Last week during the closing seminar for the 14th cohort of ACE’s Internationalization Laboratory program,
participants wrapped up more than a year of collaboration during which
they developed goals and strategic plans for internationalization at
their institutions. Teams from the 11 member institutions—guided by ACE staff and Lab advisors—discussed insights gained, the biggest challenges of the process, and next steps.
The meeting began with cohort members
summarizing their experiences and asking, “Where are we now? Where do we
go from here?” Approaches and results varied, as each institution
started the process at different stages of internationalization.
Discussions later in the day touched on how
to implement and track changes. Lab advisor Gil Latz suggested a
standing committee to communicate goals and measure progress over time.
Susan Carvalho, another Lab advisor, proposed that strategic visioning
could be used to assemble such a committee, noting: “One of the great
lessons of the Lab is the importance of campus-wide and bottom-up
engagement.”
A vital part of the Lab process made evident
throughout the day was using an assessment of global learning outcomes
to show the value of international activities.
The group strategized more ways to bolster
the value of internationalization, including utilizing intersections
between campus issues such as access and diversity and offices such as
student life. Lab advisors also recommended small solutions like finding
campus storytellers to craft accounts of globalization and using images
of study abroad experiences in marketing materials, such as a
photograph on the homepage of a school’s website.
Advisors cited resources available to current and past Lab participants,
such as the Lab Library and Lab 2.0, a program where past participants
revisit their Lab process and assess their progress a few years later.
Steven Bloom,
ACE’s director of government relations, gave Lab participants an
overview of recent political developments that may affect
internationalization efforts.
Over the course of the Laboratory, ACE
assisted participants in tackling challenging issues and gaining
campus-wide support for their internationalization initiatives. Each of
the participating institutions assembled a committee to spearhead the
process, attended cohort meetings in Washington, DC, and will undergo a
site visit and peer review by ACE in the spring.
For more information about applying for the 2018-20 cohort, contact Robin Matross Helms at rhelms@acenet.edu. Applications will open in January.