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Appalachian State University

http://www.appstate.edu/

Contents

General Institutional Overview

1. Vision and Goals for Internationalization
2. Progress
3. Successful Strategies
4. Future Plans

General Institutional Overview

Appalachian State University is located in Boone, North Carolina, in what’s known as "high country" in the southern Appalachian mountains. The region is acclaimed as a popular travel and tourist location, especially for the spectacular golden vistas of the Blue Ridge Parkway in autumn.

Appalachian is a public, comprehensive, state-controlled, coeducational, and residential institution offering a wide choice of degree programs at the baccalaureate and master’s levels, as well as Ed.S. and Ed.D. degrees in educational leadership. Founded in 1899 as Watauga Academy, Appalachian has been a part of The University of North Carolina since 1971. Currently, Appalachian employs approximately 902 faculty and 1,023 staff. Fall 2001 enrollment totaled approximately 12,499 students, including a small but growing representation of international students participating in exchange programs or on campus in pursuit of graduate or undergraduate degrees.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Appalachian defined its service community as the residents of the lost provinces in the remote and isolated southern highlands. At the beginning of the 21st century, Appalachian’s service community stretches from Boone through Mexico and Costa Rica to Brazil, and on to Kyoto; from Shenyang to Vladikavkaz and on to multiple Central and Western European cities and towns. Appalachian takes as its mission the practice and propagation of scholarship.

Overview of Internationalization Efforts

Appalachian State University was one of eight institutions selected for the ACE Promising Practices Project: Spotlighting Excellence in Comprehensive Internationalization.

I. Vision and Goals for Internationalization

The primary goal of international education at the university is to provide all students with a global perspective and in-depth intercultural understanding. International education is a foundation for student career development in the global environment in which they will practice their professions and live out their lives. Appalachian’s objectives for international preparation are accomplished by steadily increasing the amount of course work that incorporates global perspectives, expanding the amount of co-curricular programming devoted to international topics, intensifying the global ethos of the campus, and increasing the availability of opportunities for education outside the United States. Education overseas is provided through international exchange programs lasting from one semester to an entire academic year, and study-abroad programs developed, organized, and led by Appalachian faculty during summer semesters or university holiday periods. Some classes feature short research and study trips to foreign locations during the semester, arranged to fit into crowded student schedules. Since 1991, 108 faculty from 29 academic departments have organized and led 211 study-abroad programs during summer semesters.

In Appalachian’s second century, it intends to further develop an international ethos. In spite of impressive growth in the last four decades (student enrollment has quadrupled), the university continues to cherish its focus on student-centered learning. Visiting international scholars and new international faculty provide an increasingly international intellectual presence. At the same time, the university is integrating international performance criteria into its standard cycles of strategic planning and annual performance reporting. For instance, individual faculty reports and each college report will include evaluations of specific international activity.

II. Progress

• Curriculum
  Major degree programs at Appalachian in fields with an international focus include French, Spanish, and international economics. Major concentrations in interdisciplinary studies include Asian studies, East European and Russian studies, German studies, Latin American studies, Modern European studies, Third World studies, and sustainable development. A major in international business will be added to the curriculum by fall 2002. Minors with an international focus include French, German, Spanish, TESL/applied linguistics, international business, art history, Latin American studies, Asian studies, and Russian/East European studies. Concentrations in various departments include an international focus such as the European and non-Western concentrations in the history department and the international relations concentration in the political science department.
  
  Another aspect of Appalachian’s curriculum that encourages an international approach is the various foreign language requirements in certain degree programs. The Bachelor of Arts degree requires two years of foreign language study. Some, but not all, Bachelor of Science degree programs require foreign language competence at various specified levels. In 2004, entering students must have completed at least two years of a foreign language in secondary school. Every undergraduate must complete four courses designated as multicultural before graduation, and many of the more than 160 courses designated as multicultural have international content.
  
  Appalachian has initiated a review of the core curriculum to further internationalization and guarantee the validity of its educational programs in an era of vast and sweeping change. To this end, a task force has been charged with sorting out institutional priorities and mandating change in accord with current local, national, and global education priorities. Reviewing the core curriculum is an important step. Through this process, departments and colleges are encouraged to add and strengthen international components of the curriculum by increasing international requirements, albeit often at the expense of existing requirements.
  
  
• Co-curricular Programs
  Internationalization extends beyond academic courses in Appalachian classrooms. The transformation of the university must include other dimensions of student life. At Appalachian, the vice chancellor for student development funds a week of orientation for incoming international students, covering all food and housing costs, assisted by volunteer American students who give up vacation and work time to support their international classmates. Other co-curriculum efforts include dedicating space within the residence halls for international students, in spite of heavy pressure on the Office of Residence Life from domestic students who request scarce residence hall accommodations. The most focused program provides an "international hall," where housing spaces are set aside for international students to room with selected domestic students who are interested in foreign cultures, have returned from study-abroad experiences, or want to develop their language skills.
  
