June 8, 2007
Ninety-eight Rollins faculty and staff members have had the opportunity to travel abroad since receiving a $12-million gift for internationalization from Thomas J. Petters in November 2005.
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| (From left to right) Technical Service Supervisor of Olin Library Darla Moore, Professor of History Gary Williams and Head of Archives and Special Collections for Olin Library and Associate Professor
Wenxian Zhang enjoy a “family style” Moroccan dish during the faculty trip to Morocco in January. |
Head of Archives and Special Collections for Olin Library and Associate Professor Wenxian Zhang, Associate Professor of History Yusheng Yao and Professor of Anthropology Robert Moore led a group of 22 to Shanghai, China, in summer 2006. A trip to Morocco took place this past January, with 16 Rollins attendees. Twelve people traveled to Prague in May, and there is a trip planned for Tanzania in spring 2008.
The College is also working with Petters Group Worldwide and three other higher-education institutions to develop a Living and Learning Center in Shanghai. The proposed residential center would create an educational facility in the Chinese city to serve college students and faculty and corporate employees from the U.S., as well as Chinese business and academic communities. The Center will allow students to take an entire semester's worth of classes abroad, while continuing to earn credits toward graduation.
“It works better if you know, and your parents know, that you're going there with someone who has been there before,” said Tom Lairson, Ronald G. and N. Jayne Gelbman Chair of International Business. Lairson and Ilan Alon, Jennifer J. Petters Chair of International Business, will travel with a group of 17 undergraduate International Business students to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Hanoi to study Asian business environments this month.
The trips, although faculty- and staff-focused, ultimately have one purpose: to benefit students. Assistant Professor of Anthropology Rachel Newcomb, who led the trip to Morocco, said of the trips, “I think they give faculty a new perspective on an increasingly connected world, particularly since they focus on areas where many have never had the chance to travel. With the Morocco trip, for example, most had never had any experience in a Muslim country, so it was a good opportunity for them to get to see a part of the Muslim world that's very peaceful and moderate. They'll bring back this knowledge to their students, and I expect it will definitely enhance their teaching.”
“We don't just want to outsource our international experiences,” Lairson said. “Rollins is committed to the notion that we have to be much more internationally knowledgeable than in the past, and we've decided to commit resources of the College to make that happen for faculty and students.”
For more information about the recent trip to Morocco, visit the faculty blogs.
