By Keith Gerald Davis III
Global Faculty Funding Opportunities
Global Programs is proud to once again sponsor global research and engagement opportunities for Boston University faculty members.
Global Programs / Boston University Foundation-India (BUFI) Seed Fund
The Global Programs / Boston University Foundation-India (BUFI) Seed Fund is designed to seed new or support existing collaborative research projects in India conducted by BU faculty and their peers in India. The research project may be in any discipline but must directly benefit India. Foreign travel is allowed on this award, enabling face-to-face meetings, which aims to benefit collaboration and outcomes of the research project between BU faculty and their research partners in India.
The 2020 Request for Proposals for one seed fund of $30,000 will open on January 22, 2020. The award will be divided equally between the BU principal investigator (PI) and the PI from an Indian Institution.
The deadline to submit is March 4, 2020 by 5 PM EST. All full-time Boston University faculty are eligible to apply. Indian PIs must be Indian citizens and currently employed full-time at any Indian University Grants Commission-recognized institution. Finalists will be announced April 1, 2020.
Past recipients of the Global Programs / BUFI Seed Fund include:
- Natasha Hochberg, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, BUSM, and Department of Epidemiology, BU School of Public Health, for her 2019 research proposal titled “Scaling up Nutritional Interventions to Stop Tuberculosis in India.” Dr. Hochberg’s study aims to determine optimal implementation strategies for nutritional interventions as part of the effort to combat tuberculosis in India. Dr.Hochberg is working with a multidisciplinary team of BU co-investigators: Dr. Nalin Kulatilaka, Wing Tat Lee Family Professor in Management, Finance Professor, and Co-Director of the Susilo Institute for Ethics in the Global Economy, and Dr. Lindsey Locks, Assistant Professor, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. The BU team is also collaborating with an India PI on this study, Dr. Subitha Lakshminarayanan, MBBS, MD, and Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry, India.
- David Henderson, Chair of Psychiatry at BU School of Medicine, won the seed fund in 2018 for his research proposal titled “Capacity-building in Mental Health Research on Serious Mental Illness in Tamil Nadu, India and Boston, MA.” Dr. Henderson worked with Dr. Vandana Gopikumarof the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) School of Social Work in India on this project.
Global Programs seeks to advance Boston University’s global strategy and serve as a champion for global initiatives at home in Boston and abroad. BUFI is a separate not-for-profit entity in India, created to promote charitable activities in India, including research and education that directly benefit India and its people.
BU Faculty Exchange Program in Padua, Italy
Another upcoming opportunity for faculty members is the BU Faculty Exchange Program in Padua, Italy. The Boston University-Università degli Studi di Padova Faculty Exchange Program is part of a 25-year-old collaboration between the two universities. Through this program, up to three BU faculty members may participate per year in a one-to-one exchange with Italian faculty.
The length of the program is generally two-to-four weeks at the Università during May–July, when the Università is still in session, though other dates may be arranged. Italian language skills are not required.
Applications for this exchange program are due Feb. 14, 2020, with final selection notifications sent in early March. For more information about the program, please visit the Global Programs site here.
If you have questions about submitting a Global Programs / BUFI Proposal for 2020 or an application for the Padua Faculty Exchange, please contact Deepti Nijhawan, Director of Special Projects for BU Global Programs at deeptin@bu.edu.
Sharks, STEM & Sydney
Hands-On STEM Teaching & A Unique Career Path at BU Sydney
Sharks continue to make headlines for attacking humans. The probability of an attack remains very low: in fact, you are twice as likely to win the lottery as be attacked by a shark. The statistics say it’s much more dangerous to do certain every-day things, like drive a car. But Julianna Kadar, a BU Sydney alumna, researcher, and BU Sydney course instructor recognizes that people still fear the danger – and she studies shark behavior to track activity patterns. Gaining a better understanding of why sharks behave the way they do can help researchers like Julianna gain insight into how to avoid negative interactions.
“A lot of the work we do today is around changing misperceptions of sharks,” Kadar says. “You’ll hear about large sharks, like Great Whites or Tiger sharks, attacking people, but there are hundreds of species of sharks. In fact, most of them are smaller in size, hang out on the ocean floor, and pose absolutely no risk to humans. They also perform functions that are incredibly important to the environment.”
