2024 Internationalizing the Curriculum and Campus Conference

Location: Room 215 (Roy Wilkins)

Presenters: Sara Schroth, LeeAnne Godfrey, and David Atterberry—Minnesota English Language Program, Twin Cities

It’s easy to focus on what multilingual international students are lacking rather than what they can do. The linguistic, cultural, experiential, and social/emotional assets they bring to the classroom and campus are often overshadowed by the perception that they have a language deficit that needs to be “fixed.” Let’s change the language we use to talk about multilingual learners at UMN! Presenters from the Minnesota English Language Program (MELP) will share how to adapt an asset-based approach to working with multilingual international students on our campuses to empower students, increase inclusion, and promote internationalization.

Location: Room 25

Presenter: Jane Sitter—Office for Student Affairs, Twin Cities

Career outcomes are very important to international students studying at U.S. universities, including at the University of Minnesota. This presentation will detail how the work of facilitating international student career development is most successful within an ecosystem of support. The presenter will detail examples of key partnerships and collaborations to support international student career development with units such as: Career Services and Advising, International Student Services, Alumni Relations, English Language Supports, Student Organizations, and external community partners. Attendees who join this presentation will be able to increase their awareness of the international student career development experience, and will feel empowered in understanding their role in that process. Attendees will become more familiar with the career ecosystem theory, and the idea of being a “career influencer” for students. There will be space to discuss and brainstorm new ideas so UMN can continue to innovate in providing international student career support.

Location: Room 180 (Josie Johnson)

Presenters: Katy Chapman—Math, Science, and Technology, Crookston; David Beard—Writing Studies, Duluth

This panel presents an overview of work from the Power of One collection, to be published by the University of Minnesota Libraries publishing initiative. The collection demonstrates the “Power of One.” As described by Gayle Woodruff, the “Power of One” focuses on one international educator working on international curriculum integration, starting with small-scale changes. These small changes are shared with colleagues, are built upon, and so lead to small changes across the curriculum; eventually, Woodruff argues, these small changes lead to transformed programs. 

Location: Room 50B

Presenters: Lindsey Lahr and Christine Anderson—Learning Abroad Center, Twin Cities; Karin Hamilton—Pre-Health Student Resource Center, Twin Cities

The Learning Abroad Center (LAC) has pledged to focus on sustainability in learning abroad programs. This is being accomplished by taking an operational and curricular approach for using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework. In addition, instructors leading courses abroad identify how SDGs are part of their courses while also looking at locations and methods of transportation. The undergraduate Pre-Health Student Resource Center (PHSRC) has worked with the Learning Abroad Center to offer LAC Seminar programs that are now framed using the SDGs. Many challenges and opportunities were realized through this framing experience. 

Location: Room 50B

Presenters: Barbara Kappler—International Student and Scholar Services, Twin Cities; Eva Janebova—Mestenhauser Institute for International Collaboration; Dunja Antunovic, Jonathan Stuart, and Kelly Meyer—College of Education and Human Development, Twin Cities

Panelists will share their experiences creating and participating in professional learning communities (PLCs) locally with fellow University of Minnesota instructors and staff and globally with six European partner institutions. Faculty and staff who participated in this year-long collaboration will share their surprises about several of the outcomes, including the opportunity to forge connections across disciplinary boundaries. The organic Professional Learning Community design is easy to replicate, and the benefits experienced could bring creativity, renewed energy and ideas, and a sense of belonging with other international partners and across the system campuses.

Location: Room 184

Presenters: John Vreyens, Kate Walker, Nicole Pokorney, Jennifer Aranda, Lia Spaniolo, and Megan Slater—UMN Extension, Twin Cities

University of Minnesota Extension developed its first international professional learning experience for staff during the past year. A cohort of 11 Extension professionals co-created a 10-day opportunity to explore community-based education programs in Argentina. The program focused on multiple goals: gaining different perspectives on non-formal education programs and applications in the context of another country, increasing understanding and appreciation of the host country's culture and society while effectively engaging in cross-cultural situations, and increasing awareness and capacity to respond to the Extension program needs of Minnesota residents of diverse backgrounds. Panelists will share how the program bridges international and multicultural learning to strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion, and reflections on how we think about working with cultural, immigrant, and indigenous groups in Minnesota bridging multicultural and international education through application to our program design.

