Beyond Our Walls
In 1984, then-President Alice Emerson told Wheaton students, faculty and alumnae that social responsibility in the 21st century could not end at the borders of campus. Today, global education takes on a new urgency.
By Jayne M. Iafrate
We're all connected.
A transaction on Wall Street can create opportunity in Ulan Bator and disaster in Ciudad Quesada. Oil extracted from deep below Venezuela powers cars in Detroit and New Delhi. Grain harvested from America's heartland is kneaded and baked into life-sustaining bread in Biskra and Damascus and Vilnius. A humanitarian mission out of Norton brings hope and housing to rural Mexico. Nearly every day of every year, some Wheaton student or faculty member is somewhere beyond our walls. They live and learn in remote locations, seeking not only to link their classroom study to the unique cultures they visit, but to better understand how actions in one part of the world can set off a global chain reaction to influence people and policy thousands of miles away. And despite real and perceived threats to health and safety, they're doing it in record numbers.
In response to that increasing desire from students for international academic experiences and from faculty for global links to the new curriculum, Wheaton College has begun to implement wide-ranging improvements to the way it prepares students to join the global village. Programs will be restructured to boost sustainability, academic integrity, participation and international connections for both students and faculty. If the changes are successful, Wheaton's programs will rank among the most diverse and rigorous in the country.
The paradigm shift in global education at Wheaton began some 20 years ago. While students had been participating in study-abroad programs, faculty did not have an institutional mandate to pursue studies in non-Western cultures. In the early 1980s, then-President Alice Emerson developed an international internship program for faculty with the explicit goal of finding opportunities for professors to become immersed in non-Western cultures. Her travels took Emerson, her son, Peter, and Sharon Howard (then assistant to the president and now director of Alumnae/i Relations and Annual Giving) to Asia and Africa, and from Swaziland to South Korea. Emerson said she came to an "overwhelming realization"—the peoples of foreign nations knew far more about America than Americans knew about them.
"People in Asia and Africa know that knowledge of Western history and ideas is essential, and they are remarkably tolerant of our ignorance," Emerson said after her trip. "We were greatly changed in our thinking. I have a new view of what constitutes significant world issues; I feel a new kind of connectedness with Asian and African people and problems; and I am personally moved to act differently—my priorities, my values, my sense of confidence and of responsibility, all have been affected."
On that voyage Emerson arranged opportunities throughout the region and across the disciplines. Professor of Political Science Darlene Boroviak was among the first Wheaton faculty to participate in the internship program. She traveled to Thailand in February 1984 with Professor of Music Charles Fassett (now emeritus), taught English to Thai employees of IBM, and met with several educational, business and political leaders to explore the possible opportunities for future faculty internships. Boroviak also lectured in several different courses at Chiang Mai University and explored the region around Chiang Mai. Several contacts there resulted in future placements for Wheaton faculty.
"My time in Thailand had a major impact on my subsequent teaching," Boroviak explained. "This was my first exposure to non-Western culture and perspectives. I could see dynamic growth happening in both Chaing Mai and Bangkok alongside the deep poverty of many. The contrast of traffic jams—some of the newest automobiles and carriages drawn by water buffalo—and skyscrapers constructed next to traditional temples and riverside shanties provided vivid pictures of the impact of the development process. It opened up the classroom to the world in much broader and richer ways than had been possible before."
In the years that followed the start of the faculty internship program, Wheaton became increasingly focused on international aspects of the learning experience. Diana Davis Spencer '60 initiated the Davis Fellows program in 1994 and has since helped many students study complex world issues in the places where they happen. Worldfest became a staple of campus cultural programing. The most recent institutional mandate for a global component to learning at Wheaton—for both faculty and students—came in December 2001 when the faculty voted 91-3 to adopt a new curriculum. More than two years in the making, the new curriculum made explicit a shared commitment to infuse global perspectives throughout the four years of the academic experience. More courses integrate international issues into their content, and students—starting with the class that will enter this fall—will take at least two foreign language courses and a non-Western course that "engages the cultures of or issues pertaining to a country, people or region historically excluded from the mainstream experience of Western Europe, the United States and Canada or neglected by Western scholarship."
