Where UND meets the world, and the world meets UND
Here’s how UND tries to ‘foster a global perspective’ — and in so doing, fulfill the Learning core value of the UND LEADS Strategic Plan
Editor’s note: The following letter, written by Manuela Gabriel, director of the UND International Center, and Melissa Gjellstad, chair of the UND Department of Languages & Global Studies, introduces a special edition of UND Today focused on the “Learning” core value of the UND LEADS Strategic Plan. Head over to UND Today to read the full selection of stories reflecting the Learning objective of the plan.
By Manuela Gabriel and Melissa Gjellstad
In an increasingly interconnected and rapidly changing world, globally minded education is not only essential, but a way of life here at UND. A fundamental core value of our institution is to foster and instill a global perspective that builds students’ engagement and leadership in their communities.
The staff and faculty in our units create individual initiatives and collaborative projects that give students and community members the chance to see those values in action — in the classroom, on campus, in the community, in the region.
International Center
At the International Center, we like to take a multifaceted approach to enhance cross cultural and intercultural understanding, critical skills, empathy and adaptability, with the goal of helping our students prepare and thrive in a globalized society.
• One of our signature events is International Education Week, an annual week-long celebration during which the International Center — in collaboration with UND faculty, staff and student groups — hosts and plans activities to highlight the international community on our campus. The activities range from presentations and panels to international food tastings and more. In addition to highlighting the richness of the world’s cultures that we have at UND, these programs aim to promote a better understanding of different perspectives and create opportunities for intercultural dialogue among students and other members of the UND community.
• In addition, each spring semester we invite international students to participate in the “Grand Forks Through My Lens Photography Contest” to highlight them as newcomers to the U.S. and to share their unique perspectives and experiences through photography. This event is in collaboration with the Division of Student Affairs and UND Art Collections. It’s a unique opportunity to promote the personal stories of international students and represent the richness of our global community and the diversity of cultures.
We want our international students to show us how they see Grand Forks through their eyes. Their photos are displayed in an exhibit at the Empire Arts Center; we celebrate the exhibit with an opening reception for the Grand Forks and UND communities.
• The Bridge Peer Mentor program is a collaboration between the International Center, Study Abroad, Languages & Global Studies and National Scholarships and Fellowships. Staff and faculty collaborated to design this new mentoring program, which helps facilitate undergraduate and graduate students’ transition to UND. Mentees — first-year international students — are placed in a small group led by an upper-class student or “bridge mentor.”
Mentors are current UND international and domestic students; the program aims to foster community, mutual understanding and respect, and serves as a valuable opportunity not only to new students, but also to mentors who seek to develop global leadership skills.
• Last but not least, Optional Practical Training & Curricular Practical Training is a program that lets international students on F-1 visas work temporarily in a field related to their major area of study. Many of our international students want to gain work experience and contribute to our community as they bring a wealth of experience, global intercultural fluency and talents that enrich the Grand Forks work environment.
We are establishing meaningful partnerships with various stakeholders at UND and in the Grand Forks community to help employers better understand the international student hiring process. This initiative aims to create more job opportunities for international students, retain the students’ talent, help address the Grand Forks workforce shortage and build a more cohesive and culturally understanding community.
Department of Languages and Global Studies
Fostering a global perspective is not an afterthought in the Department of Languages and Global Studies; it stands, in fact, in our department’s mission statement. We “promote the learning of language, literature, and culture so that students are prepared to engage in a multilingual, culturally diverse, global community.”
That mission becomes evident in our curriculum, our creative and scholarly activities and our service work across campus.
Our faculty design and deliver courses each year that build students’ proficiency in world languages and show students how those strong communication skills improve graduates’ career successes and lifelong love of learning. Students this past year have been able to enroll in courses that feature the broad disciplinary expertise of the faculty in our department, featuring courses on Classical Reception Studies, which analyzes contemporary representations of ancient Greece and Rome in today’s TV shows and blockbusters; the supernatural and bizarre in 19th century French literature; pop cultural trends in comic strips, fairy tale parodies and music from Latin American countries; the commemoration of immigration to North America from Nordic nations; translation skills for a rapidly evolving cross-disciplinary labor environment; and sociolinguistic research on minority languages.
We challenge students to develop and use their advanced language skills and transcultural competencies in the classroom and beyond.
The Intercultural Link began last year as a hub to feature our alumni and current students as they incorporate their language skills and experiential learning in their lives at UND and beyond. These compelling stories showcase the career paths that our Global Studies and language program graduates take.
The Global Studies director and board, in a faculty-driven initiative, are finalizing curricular revisions to the program to better serve students who want interdisciplinary expertise in international issues. We are so excited to use the new learning environments and gathering spaces currently under renovation in Merrifield Hall, including the signature Café for Active Language Learning, for our work.
We strive to strengthen connections with our community, partnering with the Grand Forks Public Library to offer Spanish-language story time Hora del Encanto for children, families and the growing number of library patrons requesting Spanish-language reading materials. Faculty partnered with campus offices to create Spanish language recruitment and scholarship materials for UND students and families.
We have been working to strengthen connections with language educators across the state and region, including supporting our future world language teachers currently completing their degrees in the College of Education and Human Development and those currently teaching in our schools.
The Foreign Language Association of North Dakota (FLAND) held their 2024 Summer Conference at UND this year, and several UND faculty joined the engaging pedagogical sessions. We are collaborating to see how best to acknowledge the national Seal of Biliteracy awards for incoming first-year students, and we share scholarship and credit opportunities in recruitment conversations with regional high school students as we visit their language classrooms.
World language teachers are grappling with the impact of generative AI tools on language learning. Some faculty have participated in campus-led workshops, presented at statewide conferences, and incorporated assignments designed to anchor the humanities in machine learning.
We seek opportunities to test avenues for language use in a myriad of applications. In partnership with Esports, students in that field can pursue language proficiency as one of the spokes of their degree plans. This may allow such students to have, for example, an experiential learning experience in the esports industry in Norway.
We seek to meet students where they are, delivering our courses in a range of modalities to accommodate campus-based and distance learners.
Our faculty advocate for the transformative experiences of study abroad as another experiential learning opportunity. From national scholarship winners’ immersion experiences to individual popular destinations such as Pau, France; Regensberg, Germany; Oslo, Norway; and Grenada, Spain, to trips in conjunction with our faculty, students are resuming international learning experiences again after a pandemic lull.
Again in 2025, Vienna, Austria, will be the urban classroom for our department’s summer university-directed course, where students explore the city as a cultural center of modernity.
Fostering students’ global perspectives is a team project, and we seek to build that momentum at UND in a myriad of ways. We believe that exposing students to diverse settings and educational experiences such as those we have mentioned cultivates and contributes to students’ holistic development and helps prepare them to become the next generation of leaders, scholars and global citizens of our society.
>> QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS about the UND LEADS Strategic Plan? Your thoughts are welcome! Please contact Mike Wozniak, coordinator of Leadership & Programming, and/or Ryan Zerr, associate vice president for Strategy & Implementation, the co-chairs of the UND LEADS Implementation Committee.
You also may offer your thoughts by visiting the UND LEADS Strategic Plan home page and clicking on the “Provide your feedback” link that you’ll find there.
Thank you for your support of the UND LEADS Strategic Plan!