Location: Room 215 (Roy Wilkins)

Presenters: Leslie Gubash-Lindberg and liz thomson—Office of Equity Diversity and Intercultural Programs, Morris; Anna Phan—TRIO-SSS, Morris

University of Minnesota Morris staff will share their collaborative efforts to internationalize the Morris campus by focusing on the intersectionality of our students, staff, and faculty from different cultures and backgrounds. This session focuses on co-curricular efforts to internationalize the campus within a rural setting, by addressing important topics of building an inclusive environment that supports intercultural exchange and education across campus. This is achieved through professional development opportunities and programs that foster belonging, intercultural understanding, and student success. Participants will be able to consider the application of Morris’ initiatives for their own program/unit/campus.

Location: Room 25

Presenters: Marina Uehara, Anita Feng, Shiman Li, Ky Nguyen, Ruitao Wu, Yueting Zhao, and Amora Batbayar—International Student and Scholar Services, Twin Cities

Culture Corps (CC), one of the global engagement cornerstones of the Twin Cities campus, recently marked its 25th anniversary, signifying the University's dedication to internationalizing higher education. For this panel, we will feature six impactful student posters from our recent anniversary event, share our experience with CC, and host a Q&A session for the audience. The posters showcase CC's transformative projects, highlighting the dedication of students, staff, and alumni in shaping our globally interconnected campus. Central to CC is leveraging international students' intercultural assets, creating diverse leadership roles fostering campus-wide diversity. Join us to celebrate and explore future CC involvement, promising ongoing student engagement, and enhancing vibrant international curriculum and campus life of the Twin Cities campus.

Location: Room 180 (Josie Johnson)

Presenters: Yuliya Kartoshkina—Global Programs and Strategy Alliance, Twin Cities; James Ford—Center for Learning Innovation, Rochester

In this interactive session, participants will learn about the International, Intercultural, and Global (IIG) Learning Model, which was developed by the Internationalizing the Curriculum and Campus team at the University of Minnesota. It has been used in various training programs intended to help faculty from different disciplines internationalize their courses. The participants will learn about each dimension of the model and be able to assess which dimensions they have already been using in their classrooms and which ones they could use more of. Concrete teaching activities will be suggested for each learning dimension. Faculty and instructors from all disciplines are encouraged to attend the session.

Location: Room 50B

Presenters: Dan Nolan—Global Programs and Strategy Alliance, Twin Cities and Duluth; Marzell Gray—College of Education and Human Service Professions, Duluth; Harouna Maiga—Agriculture and Natural Resources, Crookston; Betsy Maloney Leaf—College of Education and Human Development, Twin Cities

As virtual exchange and Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) work expands, we are confronted with new kinds of opportunities for both faculty and student engagement. Presenters in this panel help us explore new opportunities for COIL and partnership development. Presenters will review ongoing projects, as well as the University of Minnesota's work with the Aurora Alliance, the Climate Smart Municipalities, and COIL Connect. At the end of this session, attendees will be able to make more efficient decisions about next steps to develop a virtual exchange project.

Location: Room 25

Presenters: Daniel Morales—Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence, Twin Cities; Ann Smith—Global Programs and Strategy Alliance, Twin Cities; LeeAnne Godfrey—Minnesota English Language Program, Twin Cities; Satomi Mitani—College of Education and Human Development, Twin Cities; Kelly Collins—Office of Equity and Diversity, Twin Cities; Marina Uehara—International Student and Scholar Services, Twin Cities

This panel presentation will showcase the collaborative efforts of a diverse team from multiple University of Minnesota offices that crafted a workshop for staff and faculty. This panel brings together educators, academic advisors, and graduate students who will explain their process of creating an educational program aimed at addressing xenophobia and minoritization within the university environment. Attendees will gain insights into the team's research on the topic, curriculum development, and the nuanced challenges encountered in including diverse voices and perspectives. Through personal narratives and demonstrations, the panelists will highlight the workshop's intention to impact on challenging stereotypes, fostering empathy, and promoting cross-cultural understanding. This presentation serves as an example of hope and inspiration, showcasing the power of collective action in combating xenophobia and fostering a more inclusive campus community. As we reflect on the workshop's first iterations, this panel hopes to inspire future initiatives that seek to create an inclusive educational landscape for international campus members.

