Internationalization Collaborative

Liberal Arts Institutions

Chatham College

About Chatham College: Founded in 1869, Chatham College is the third oldest private women's college in the United States. Chatham is committed to offering a rigorous undergraduate educational program that prepares women to compete in today's rapidly changing workplace by providing them with a challenging curriculum that is solidly grounded in the liberal arts and strong career preparation. The Chatham educational experience includes special opportunities for urban and international involvement though internships, service-learning programs, study abroad experiences, and on-campus across the curriculum integration in global studies.

Size and characteristics of the student body and faculty: The College is primarily an undergraduate liberal arts institution of about 600 women; 13 percent are adults older than 23 years of age; 8 percent are international students; and about 16 percent are minority students. The average grade point average of the fall 2001 entering class is 3.3, and the mean Scholastic Aptitude Test score is 1059. The college has 77 faculty in the liberal arts; 88 percent hold doctoral or appropriate terminal degrees. Six faculty members are minority, and 52 are women.

Location: Chatham's urban campus is located in the Shadyside/Squirrel Hill neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is an emerging international city and is home to some of the country's leading universities and medical centers, multinational corporations, and prestigious non-profit foundations. The 35-acre campus is nestled among flowering gardens, Georgian-style buildings, and rolling wooded hills. Rated as among the nation's most livable cities, Pittsburgh is also one of the safest cities in the United States. As a city of culture, Pittsburgh is the home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Three Rivers Arts Festival, and the Carnegie International and houses superb ballet, opera, and theatre companies.

Mission: Chatham is committed to providing a strong liberal arts foundation with career preparation to help women face the challenges of the global marketplace. In doing this, Chatham provides its students with a complement of skills essential for productive work and decision making. The liberal arts foundation is provided through a core of common intellectual experiences that together impart a set of attitudes and knowledge about the interdependent world and methods of response to its opportunities and dilemmas. This foundation is built upon as each student attains in-depth knowledge in a particular area of study which can equip her for further academic work, for career opportunities, and for lifelong exploration of the world.

Overview of Internationalization Efforts

I. Vision and Goals for Internationalization

As the world becomes ever more technologically and economically interconnected, Chatham College believes it is critical to provide students with a strong global perspective. Chatham's commitment to global education is broad-based, combining curricular and co-curricular activities with a network of connections to international institutions and the international community in Western Pennsylvania. Chatham will develop a mix of programs and opportunities to provide an array of choices for our undergraduates on campus and abroad, regardless of major or discipline.

Increased globalization has placed new demands on the way we educate and equip students. Preparing "world-ready women" has become Chatham's primary goal and central educational philosophy. This approach includes: (1) infusing global themes into every classroom, campus programs, and community activities and into co-curricular activities and student-led projects; and (2) providing an opportunity for every student to study abroad in her sophomore year, regardless of major. Both approaches require and demand faculty commitment, involvement, and participation.

II. Progress

As stated in the college's Strategic Plan, Chatham's approach to globalizing the campus includes all students, regardless of major or discipline; all faculty, regardless of teaching area or research interests; and involves staff and community members in the planning and implementation of campus programs and activities. A small liberal arts college like Chatham has to conduct its efforts to internationalize the campus by working across the curriculum and with strong collaborations with the community. Pittsburgh's international community provides tremendous resources for the campus so that global learning does not occur merely from within the "ivory tower."

In order to undertake a more realistic and effective approach to internationalizing the campus, Chatham formed an advisory board composed of members from Pittsburgh's international community to help the faculty and students plan campus events and activities, lecture series, and musical performances and identify guest speakers and resources for the classroom. Each year, the college seeks new members from Pittsburgh's international community—particularly individuals from the particular focus region—to serve on the advisory board. The board meets during the summer prior to the academic year as well as a couple of times during the academic year to help Chatham faculty, staff, and students plan the focus year programming. During this past year, two members of our advisory board on the "Year of South America: Brazil and the Andes" not only helped the faculty plan their study abroad trip to Porto Alegre in Brazil but also participated in the pre-departure orientation for students involved in that program.