She also studies the impact of sharks on the environment and across her years of study has seen how climate change may be playing a role in how sharks are affecting their surrounding ecosystems. Kadar focuses on Port Jackson sharks that are common across Australia’s harbors and bays. Utilizing sophisticated technology, such as accelerometers, which function like Fitbits for sharks, she gathers fine-scale movement data. Then, Kadar and her team use machine-learning algorithms to distill the massive sets of data and build a picture of shark behaviors and movements in the ocean.
Kadar first fell in love with Sydney and Australia’s biodiversity while studying abroad with BU during her junior year abroad. She studied both literature and biology and completed an internship in science communication with COSMOS Science Magazine. She recalls how the location and the experience drew her in and fostered her interest in marine science. Since studying abroad, she has graduated from BU, lived in Hungary for a year, and returned to Sydney, completing a Master of Science in Biodiversity Conservation and a Master of Research from Macquarie University. Kadar now teaches in BU Sydney’s Engineering Program and works toward completing her Ph.D. at Macquarie University.
For BU Sydney, Kadar serves as a lecturer for the STEM in Australian Culture and Society course (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), teaching students about the intersection of research, policy, and STEM culture in Australia.
“We cover the cultural differences that exist between America and Australia as well as current STEM initiatives happening here in Australia,” Kadar says. “We look at the effects of political decisions like budget cuts to publicly funded science and research, and as the STEM approach dictates; problem-solving and critical thinking is built into everything we do.”
The course helps show how innovations in STEM have positively influenced so many aspects of human life and how things like government policy and funding impact the scientific community’s ability to do this important work.
Kadar also takes students to Canberra, Australia’s capital city, where they visit Mount Stromlo Observatory. On the last visit, students saw a satellite shortly before launch. In Canberra, they also visit the country’s largest science museum, which is home to hundreds of hands-on exhibits and activities.
“It’s important to know when you are working in the STEM fields that you may not just work in a lab every day,” Kadar says. “Today, more scientists are expected to be working across different fields, shaping policy and be visible on platforms like social media. This experience helps students gain a wider view of what being an engineer can encompass.”
Students take most of their classes and labs at the University of Sydney, Australia's first university and one of the world's leading universities.
“Being put in a different university and culture, you have to adapt to and make connections with local laboratories, for example” Kadar says. “Some students do an internship in a lab and take part in cutting-edge research. One student interned in a nanotechnology lab, and she was included as an author on a published paper as a result of their research.”
Learning from professionals who are different from you culturally can be incredibly enriching and rewarding – and it can help students stand out with potential employers.
STEM jobs continue to grow faster than any other U.S. sector, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Available jobs in the field are projected to increase 17 percent by 2024, while non-STEM employment is projected to grow just 12 percent. In Australia, similar growth rates are reported by the Bureau of Statistics with STEM occupations growing by 11 percent and non-STEM jobs growing by only 6 percent over the same time. As the interest in STEMM careers continues to grow, so too does work being done to improve the imbalances in racial, ethnic, and gender representation across scientific fields.
“This is a critical point, and it’s becoming a part of the daily rhetoric,” Kadar says. “For example, we’re seeing individuals take action in Australia like male professors and CEOs turning down panel opportunities if females aren’t also represented.”
One organization that’s working to foster inclusivity in STEM, and with which Kadar is affiliated, is called Homeward Bound. It is building a network of 1,000 women in STEM over ten years and pushing forward agendas like diversity in STEM. The prestigious organization hosts monthly workshops and leadership training opportunities. Kadar was selected to be one of 80 awardees this year from hundreds of applicants. She is taking part in the year-long program that will culminate in a voyage to Antarctica to see the effects of climate change first-hand.
“I’m incredibly excited to meet a group of leading women in science who are all working to change policy, drive research, and initiate conversations regarding environmental health, climate action, and diversity in the STEM fields,” Kadar says. “Traveling to Antarctica will give us a chance to see an area of the world that has experienced some of the greatest warming on earth.”
The lessons Homeward Bound offers on collaboration, hands-on learning, and creative problem-solving are central to STEM culture in Australia and abroad. Kadar looks forward to integrating these lessons into her classes at BU Sydney.