Location: Room 215 (Roy Wilkins)

Presenters: Eric Schwartz, David Wilsey, Amelia Shindelar, and Emily Opara—Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Twin Cities 

This session explores some of the distinctive strategies employed by the Humphrey School of Public Affairs in the effort to globalize our curriculum—measures that may serve as a model for Comprehensive Schools of Public Policy and Public Affairs. The Humphrey School and dozens of other comprehensive schools in the U.S. provide coursework, concentrations, and degree offerings in a broad range of issue areas where the focus and student interests are largely domestic. This means that a small number of faculty are challenged to provide the breadth of coursework, co-curricular activities, and degree programs focused on the broadest array of global issues. The Humphrey School has used a variety of strategies to accomplish this objective, including offering globally-focused degree concentrations, hosting international scholars, and partnering with Washington-based research institutions, to name a few. This presentation will outline in detail the breadth of our approaches.

Location: Room 180 (Josie Johnson)

Presenters: Ian Allen—Research and Innovation Office, Strategic Partnership and Research Collaborative, Twin Cities; Karen Brown—Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change, Twin Cities 

This session explores the University of Minnesota's approach to aligning higher education with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while actively advancing the internationalization of its curriculum and campus. Launched in 2019, the UMN SDG Initiative has successfully incorporated SDGs across its campuses, research centers, and extension offices. This initiative emphasizes international partnerships, like the Aurora Network collaboration, and interdisciplinary cooperation, bringing together leaders and faculty from various fields. A key focus is on both local and global partnerships, bridging national SDG objectives with community-level applications, and creating synergies between campus and global sustainability efforts. This presentation will discuss the SDG Initiative’s strategy of integrating SDGs into education and research, including student-centered grants, curriculum mapping, and international internships for graduate students and how it also emphasizes data-driven accountability. 

Location: room 184

Presenters: Stephanie Gingerich—School of Nursing, Twin Cities; Marty Lewis-Hunstiger—Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies

In 2021, the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, an international peer-reviewed
open-access journal, published “Perspectives on Gender: An Investigative Study of Gender
Equity in Children [Espejuelos para el género: Apuestas investigativas por la equidad en la
infancia],” by Cuban researchers Niurka González Escalona, Julia Maricela Torres Esperón,
Noralydis Rodríguez Washington, Jennifer Iexela Villafaña Cruz, and Rosalie Carasa Alvarez.
Challenging the narrative of English as the default language in scholarly publishing, the IJPS
Editorial Board opted to publish the article in both English and Spanish, with equal attention to peer review and copy editing in both versions. The result was a scholarly article available to all Spanish- and English-speaking colleagues around the world on the important topic of gender identities as influenced by the family, school, and the media. This session describes the editorial process, presents other exemplars, and proposes a model for multilingual scholarly publication. 

Location: Room 50B

Presenters: Jessica Hartnett, Molly Green, and Maria Mantey—Learning Abroad Center, Twin Cities

This session examines best practices for developing and running a hybrid internship program that leverages the new realities of remote work. In the model we will explore, students are enrolled in an internship course and complete work for an internship placement, both virtually, throughout the spring semester. At the end of the semester, they then go abroad to complete their internship in-person. This program model was created out of need in response to the impacts of COVID-19 on education abroad, and simultaneously built off of the internship infrastructure we had already established. Now evolved into what it is today, this program model provides an in-depth international work experience, while being highly accessible and affordable and creating multi-destination student cohorts. We will describe the funding, course creation, cross-cultural mentoring and skill building, placement selection and supervisor coaching, and other challenges and successes of this program.

