treasury — numerous Washington-based public policy institutes, the Peace Corps in Chile and, now, academia.
Angel de Fana
Angel de Fana is a leading figure among anti-communist Cuban exiles in the United States. Imprisoned in 1963 by the Castro regime for counter-revolutionary activities, he spent 20 years behind bars in Cuba. Released in 1983, he moved to Venezuela for a year before coming to the United States in 1984. Mr. de Fana is one of several former political prisoners from Cuba who direct the Miami-based organization, Plantados Hasta la Libertad y la Democracia en Cuba.
Article from Stetson Today, October 28, 2017
Pavel Ovchinnikov’s Enamel on Gold Bowl, Gold over Silver with polychromed filigree enamel, 1910. On loan from the Gary R. Libby Charitable Trust.
Stetson University’s Homer and Dolly Hand Art Center is exhibiting “Tradition and Innovation in Russian Art” through Oct. 14.
As 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the focus of the exhibit will be the impact of the revolution on modern art.
Visitors will have the opportunity to experience history through the interpretation of pre-revolution icons, photographs and Fabergé pieces, as well as post revolution sculpture and lectures by experts in Russian art and culture. Several scheduled events surrounding this special exhibit will be held at the Hand Art Center. All are free and open to the public, and include:
Sept. 28 at 7 p.m.: Andrew Murray Howe V of Atlantic Beach, FL, will lecture on “Empire and Empathy: Russian Photographs by Murray Howe,” a rare look at Pre-Revolution Russia.
A 1909 snapshot on a Sunday morning in the famous Thieves Market, Moscow. “I was mobbed by this crowd after taking this picture and had to be rescued by the Soldier-Police.” – Murray Howe. Photo courtesy of Andrew Murray Howe
The talk will feature photos snapped in 1909 by noted horse racing journalist Murray Howe, great-grandfather of the lecturer. Using a handheld Graflex camera, a state-of-the-art device allowing a user to shoot without a tripod, Howe took hundreds of photographs of everyday life in Russia, everything from pedestrians to street vendors and aristocrats. The talk will be held in the Hand Art Center, Seminar Room.
Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m.: Book Discussion with Mayhill Fowler, Ph.D.
Assistant History Professor Mayhill Fowler, Ph.D., will discuss her new book, “Beau Monde at Empire’s Edge: State and Stage in Soviet Ukraine.” Fowler will also moderate a discussion with Daniil Zavlunov, Ph.D., a musicologist specializing in nineteenth-century music, and Katya Kudryavtseva, Ph.D., assistant professor of Art History at Stetson. This presentation will also be held in the Hand Art Center, Seminar Room.
Stetson Assistant Professor of History Mayhill Fowler has written a book examining the overlap between the arts and the state in the early Soviet Union.
Adapted from Stetson Today, September 19, 2017
We hear quite a bit about FOCUS Orientation, but Stetson University also hosts New International Student Orientation, a program tailored to meet the needs of students new to the U.S. and to Stetson. Tove’s Strandh, senior student from Sweden, explains more in her blog post.
August 25, 2017
Welcome to my first blog post! My name is Tove Strand and this semester you’ll be able to follow me through this blog during my last months at Stetson. If you want to read more about me, you can do it here!
I’m still processing the fact that classes started yesterday but, luckily, I don’t have classes on Fridays so I have a long weekend to recharge. I hope your summer was as good as mine. I went back to Sweden for three weeks in May and then spent the rest of the summer doing an internship for a company in South Florida. Afterwards, I came straight back to Stetson to welcome the new international students for the International Orientation. Classes only started yesterday but I’ve been back almost two weeks now. So yeah, I didn’t really get much rest this summer but that’s fine because I had a great summer anyway!
I arrived to Stetson on a Sunday and the following day International Orientation started with a one-day training for all leaders. There were 14 leaders among 84 students so we needed this day to plan (as much as we could) for the upcoming week. I did this last year so I already had a good sense of what was coming up.
Before I continue you should know that this orientation is nothing like FOCUS. The leaders don’t get paid and there isn’t much preparation for us. We are more or less given a schedule for the week and then we’re on our own to make it work coordinating everything. Okay that isn’t exactly true, we get SO much support from W.O.R.L.D. (Roxanne and Paula). But that is why I love International Orientation. You go with the flow, you make the best out of every situation, and solve problems as a team as they arise.
The second day was probably my favorite day because that’s when all the new students arrived. We spent the whole day at the airport finding tired and jet-lagged internationals and shipping them off to Stetson in buses. The following three days consisted of information, information, and information. But then, when all tired internationals wondered if they would ever see anything else besides the inside walls of LBC, Friday arrived and we went to the DeLeon Springs! Actually, scratch what I first said, this was my favorite day of orientation. We spent the day swimming in the freezing water and playing games. Some went kayaking and saw alligators. International Orientation was, just like last year, so much fun and I gained so many new friends.
If I could do it again I definitely would.
Follow her blog: Tove Strand ’18