Pacific University Receives Grant from Department of State’s Capacity Building Program for U.S. Study Abroad 

Pacific University has been selected to receive a small grant to support the Global Scholars Program as part of the U.S. Department of State’s 2019 Capacity Building Program for U.S. Study Abroad. Pacific University is one of 21 colleges and universities from across the United States selected from over 120 applications to create, expand, and/or diversify American student mobility overseas in support of foreign policy goals. The Capacity Building Program for U.S. Study Abroad is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and supported in its implementation by World Learning.

The grant will support Pacific University's Global Scholars Program, an emerging effort to internationalize the undergraduate curriculum and to expand and diversify study abroad for undergraduate students. The Global Scholars Program, when fully implemented, will offer students majoring in any discipline a pathway to internationalize their education. First year students selected for the program will participate in the Global Scholars First Year Seminar and coordinating Global Explorations faculty-led short-term travel course. From that foundation, students may expand their global and cultural learning with study or internships abroad, completion of an internationally focused set of core courses, and writing of an internationally focused senior capstone.

Through support from the U.S. Department of State's Capacity Building Program, Pacific will recruit underrepresented students to join the inaugural cohort of Global Scholars in Fall 2020. Incoming first-year students are eligible to apply for this program during their senior year of high school. The grant will also support the participation of existing first year students in short-term travel courses to Costa Rica, Romania, Spain, and Namibia in the spring of 2020.

Students from diverse cultural and language backgrounds are especially encouraged to participate. "It is essential that today's students develop perspectives that are both international and diverse. We want all students to have equitable access to the benefits of study abroad," said Erica Andree, Director of the Center for Languages and International Collaboration. "We believe in a strengths-based approach in valuing the skills that bicultural and bilingual students bring to global studies, skills that might not be fully recognized or developed. In other words, underrepresented students may have intercultural communication skills that position them to take even greater advantage of the study-abroad experience."

“We are pleased to support U.S. colleges and universities from across the United States as part of our suite of initiatives aimed at increasing American student mobility. We are committed to providing more opportunities for American students to benefit from the rich experience of studying overseas,” said Marie Royce, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The Capacity Building Program for U.S. Study Abroad seeks to increase the capacity of accredited U.S. colleges and universities to create, expand, and diversify study abroad programs for U.S. students. In addition to the small grants competition, the program will also offer opportunities for faculty, staff, and administrators at U.S. colleges and universities to participate in a series of virtual and in-person study abroad capacity building activities.

For a full list of grant recipients for the 2019 competition, as well as information about upcoming Capacity Building Initiative workshops and resources under this same program, please visit the Capacity Building Program for U.S. Study Abroad website.

For further information about other study abroad resources and other exchange programs offered by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, please contact ECA-Press@state.gov and visit studyabroad.state.gov.

To learn more about the Global Scholars Program at Pacific University, please contact Erica Andree or view the Global Scholars webpage.