Location: Room 25

Presenter: Lauren Dickinson—Carlson Global Institute, Twin Cities

The Carlson Global Institute has been leveraging the strengths of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice fields to complement their work with intercultural education and training for faculty, staff, and student development across the school. In this session, we will highlight how we have been bringing a DEISJ lens to cultural value dimensions in an effort to deepen conversations with students, faculty, and staff. Attend this session to learn more and engage in workshopping a few specific value dimensions.

Location: Room 184

Presenters: Njoki Kamau—Studies in Justice, Culture and Social Change, Duluth; Ariri Onchwari, Insoon Han, and Nedra Hazareesingh—College of Education and Human Service Professions, Duluth

Foreign-born faculty bring a wealth of knowledge from their own research, personal interactions, and from lived experiences in their native countries; however, securing academic positions does not guarantee acceptance of internationally focused courses or broadening of the curriculum. This session will be an examination of the barriers that foreign-born faculty encounter in the academy as they strive to remain authentic to their international perspectives in teaching, research, publishing, and public engagements. Together with the presenters, attendees will come up with recommendations for how foreign-born faculty could be supported not only to succeed in their teaching but in research opportunities and publishing.

Location: Room 215 (Roy Wilkins)

Presenters: Oxana Wieland and Al Fattal, A.—Business Department, Crookston; Satis Devkota—Division of Social Science, Morris

Three faculty members from business departments on the Crookston and Morris campuses have developed effective teaching activities to internationalize their courses, after participating in the Internationalizing Teaching and Learning (ITL) cohort program offered by the Internationalizing the Curriculum and Campus team. The presenters will share how each of them approached the internationalization process as well as challenges and successes they encountered along the way. Each presenter will talk about learning goals they chose to focus on to prepare global-ready graduates in their discipline, and the teaching and assessment activities they developed to meet those goals. By attending this session, the audience will be encouraged to think about how they can adapt similar approaches to internationalizing a course in their disciplines.

Location: Room 180 (Josie Johnson)

Presenters: Stephanie Anderson—Spanish and Portuguese Studies, Twin Cities; Ann Smith—Global Programs and Strategy Alliance, Twin Cities; LeeAnne Godfrey—Minnesota English Language Program, Twin Cities

In this session, we will start with a broad description of new Internationalizing the Curriculum and Campus (ICC) and Minnesota English Language Program (MELP) resources, including a key collaboration between these units, the Conversations Centering International and Multilingual Students workshop series. Next, we’ll narrow the focus by providing a description and a short example of content provided in one of these workshops, Language Bias and Linguistic Justice. Diving deeper, during the second half of the session, you will experience a 30-minute teaching demonstration, where an instructor will show how she facilitated a lesson on issues of linguistic privilege and linguistic marginalization in a beginning Spanish course. Session participants will view media, reflect on and have the opportunity to share their own experiences around these topics. Resources and examples are in English. Educators of all disciplines are welcome. This session is for you if you are looking to consider incorporating a racial justice-themed unit into your course / curriculum. 

Location: Room 50B

Presenters: Amanda Dalola—Language Center, Linguistics, Twin Cities; Chimène Dupuis—French and Italian, Twin Cities

Following research that has reported video-based social media to be beneficial in the language classroom for increasing learner engagement, developing intercultural and communicative competence, raising linguistic and sociolinguistic awareness, and helping learners concretely visualize elements of invisible culture, the authors undertook a project of creating an openly accessible database of dynamic media resources in French from TikTok and Instagram. Clips were selected for inclusion based on their authenticity and ability to increase learners’ cultural and sociolinguistic awareness of diversity within the francophone world. The clips were organized thematically, and tagged for geographic location, language variety, speech rate, and presence of subtitles/captions. This functionality allows educators, student groups, and autodidacts of all disciplines—language, culture, history, society, etc.—to plug and play interactive short-form video content into their lessons, thereby empowering them to tap into the global nature of the internet in authentic ways, forging pathways for intercultural conversations and the deepening of intercultural perspectives.

