Mount Holyoke’s Center for Global Initiatives
Receives $100,000 Grant

Teagle Foundation awards funds for College to develop and enhance opportunities for all students to have a meaningful learning experience abroad

Mount Holyoke’s Center for Global Initiatives recently received a $100,000 grant from the Teagle Foundation to examine strategies for providing that all MHC students have a meaningful learning experience abroad at some point during their undergraduate years. Whether through study abroad, international internships, or research experiences, CGI is committed not only to having students go abroad, but to connect those experiences abroad more intentionally and explicitly to the College’s overarching educational goal of preparing students for global citizenship. “Our purpose is to develop in all of our students, whatever their major areas of study, a more active engagement with cultures and perspectives outside the United States, an understanding of the impact of globalization on human well-being, and a deeper appreciation for the complexity inherent in addressing the critical problems of our world,” said CGI director Eva Paus.

The grant, which runs from January 2006 through August 2007, will fund a working group of faculty, students, administrators, and alumnae in several areas of inquiry. The group will survey students to identify and address perceived obstacles to going abroad and examine the experiences of peer institutions that already send a majority of their students abroad. The group will enlist faculty to help identify appropriate programs or research sites abroad. It will also work with alumnae to further develop a network for creating international internship opportunities, and with MHC administration to draw up feasible financial arrangements for students to go abroad.

The results of the group’s investigations will be compiled into a strategic plan for expanding the global education of all Mount Holyoke students, which will be shared as a White Paper with the Teagle Foundation by September 2007.

The grant is part of approximately $1.4 million awarded by the Teagle Foundation for projects at six colleges and universities and a consortium of three higher education associations intended to promote and strengthen liberal education. It also includes funding for hurricane recovery efforts at Dillard University and Tulane University in New Orleans.

Teagle Foundation

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