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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 10/1/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
November 24, 2003 Bringing the world back home Visiting scholar program brings international experts to St. Norbert, UWGB By Monique Balas St. Norbert President William Hynes and UWGB Chancellor Bruce Shepard
signed an agreement Thursday to launch a joint St. Norbert College-UWGB
International Visiting Scholars program. It will enable visiting professors
from developing countries who often don't have much financial support
to bring their knowledge to the two Green Bay campuses.
"I always think about our responsibility to help bring Green Bay to
the world and to help bring the world to Green Bay," Shepard said. "Our
higher education institutions have a role to play there."
It's helped people like Egon Krak, vice dean of the Advanced School
of Music and Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia, whose visit was
the first to be supported by the new program.
The benefits of such a program are clear to Ben Paul Gutierrez, a Philippine
marketing expert who has been able to share his culture with students
through St. Norbert's Philippine Studies Program.
He has enjoyed his experiences "being exposed to the American system
of education and also to have some sort of comparison between students
in America and students in my country," he said.
St. Norbert and UWGB each will contribute $2,000 through 2005, and the
Greater Green Bay Community Foundation has offered a $1,000 grant to help
the program get started.
"Not since the historic building of bridges between Green Bay's east
and west sides have we seen such a commitment to building bridges today,"
said Ken Strmiska, president and CEO of the foundation. "These two organizations
have made a great history and tradition to create something bigger than
themselves."
Costs will go toward airfare, road trips, ground costs, living expenses
and other costs incurred while the professors are staying in the area,
Hynes said.
One of the program's goals, he said, is to bring a group of Pakistani
superintendents to learn about the United States' education system.
The program grew out of the Asian Visiting Scholars Program at UWGB
founded in 1998 by Robert Wenger and Jack Day, both professors emeritus
at UWGB, and their wives.
Putting their own money into the program, Day and Wenger found that
the scholars were a benefit both on- and off-campus; they gave lectures
in the community, visited elementary schools and worked with business
leaders.
The two wanted to enhance their new program and incorporate the strong
international focus offered at St. Norbert.
Hynes is hoping the program will be a boon to area business leaders.
"It's a very hot topic in the Green Bay business community to talk about
international business strategies, international marketing strategies,
buying and selling internationally," he said.
The benefits of international education are not lost on Marion Cretel,
a French student spending the semester at St. Norbert.
"I think it's crucial for universities," she said of the new program.
Having students and faculty members exposed to people from other cultures
is a valuable way to build peace.
"We can't really make a better world, but we can begin with tolerance,"
Cretel said.
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