Location: Room 180 (Josie Johnson)

Presenter: Sara Mack—Spanish and Portuguese Studies, Twin Cities

This presentation provides a critical examination of how Internationalized Curriculum and Campus (ICC) principles and practices can be leveraged with Career Readiness Programs in order to support instructor's learning outcomes in post-secondary contexts. It will provide foundational information regarding Career Readiness programs for those unfamiliar with the topic, and highlight key areas of intersection with the Internationalized Campus and Curriculum model as employed in the University of Minnesota system. The presentation also will include examples of how to leverage the models in support of learning objectives related to social and economic justice, and how this approach was applied to an Intermediate Spanish as a Second Language course based on ICC principles. Attendees will have the option to engage in active learning tasks throughout the session as we analyze where and how these frameworks dynamically intersect with each other, and explore how to capitalize on this intersection within and across disciplines.

Location: Room 215 (Roy Wilkins)

Presenters: Tasoulla Hadjiyanni—Interior Design, Twin Cities; Debra Lawton—Graphic Design, Twin Cities

This session will showcase a transatlantic and interdisciplinary partnership between Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, an interior design faculty, and Debra Lawton, a graphic design faculty, in Fall 2022. Hadjiyanni has been leading the development of a design proposal for Kontea’s memorial for the killed and missing in Cyprus. It has been close to 50 years since the Turkish invasion that divided the island of Cyprus in 1974 and resulted in thousands killed or missing. Nine of those individuals come from Hadjiyanni’s now occupied village of Kontea. The Graphic Design program was invited to join this effort and: a) help spearhead the memorial’s graphic identity and strengthen fundraising efforts, and b) expose students to the traumatic remnants of colonialism and their present ramifications. The session examines the semester’s process, pedagogies, and outcomes with the goal of leveraging new realities by identifying potential areas of intervention in decolonizing design education.

Location: Room 25

Presenters: Timothy Dohmen, Dunia Tesfaye, Vanessa Walton, and Maria Mantey—Learning Abroad Center, Twin Cities

The work of curriculum integration in education abroad has always been closely related to developing relationships and trust with campus colleagues with the goal of collaboration and partnership. Over the past decade the Learning Abroad Center (LAC) has expanded its model of curriculum integration. In addition to having liaisons from the Learning Abroad Center connected to departments around campus, several positions were created in which the colleges share in salary, benefits and supervision responsibilities. These positions carry out a range of functions associated with the unique education abroad needs in the different colleges. We will overview how these longstanding partnerships have been mutually beneficial to the colleges and the LAC with the ultimate goal of the internationalization of our university and curriculum.

Presenters: Valeriia Yustyniuk, Mary Katherine O'Brien, and Maria Sol Perez Aguirreburualde—Center for Animal Health and Food Safety, Twin Cities

The World Organization for Animal Health's Educational Twinning Program aims to enhance veterinary education through university partnerships, promoting innovative teaching practices in veterinary medicine. This ensures the quality of National Veterinary Services and prepares professionals supporting global animal health, trade, and food safety, while also advancing WOAH's standards. Launched in 2020 with a university in Uzbekistan, the project facilitated a transition to a 5-year veterinary program, online faculty training, and educational and research advancements. Employing an adaptive approach, the project effectively addressed challenges such as language barriers, technological dependencies, and cultural differences. Beyond the technical curriculum, it emphasized a shift from teacher-centered to student-centered approaches, integrating active learning techniques, and encouraging effective, customized approaches. This comprehensive strategy facilitated successful navigation of time zones and educational systems, fostering international collaboration in veterinary education.

Presenters: Jialu Fan, Natasha Hernandez, and Tina Jeon—College of Education and Human Development, Twin Cities; Subin Jang—School of Public Health, Twin Cities; Felix Ting—College of Pharmacy, Twin Cities

International graduate students face unique challenges and have specific needs on campus. The Council of International Graduate Students (CIGS) plays a vital role in advocating for these students and addressing their issues. CIGS supports international graduate students by gathering their concerns and ensuring their voices are heard. In fall 2023, CIGS collaborated with the Graduate School to facilitate a session featuring Dr. Yoji Shimizu, the co-chair of the Advisory Group for Faculty Behavior in Graduate Education. Dr. Shimizu presented updates about the work of the Advisory Group over the past academic year and collected valuable feedback from international graduate students. This session served as a platform for communication between international graduate students and the Advisory Group at the University of Minnesota. International graduate students contribute to the University with their diverse backgrounds. CIGS aims to create a safe space for them, fostering a sense of community. 