“Julianna’s teaching is a fusion of her undergraduate academic background in writing and journalism and her post-graduate work in science, along with her Ph.D. work in the biological sciences,” says Mark Connellan, Director of BU Sydney. “Putting these things together makes her a valuable communicator and teacher. I love that she can bring together the social aspects of STEM alongside the scientific aspects.”
Students explore how STEM initiatives work and how this is communicated to the wider Australian society, encouraging them to think beyond the lab so that by the end of the course, they know how to advocate for the work they’re doing in STEM.
“Julianna has been great about reaching out to students across disciplines within STEM,” Connellan says. “She engages students and shows them the greater social purpose of their studies and future careers.”
A Look Back at International Education Week 2019
Global Programs was thrilled to facilitate International Education Week (IEW) 2019 at Boston University for the eighth consecutive year. IEW is a joint initiative of the U.S. Departments of State and of Education, seeking to highlight the importance of international education. From November 18 - 22, more than 45 BU offices, student groups, schools, and colleges hosted nearly 40 events across the University’s campuses – including at many BU study abroad sites – to celebrate the University’s global identity and the exchange of ideas, customs, and cultures.
“We are proud to play a lead role in International Education Week for Boston University,” said Willis G. Wang, Vice President and Associate Provost for Global Programs. “This week shines a spotlight on – and is a terrific example of – the important and exciting work being done to create unique opportunities for global engagement at BU.”
This year, Global Programs’ marquee IEW panel event featured multi-disciplinary experts in environmental history, nutrition, global health, food and water, agricultural history, and geology to discuss the future of food and its global impact. More than 100 students, faculty, and staff attended the event to explore how we can more sustainably feed the world’s growing population in the face of climate change and the evolving geo-political landscape.
The panel discussion featured Dr. Sarah Phillips (CAS) Associate Professor of History; Dr. Lindsey Locks (SPH & SAR) Assistant Professor in Health Science and Global Health; Dr. Benjamin Siegel (CAS) Assistant Professor of History; Dr. Magaly Koch (CAS) Geologist and Research Associate Professor; Dr. Richard Samuel Deese (Pardee & CGS) Senior Lecturer and Faculty Research Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future; and Michael Leviton (MET) Chef, Instructor, and Co-founder of Craigie Burger.
Global Programs also hosted a global film series and faculty-led discussions after each showing. The series featured five different films from five different parts of the world: South Korean film “The Host;” Finish film “The Man Without a Past;” Iranian film “The Color of Paradise;” U.S. documentary “Clínica de Migrantes;” and Chinese film “Su Zhou He” (Suzhou River).
Across the University, offices hosted receptions, lectures, open houses, and more to foster the exchange of ideas and make cultural connections. Metropolitan College (MET) celebrated IEW with a free Thanksgiving Dinner for students. MET also partnered with the Center for English Language & Orientation Programs (CELOP) to host a global cooking demonstration and discussion. Their standing-room-only event featured student teams who presented on food from their home country and culture, with a live cooking demonstration and tasting opportunities for the audience.
A Latin America “Lightning Talk” event presented by Global Programs highlighted the work of students and faculty across BU who have participated in short-term global service learning, education, and research projects in Latin America. Faculty and students talked about their work in short presentations and shared how they are making an impact in Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and at the Mexican border.
Student Groups also hosted and attended events. BU’s Latinx dance team and Sabor Latino hosted “Por La Cultura / For the Culture” to unite diverse clubs through tabling and cultural group performances. Boston University Study Abroad was proud to sponsor the event.
At BU Madrid, students took part in Paella Night, an event that brought together Madrid students to reflect upon their experience abroad through meaningful pictures presented to the group. This year, alumni also participated in the event, as students spoke about their host families, friends, classes, trips around Spain, and the experiences they shared. Faculty and staff also joined the discussion, and everyone enjoyed paella. The below image was shared by Ryan Lane, who said the week that his family visited felt gratifying and eye opening. He was able to confidently show them around Madrid and Spain, and he realized how comfortable he had gotten over the semester and how much Madrid felt like a second home to him.
In Boston, many BU Study Abroad sites hosted events to bring together study abroad alumni and students who are interested in learning more about study abroad opportunities.