Chatham also has a strong tradition of working in collaboration with other academic institutions and organizations in the city. As a small college, we have found strength in collaborating with others to offer joint programs through resource sharing. Chatham has partnered with the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie-Mellon University, the World Affairs Council, and special interest groups such as the Japan-America Society, the Ireland Institute, and the Bulgarian Cultural Center, among others, to co-host musical events, lectures and symposia, art exhibitions, and conferences.

III. Successful Strategies

The centerpiece of Chatham's international initiative is the "Global Focus Program," a unique approach to globalizing a small liberal arts college campus. Begun in 1995, the Global Focus Program concentrates on one country or region of the world each year to enable the college community to engage in comprehensive study of that region through coursework, class assignments, campus programs, community activities, co-curricular student-led programs, and service-learning projects. By the time she graduates, a Chatham student will have been exposed to four world regions in her curriculum work and co-curricular activities.

Imagine a literary class discussion, a theater production, a first-year writing class, an art history seminar, a seminar of world politics or religions, a service-learning project, and even a choir performance all focusing on one common global theme. Students, faculty, and staff help plan campus events, select speakers, and engage in collaborative academic assignments. Faculty members teaching in the First-Year Writing Program select an all-campus reading which focuses on the selected region. The selected book is sent in early summer to all incoming first-year students in the hope that the students will involve their family members in the reading experience. The author of the book is invited to campus, usually in the fall, to interact with students in class and to give a public lecture to which the Pittsburgh community is invited. Staff members in the Student Affairs Division work with resident directors and assistants to plan evening and weekend residence hall events focusing on the region. Parents and alumnae get involved when the global focus theme is incorporated into "family weekend," new student orientations, college convocations, various campus traditions and activities, and alumnae reunion weekend.

Imagine an entire college devoted to and discussing a single novel throughout the academic year; a mathematics class that uses the art of origami to understand intricate mathematical logic; a film and lecture series that showcases differences in directing techniques around the world; a printmaking class devoted to African masks or the Kabuki; a women's studies course studying the impact of pornography on women in Eastern Europe or the impact of dowry marriages in India; a communications course focusing on gypsies as ethnic stereotypes; a histology course exploring several prevalent diseases of South Asia; a chemistry course using the arsenic problem in Bangladesh as a case study; an exhibition that ties the harmony of ikebana with American sculpture; a service-learning project at the Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti—a plethora of coursework, campus activities, art gallery shows, and student projects devoted to a particular global focus region for a year.

As part of the Global Focus Program, Chatham has applied for and won USIA-funded Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Awards. Through these awards (supplemented by cost sharing provided by the college), Chatham was fortunate to host scholars from the selected country or region for a full academic year to help enrich its curricular offerings, plan programs, and work with students. Chatham also often collaborates with other organizations and institutions to host cultural events and sponsor lectures and prominent speakers. Partners have included the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie-Mellon University, the World Affairs Council, the Japan-America Society, the Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh, the Center for the Performing Arts of India, and the Latin American Union. Working collaboratively in this way allows the college to extend and enhance its internationalization goals without being held hostage by budget constraints.

Chatham's international students are fully integrated into each year's Global Focus Programs. By showcasing their own cultures, they become stakeholders in planning campus and community programs. The International Students' Association conducts various cultural activities and organizes symposia and public forums that feature the focus region.

The Chatham Abroad Program is another strong component of Chatham's internationalization experience. Begun 11 years ago, the Chatham Abroad Program takes a team of between 20 and 25 sophomores with two faculty members, each from a different discipline, to one of four sites during the January interim term. The cost of the program is bundled into the regular year tuition and fees so that every student can participate without incurring an additional financial burden; thus, the cost barrier is removed. In any given year, nearly 80 percent of those eligible participate in the Chatham Abroad Program; this represents 23 percent of the undergraduate population. The annual subsidy expenditure from the college represents a substantial institutional budgetary and academic commitment to enhance the internationalization experience.