Presenters: Candice Bonrud and Lisa Novack—Carlson School of Management, Twin Cities

All Carlson School of Management undergraduate students complete an international experience and the course BA2021: Design Your Career as part of their degree. The Carlson Global Institute (CGI) and the Undergraduate Program partnered to create an international version of this course, IBUS2021: Design Your Career in a Global Context. The course focuses on self-awareness and career exploration, and teaches students the tactical pieces of an internship and job search. The course meets weekly in the spring semester on campus, with spring break travel together to London, UK, where students apply course concepts through participation in alumni-hosted company site visits, networking with Carlson alumni working abroad, cultural exploration, and more. This poster will outline the processes, successes, and challenges of identifying and engaging 25+ alumni in the UK to support this course.

Presenters: Laurel Hirt—Center for Community-Engaged Learning, Twin Cities; Julia Bach—College of Education and Human Development; Alia Bicbic, Latifa Rwali, Megan Reed, Julia Grote, Julia Goettl and Jena Mehl—College of Liberal Arts, Twin Cities; Sara Sweetman—College of Education and Human Development, Twin Cities

Community-engaged learning can be a powerful tool for student learning, fostering a change in a frame of reference (Mezirow, 1997) and new understanding in the ways change can be made (Donahue & Plaxton-Moore, 2018). Undergraduate students are engaged in a minimum of 30 hours of English teaching instruction or assistance as a core requirement for an introductory course in teaching English to multilingual learners of all ages. Students expanded their understanding of the role of the English language as an empowering and disempowering factor in their students’ lives. Multilingual UMN students were able to bring their insight and expertise to community engaged-learning and teaching. Some students served as teaching assistants at the Minnesota English Language Program (MELP) at the University of Minnesota, which offered a dual role as a teacher and a student and deepened their understanding of activities in English education and fostered a more personalized teaching approach by enriching undergraduate volunteers' connection to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul global community.

Presenters: Alex Hamel and Miriam Manna—Carlson School of Management, Twin Cities

This poster session will shed light on how the Carlson Global Institute highlights the diverse perspectives and voices of our past-participant outgoing business exchange students in our pre-departure orientation sessions. By delving beyond the traditional narratives, we intentionally select our panelists to provide diverse experiences and perspectives, and guide them to discuss their experience of cultural immersion through their academics, personal and professional growth and development, and social experiences. This poster session will focus on best practices for incorporating a past-participant panel through a DEI lens, the benefits and obstacles of incorporating past-participant voices, and how these diverse perspectives guide future exchange participants for success abroad. The poster presenters include an education abroad adviser and a past participant student panelist who studied on exchange at the Stockholm School of Economics.

Presenters: Chelsea Beyrand and Joanne Donnelly—School of Nursing, Twin Cities

Nurse anesthetists provide care in over 45 countries, yet exposure to global peers is not part of the curriculum for many nurse anesthesia programs. Training in global health has traditionally used modalities such as lectures and international field experience. Virtual global mentorship is an emerging concept in healthcare training as it transcends geographic boundaries and fosters reciprocal partnerships. Virtual peer mentorship offers an accessible and sustainable opportunity for student exposure to global diversity. For this project, nurse anesthesia trainees in the United States and Iceland participated in two virtual peer mentorship sessions. All students were in their final year of training. Twenty-five students participated in the pilot program (92% participation rate). Using a structured peer mentorship program, nurse anesthesia trainees explored similarities and differences in anesthesia practices and training in each country. Exposure to global peers during training can allow for a future supply of interculturally competent and engaged anesthetists.