  Appalachian’s Center for Student Involvement and Leadership supports the development of clubs and other student organizations with an international focus, including an Asian Students Association, and German, Chinese, and Spanish clubs. Other organizations share similar missions and support from campus offices, such as the International Friendship Association, organized by OIP, and the International Relations Association of the political science department. There are also a plethora of activity clubs that enroll international students, including the Aikido Club and the Tai Chi Chuan Club. The Student Program Office supports cultural activities such as the International Dinner, Chinese New Year celebration, and the Hispanic Day of the Dead, and the dean of the College of Business holds a formal annual luncheon in honor of all international business students. The Student Health Service supports a travel clinic to help students and faculty with medical advice and immunizations as a part of their international travel preparations. The Career Development Center has sent staff to Europe to establish internship sites. Conversely, staff from institutions in the United Kingdom and Costa Rica have traveled to Appalachian to do the same for their campuses.
  
  
• Short-term Study Abroad
  Appalachian’s short-term study-abroad programs enjoyed healthy enrollment gains in the last five years: 1997: 308; 1998: 320; 1999: 378; 2000: 326; 2001: 345. Short-term programs, that is, those lasting three months or less, are led by Appalachian faculty from every academic college and school. Since 1991, 108 faculty have developed, organized, and led 211 short-term study abroad programs for Appalachian students, principally during summer semesters. Typically, more than 25 programs leave Appalachian each summer for education overseas.
  
  Appalachian has ranked among the top 10 institutions in its Carnegie category in each of the last seven years in the number of students it sends abroad. The number of students going abroad and the number of programs offered have steadily increased in recent years; all degree-granting colleges participate in a variety of programs, with new opportunities developing each year. These programs also accommodate an increasing number of students from other institutions.
  
  The number of student participants enrolled in overseas programs can be directly linked to the size of a particular college. The College of Arts and Sciences provides the largest number of student participants, followed by the College of Business, the College of Fine and Applied Arts, the College of Education, and the School of Music. Appalachian’s statistics over the past five years show that Appalachian students generally chose to participate in short-term overseas programs during their senior year (nearly 50 percent of participants). Women generally outnumber men by a considerable margin. About 25 percent of the programs focus on foreign language acquisition or offer a foreign language component. Students still favor programs offered in Europe (60 percent), even though this trend is declining, followed by Central America and the Caribbean (15 percent), Australia/New Zealand (12 percent), South America (7 percent), and Asia (6 percent). Appalachian hopes to add programs to Africa in the near future, although several previous attempts were cancelled as a result of political turmoil. The university has not been able to offer programs in the Middle East on a continuous level due to the political instability in that region.
  
  Each year, Appalachian recognizes faculty achievements with teaching awards. Statistics show that Appalachian’s short-term study-abroad program leaders are consistently among this elite group of faculty. They are the major proponents for study abroad on campus, as well as Appalachian’s ambassadors abroad. Their international expertise and commitment to support international education on all levels within the university community is the key to Appalachian’s successful short-term study-abroad programs and to substantive internationalization. Program leadership for these international education adventures requires a special commitment to student learning, international experience, and country-specific knowledge. For their part, the faculty gain professional experience, intense teaching encounters, and the certain knowledge that they have facilitated indelible, life-changing experiences for their students. They come to know and understand their students more deeply as a result of these usually five- to eight-week interactions.
  
  
• Semester and Academic Year Abroad
  The number of students who study abroad for a semester or a year has increased approximately fivefold since 1996, with a total of 85 students in academic year 2001­02. Students who seek a semester or year abroad come from a wide variety of academic majors. Students may participate in a rich set of opportunities for international exchange, a cost-effective method of gaining invaluable international experience. In addition, Appalachian participates in a variety of consortia that offer enrollment in universities in other countries. Appalachian students participate in the International Student Exchange Program and exchange programs offered by the University of North Carolina, which require a contribution of only the relatively low cost of Appalachian tuition and fees. Appalachian has joined with several other North Carolina universities to provide program opportunities in Spain. Other programs are available to Appalachian students in the United Kingdom, and in Australia through the Australearn consortium. As at other American universities, international internships also are on the rise and 15 to 20 Appalachian students embark on overseas internships each year. Pioneering efforts enable Appalachian students to work in Poland, Russia, France, Germany, and New Zealand, with additional foreign locations anticipated in the near future.
  