To help students and faculty internationalize the curriculum and have more meaningful off-campus global experiences, the college also opened the Center for Global Education and hired Harvey Charles as the center's dean. Under Charles' direction and with the support of faculty, administration, alumnae/i and trustees, the center sees as its mission to revolutionize the way the Wheaton community interacts with the world beyond its walls, helping each student achieve global competency by graduation through:
- Collaboration with faculty to further internationalize the curriculum;
- Advocacy for implementation of programs of study and academic experiences that prepare students to be globally competent;
- Identification and support of faculty seeking opportunities to acquire relevant international teaching and research experiences;
- Service to the international students and visiting scholars on the campus; and
- Engagement with student organizations, academic departments and other units to promote cross-cultural understanding on the campus and in the local community.
"At its best, a liberal arts education offers a broad understanding of the world," Charles said. "We want our students to be able to negotiate different cultural spaces...and to confront issues and acquire skills as global citizens."
One of the center's primary goals regarding study abroad is the expansion of Wheaton programs. Until this year, students wishing to study abroad—typically for a semester in their junior year—could choose from either a handful of Wheaton-sponsored programs or more than 50 approved non-Wheaton programs. While Wheaton programs are popular—about one-third of students choose them—twice as many students enroll in non-Wheaton programs, and this raises several troubling questions for the college.
One such concern is the academic integrity of non-Wheaton programs. Wheaton-sponsored or Wheaton-affiliated programs, such as PRESCHO at the University of Cordoba in Spain, and Boston University Internship programs in Australia, England, New Zealand, France and Russia, offer students a grade, course credit and an affiliation with the college that allows Wheaton professors to know the course of their students' study. Non-Wheaton programs often offer pass/ fail grades for coursework, no credit toward the Wheaton degree, and an academic experience that may not be equal to or greater than what's offered at Wheaton.
"Faculty are wary of the academic quality of global programs," said Dan Golden, dean for Work and Service Learning. "Many students report that they study little and learn a lot when they go abroad, but what they learn is that Americans are privileged and ignorant. They don't always choose study programs that complement their major. We need to develop more programs that put our own faculty in there first, and then let students follow." The quality of her academic experience abroad troubled We want our students to be able to negotiate different cultural spaces...and to confront issues and acquire skills as global citizens.
Caroline Magwood '02, who spent a semester in a non-Wheaton program at the University of East Anglia in London during her junior year. A former Wheaton Wire editor and magna cum laude graduate in English literature, Magwood described the experience as an "academic waste."
"My classes met infrequently, so that threw me off," Magwood said. "But since my grades didn't translate and I only had to earn a C to pass, I didn't try very hard. I had a great time culturally, and learned a lot in that respect, but I feel guilty for what I didn't accomplish academically." Sally Zarcone '00 tells a different story. She studied in Turkey in 1999 with the help of a Davis Fellowship—academic study opportunities generally completed in close collaboration with one or more Wheaton professors. Arriving not long after a devastating earthquake that year killed thousands, Zarcone started children's programs, donated food and clothing, interviewed displaced families about their experiences, and became involved in nongovernment organizations dedicated to earthquake research. That opportunity, she said, inspired her to continue to work internationally.
"It was this experience that really challenged me emotionally and professionally, as I was sometimes living under adverse circumstances in tents in the snow with little heat, trying to teach children who had almost nothing and were often abused by their parents," Zarcone said. Today she is working for the Peace Corps in St. Catherine Parish, Jamaica, creating environmental programs for schools and helping rural farmers obtain access to computers in local libraries. It's work she believes would not have been possible for her if she hadn't had international experience at Wheaton.
Another question regarding non-Wheaton programs is one of financial resources. When a Wheaton student enrolls in a non-Wheaton program, that student pays tuition to the host university or program, not to Wheaton. The college loses about $4,400 per aided student and $12,400 per non-aided student enrolled in a non-Wheaton program, and with 112 students enrolled in such programs this year, the college will lose more than $1 million in tuition, according to the Center for Global Education.
"These amounts have been increasing as more Wheaton students enroll in non-Wheaton courses," Charles explained.
Several other issues necessitate an increase in Wheaton-based programs, according to Charles. Such programs allow Wheaton faculty to serve as resident directors abroad, providing students with valuable on-site resources and faculty with professional development opportunities. They also encourage out-of-classroom learning—internships, volunteer opportunities and service learning—for students abroad.
For more information on Wheaton's study-abroad programs, visit the Center for Global Education online.