Presenters: James Thomas Ford and Rachel Olson—Center for Learning Innovation, Rochester

Our poster showcases the application of the Internationalizing Teaching and Learning model of International, Intercultural, and Global Learning of Course Design to our interdisciplinary undergraduate course on the history of pandemics. HIST 3245: Empires, Epidemics, and the Environment investigates the impact of epidemic diseases on the social, cultural, and political landscapes of various world communities from the Black Death era to the present. A timely course designed prior to COVID-19, HIST 3245 focuses on the environment's role in epidemics and the consequences for public health throughout history. Informed by historical patterns of people, culture, microbes, geographic context, and the environment, students employ course concepts to forecast a plausible “next” pandemic originating from a global location. Incorporating IIG perspectives into the course content has enhanced the students’ ability to place their experience of COVID and their overall understanding of infectious diseases in a broader, global context.

Presenter: Jurana Aziz—College of Education and Human Development, Twin Cities

The poster session showcases the challenges faced by international graduate students and provides recommendations for promoting a campus culture based on empathy, resilience, and a sense of belonging. The data was collected through self-study using the methodology developed by LaBoesky in 2004. The researcher explores ways to address the challenges faced by international students at the University of Minnesota by fostering mutual respect between students, faculty, and peers. Recommendations are provided to address these challenges and to offer possible solutions to ensure a more equitable institution for future educators.

Presenters: Ariadna Mondragon, Viviana Londoño, and Laura Toro—College of Biological Sciences, Twin Cities

Our research group (The Powers Lab) has been studying the tropical dry forests in several countries around the world, co-creating knowledge with local communities. The 2020 lockdowns prevented us from visiting these communities for the first time. This urged us to find other ways to strengthen our connections with local and international communities. Collaborating with Market Science at the University of Minnesota, we produced a children's book featuring Pizotito, a young coati explorer who travels to diverse tropical dry forests worldwide, teaching kids about the biology, ecology, conservation, and restoration of this precious ecosystem. Translated into five languages, the book aims to bridge the gap between scientists, the general public, and local communities. The book also aims to inspire children, especially from marginalized areas, to envision themselves as future researchers, conservationists, and guardians of our planet. Our poster showcases the book as an innovative tool for internationalizing campus efforts and fostering global ecological engagement. 

Presenters: Mila Velimirovich and Bryan Birtcil—College of Veterinary Medicine, Center for Animal Health and Food Safety, Twin Cities

ProgRESSVet develops training programs designed to increase the capacity of Veterinary Services (VS) to prevent disease, enhance the strength and capabilities of the regulatory sector, and expand regional and international trade of animals and animal products around the world through an asynchronous e-learning model. The scope of VS work yields cohorts of public and private veterinary practitioners, regulatory officials, and industry professionals. Due to their responsibilities, many participants are unable to fully engage in synchronous online or traditional classroom learning. ProgRESSVet has provided a neutral and low-stakes platform for animal health and industry professionals to constructively exchange, discuss, and synthesize novel ideas and solutions related to transboundary animal disease control and associated regulatory challenges. This poster will share how ProgRESSVet has progressed and what we have learned along the way to continue the growth of this international education program.

Presenter: Teresa Henderson Vazquez—Center for Learning Innovation, Rochester

The United States is a multi-lingual, -ethnic, -racial, -religion, and -caste environment. For students used to generalized overviews of the Other, carefully guided analysis and reflection is key to nuanced understanding of our many international/ized communities. This poster explores how an introductory Spanish language sequence leverages the international within the national.

Presenters: Liz Hwang and additional project leaders—Global Programs and Strategy Alliance in partnership with the Office of Undergraduate Education

Undergraduate degree-seeking international students are assessed the Academic Enhancement Fee each spring and fall semester. The collected fees are used to enhance academic services for undergraduate international students and to focus on retention, academic success, timely graduation, and student satisfaction.

This poster session will highlight the six projects funded by the fee, which focus on the areas of academic advising/college support, transition support, major/career planning and development, as well as academic support resources. Each project works collaboratively with other campus units with the ultimate outcome of supporting student success. The poster presenters include Liz Hwang, ISSS, who is centrally supporting the process for these projects, along with a few other project leads who can provide specific details and insights into their work supporting international students.