  
• International Students and Scholars
  For the past five years, Appalachian has enrolled 100 to 125 international students each academic year. A higher number typically enroll in the fall, when students from Appalachian’s international exchange partner institutions arrive, many of whom remain at Appalachian for a single semester. About 80 percent of Appalachian’s international students seek either undergraduate or graduate degrees. In recent years, the appearance of international scholars in Appalachian’s classrooms and laboratories has steadily increased, primarily due to international faculty exchange. Foreign delegations come to develop or manage international partnerships. International scholars are on campus to lecture and perform collaborative research. Typically, four to eight scholars teach on campus each year. One recent exchange scholar, the honorable Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, is the past prime minister of Poland and currently serves as Poland’s foreign minister.
  
  
• Technology and Telecommunications
  Modern communications technologies offer American universities unlimited potential for international collaboration unavailable a decade ago. Appalachian delivers German language courses by interactive video linkages to three other campuses within North Carolina. The College of Education’s Public School Partnership is a network connecting Appalachian educators with superintendents and principals in eight counties within the university’s service region. Programs include teacher development, grant writing cooperation, and shared information about a wide range of professional issues. The partnership has benefited international educators visiting North Carolina as a vital network for sharing international resources from the university to the public schools, and has served as a model for possible replication. Currently, two international courses are delivered online to graduate students by education professors in Boone, the Netherlands, and Poland. International students in the Netherlands and Poland are regular participants. 

III. Successful Strategies

Most noteworthy among attempts to export international education to the surrounding region are two programs, the longstanding Model United Nations Assembly and an instructional program for K­12 students presented by international students and scholars. The Model United Nations Assembly has been convened for more than 20 consecutive years through the prodigious efforts of faculty within the departments of political science and criminal justice. More than 400 high school students come to Appalachian every year as participants, representing nations and cultures from across the globe. Student members of the International Relations Association represent Appalachian at the Model United Nations Assembly in New York each year.

The K­12 International Outreach Program is a project of the OIP that has received commendations from school teachers in three local counties. The project director presents briefings, free of charge, at local teacher workshops and professional development seminars. Teachers may request programs about specific areas of the world focusing on music, current events, religion, performing arts, language, and other aspects of culture. Teachers may also request international visitors and classroom content recommendations. If a visitor is requested, international students, and occasionally international scholars, are recruited, given advice about creating a multimedia presentation related to the requested project, and then directed to the teacher’s classroom to make the presentation. A program that made six presentations its first year has grown to 100 presentations during the current semester alone.

The College of Business has completed its design of a new major in international business. The new major will require 27 hours of foreign language study and a semester abroad in an international exchange program. The next stage of development will move Appalachian administrators and faculty to all foreign exchange sites to negotiate dual acceptance of curricular offerings for the major. This joint approval process by faculties at all cooperating institutions is critical, as it will allow students to move through the international business major in four years.

Appalachian has an extensive international network of functional linkages overseas that now produces trusting, cooperative relationships with colleagues who guarantee the safe and effective operation of Appalachian’s faculty and student exchange and collaboration programs. Appalachian can now count on support for all of its personnel while at foreign locations, as can Appalachian’s counterparts for their people while in North Carolina. The succinct descriptions and glimpses of these relationships that appear in the narrative above only hint at the richness, variety, sustainability, and fecundity of Appalachian’s network of foreign partners and its progress in internationalization.

IV. Future Plans

To advance internationalization at Appalachian future action should focus on the following items:

• Internationalization must be more clearly and forcefully articulated in Appalachian’s mission statement and in specific statements about immediate goals and objectives. These progressive movements will be achieved in concert with the university’s Strategic Planning Commission, the representative committee overseeing the university’s cyclical strategic planning process.
  
• International criteria must be added to considerations for new hires and for merit, promotion, and tenure decisions. This is the only path to adequately encourage those faculty who will lead the university into Appalachian’s global future. Thus, the format for annual reports, completed by all faculty and various university offices, should be changed to reflect faculty, department, and college productivity in international domains.
  
• Appalachian will establish an international recruiting element within its enrollment services division, an essential infrastructure component to bring more international students to Boone. The institution will also establish a new international recruiting program that creates cooperative, joint ventures among enrollment services personnel, OIP, and faculty with international background, training, and skills.
  
• Endowed foundation accounts have to be established to support multifaceted international programs, including student scholarships, faculty rewards, and support for faculty professional training and development of an international nature. A portion of these new funds should support international research ventures.
  
• The Appalachian Learning Alliance, a novel organizational construct linking Appalachian to 10 regional community colleges, provides a new, unique opportunity for collaboration on international education. Internationalization should become a primary topic of institutional cooperation, especially to provide new opportunities for students at community colleges. These opportunities should include study-abroad programs as well as enhanced classroom instruction.
  
• The university should accentuate the success of internationalization committees in each college and school, led by the deans and comprising faculty advocates for internationalization. These organizations have proven their effectiveness and should become universal across campus. The committees develop schema for international development grandly conceived to provide faculty development, international mobility, curricular adaptation, and international programs for students.

Last updated: April 27, 2005