Participating in an international experience traditionally means study abroad or a similar college program. But an engineering leadership course is letting students learn in a global context without having to leave the confines of campus. The class, International Leadership of Enterprise and Development (ILEAD), teams students in Penn State's engineering leadership program with economics students at Corvinus University in Budapest, Hungary, using the latest information technology available.
Judge Orhan Karabacak arrived on the bench by way of tax and to central Pennsylvania by way of Turkey. He is visiting Penn State Law from Sakarya University, where he is writing a doctoral thesis on the role of the state in preserving cultural and natural heritage sites. Karabacak is a member of YARSAV, an organization of judges and prosecutors that seeks justice through an objective and independent judiciary. (more)
Janelle Larson, associate professor of agricultural economics and head of the Division of Engineering, Business and Computing at Penn State Berks, will be the keynote speaker at the Penn State University Office of Global Programs fifth annual breakfast in celebration of International Women's Day at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 13, in the boardroom of the Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus. Larson's research interests are focused on international rural development, with work primarily on land and labor markets. Her presentation is titled: "Engaging Universities in International Development: The CYEC-PSU Model." (more)
The Penn State student chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-PSU) recently returned from its second trip to Sierra Leone, Africa, where they continued their ongoing projects in the village of Baoma, located nearby to the coastal city of Freetown. Five students, faculty adviser John Lamancusa and two professional mentors made this second trip to Africa over winter break. The group is working on two projects for the people of Baoma: a latrine for the children at the Covenant Preparatory School and a project to improve the quality of the village's water supply. The technical mentor for the latrine project is Rich Kercher, a project manager at Gannett Fleming, and the technical mentor for the water project is Mark Ralston of Converse Consultants. (more)
Penn State's University Park campus was selected by the U.S. Department of State to host more than 70 Fulbright scholars from 40 developing countries for a four-day seminar Feb. 29 to March 4 that will focus on global food security. (more)
For the second year in a row, Penn State has been ranked 20th on the Peace Corps' 2012 rankings of colleges and universities in the large school category. There are currently 65 Penn State undergraduate alumni serving overseas, an increase from last year's 58 volunteers.
"It's exciting to me that students at Penn State have a strong interest in participating in service opportunities," said Nellie Bhattarai, Penn State Peace Corps recruiter. "Peace Corps takes the skills and personality of an individual and uses it to impact others in a community-oriented manner." (more)
Harold Hongju Koh, chief legal counsel for the U.S. Department of State and professor of international law at Yale Law School, will visit Penn State Law to discuss national security on Thursday, Jan. 26. Koh's presentation, titled "A Smart Power Approach to International Law and National Security," will focus on threats, responses and accountability mechanisms that will define the future national security configuration. (more)
The first chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association in Sub-Saharan Africa was launched in Soweto, the world-famous township near Johannesburg, South Africa earlier this month. It was organized by the alumni and launched as the Southern Africa Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association at a reception in the Soweto Hotel on Freedom Square. Attendees travelled from all over South Africa and some from Botswana to be part of this historic event. (more)
Penn State's University Office of Global Programs (UOGP) awarded Landscape Architecture student Kellie Waksmunski with the First Place Study Abroad Essay as part of International Education Week, a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education celebrating the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. (more)