Study abroad programs typically are led by specialists in languages or faculty drawn from particular disciplines, such as international relations, politics, or economics. However, Chatham faculty, regardless of discipline or teaching area, form teams to propose unique courses of study. One of the ground rules in accepting proposals is that the faculty members designated to lead the sophomore groups must not come from the same discipline. Recent examples of Chatham's sophomore interim abroad programs include:

• "Ruins, Rainforest, and Reefs in Belize" led by a psychologist and an English professor.
• "Transitional Cultures in Eastern Europe" led by a filmmaker and a mathematician.
• "Women and Leadership in Ireland" led by professors of political science and history.
• "The Castles, Clans, and Culture of Scotland" led by professors of French literature and education.
• "The Science of Art in Italy" led by professors of biology and chemistry.
• "The Enduring Legacy in Greece" led by a mathematician and a psychologist.
• "Cultural Crossroads in Morocco" led by a historian and a professor of communications.

Students and alumnae often describe their Chatham experience as one of transformation. Inevitably, this metamorphosis includes some element of an international experience that touches everyone. Imagine an art history student sitting next to a chemistry student on a bus ride through a Mayan village or a biology and a history student on a snorkeling experience examining the reefs in Belize or enjoying an Italian opera together in Rome.

The Global Focus Program fosters intensive examination of other cultures in just about every classroom. At most institutions you never will find a mathematics or a chemistry class devoting several lecture sessions to India, Poland, or Japan. Yet at Chatham, the faculty work to incorporate a different global focus each year into their syllabuses—an ambitious and unique approach to immersing the curriculum in global issues. Faculty involvement either through the Sophomore Interim Abroad Program or the Global Focus Program is also a deliberate effort of Chatham's internationalization experience. Rarely are college alumnae asked to participate in the international curriculum in any way other than perhaps the occasional guest lecture on a specific topic. Yet Chatham's Global Focus Program provides a natural and convenient way for alumnae to get involved and lend their expertise.

Commenting on Chatham's recent focus on South Asia, an alumna who had published numerous books and articles on caste, gender, and colonialism in India said, "The internationalization of the liberal arts curriculum is more important now than ever. A liberal arts education has, or should have, as its aim the development of a critical perspective on the social and cultural institutions in which one is located, and there is no better avenue for achieving this than a study of the ways the very categories of culture, nation, ethnicity, and so on are in fact created in global encounters..."

Embedded in Chatham's internationalization experience is the concept of service and assisting others in need. For example, after hearing Dr. Najma Najam, vice chancellor of the first women's university in Pakistan, speak at Chatham's opening convocation about the plight of women in Pakistan, the International Students' Association embarked on a fundraising project to send one Pakistani woman to Fatima Jinnah University each year. Upon their return from the service experience at the Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti, students and faculty engage in a multitude of projects, here and abroad, to sustain the spirit of giving.

Conclusion: Chatham's approach to internationalization is campus-wide, across the curriculum, and collaborative in nature. Students and faculty from all disciplines and majors participate. International students from Chatham and neighboring institutions are able to showcase their rich cultural heritage in a meaningful manner through the global focus initiative. Members of Pittsburgh's international community lend credibility and strength and become stakeholders as they help plan and implement campus programs and events.

IV. Future Plans

In response to the current world situation, its inherent complexity, and the many questions and misconceptions that have arisen, the college intends to focus on "Worlds of Islam: Faith, Politics, and Fact" in the coming academic year. We hope to spearhead discussion and debate about Islam as a faith and its many political manifestations in order to help unravel unfortunate misconceptions and stereotypes. We hope to involve all neighboring institutions and the Pittsburgh community in this discourse. This is an appropriate role for any college or university to perform at a time of national or global crisis.

*Please contact the institution directly if you have questions about their institutional programs.

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beth_burris@ace.nche.edu | Staff Contacts 
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This page last updated on: 6/16/2006