If you are interested in learning more about IEW 2019 or would like to discuss ideas for next year’s IEW, please contact us at global@bu.edu. Please consider sharing your IEW photos either on Instagram with the hashtag #BUIEW19 or with us directly.
Four Study Abroad Programs in Four Years? Pardee Grad Sabrina Knap Says Absolutely
Pardee Student Selected BU for its Robust Study Abroad Offerings
Sabrina Knap (CAS ’19) started learning her third language when she just 12 years old. More
A Questrom Grad’s Path to Working for a Chinese Electronic Scooter Company
George Stern’s Shanghai Internship Leads to Full-time Job Offer with Fast-growing Chinese Tech Startup
George Stern (QST & CAS ’18) says his decision about where to launch his career post-graduation ultimately came down to two cities: Greater Philadelphia, PA or Beijing, China. More
Great BU Turnout for Summer Career Fairs in China
Once again BU participated in the (American Universities’ China Association) AUCA CAREER FAIRs this summer in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing. Boston University was one of the founding sponsors of the career fairs three years ago, and this year the fairs brought students and recent alumni from 20 American universities together to meet representatives from 145 companies from a wide variety of industries offering over 4,000 internship and full-time employment opportunities. Leading multinational companies like Amazon, Bloomberg, Dell, KPMG and Unilever were there along with top Chinese firms like Alibaba, BOE, ByteDance and CreditEase, to name just a few of the participating companies.
Boston University had the second highest attendance among the 20 participating schools after USC with 211 graduate, undergraduate and recent grads attending.
If you are aware of local career fairs in other countries that would be of interest to our diverse student and recent alumni population, please let Global Programs know at global@bu.edu. We would be happy to help promote the events.
Global Programs Tapped by U.S. State Department to Deliver Online Course for UN Peacekeeping Operations in Nepal
During the 2019 spring and summer semesters, Boston University Global Programs received a grant of $30,000 to work with the U.S. Department of State and key members of the Nepal Army to create and launch a first-of-its-kind fully online English course to support international peacekeeping. The course – English for Peacekeeping Operations – was developed to improve the English reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills of Nepal’s security forces as they prepare for deployment on UN missions. Developing these skills allows the participants to better communicate in English with their counterparts from other countries and write reports about their work.
An official of the U.S. State Department recognized the need for such an online course when he arrived in Nepal and spoke with the security forces there. They expressed a need for English language training because the UN uses English as the common language. Also, Nepal’s security forces are often expected to work with security forces from other countries to investigate crimes, conduct interviews, patrol areas, and work with civilians and governments to resolve issues. Because communication is at the heart of cooperation and instrumental to successful engagement in the field, effective English language skills are critical to preserving peace and security in conflict zones.
In addition to helping improve English language skills, the course aims to bridge cultural divisions among soldiers and includes cultural considerations, such as common and courteous ways to greet or approach people. Even seemingly mundane linguistic missteps can sometimes result in unnecessary conflict or misunderstandings, making both intercultural skills and solid English language skills critical.
The U.S. State Department selected BU’s Global Programs for this work, appreciating BU’s global identity and the expertise that Global Programs brings to international projects and initiatives. The project was led by Martina Mazaheri, Managing Director of CELOP, and Marisa Crowley, Global Programs Chief of Staff and Special Advisor to the VP/AP, working with two CELOP faculty, Dr. Carol Pineiro and Stephanie Ngom, CELOP Educational Technologist Mitchell Wolf, and Global Support staff. Faculty and staff from the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and the ROTC, along with consultants at the Department of Defense, provided invaluable insights on the content of the course modules, which included Health & Sanitation, Patrols, Transportation & Logistics, and Incident Response. Each module of the course is multi-modal, including both print and online materials, to ensure access in remote training centers globally. The online component of the course includes 25 animated videos created in close collaboration with DL&I, which engage course participants in essential reading, listening, and speaking skills, as well as introducing and reinforcing key vocabulary for each module. The course content is available as an open educational resource, and all the videos can be found online.
The course ran as a pilot program with 25 participants in Nepal from June 20 to July 22, 2019. Results from the pilot indicate that the course was successful in meeting its goals to improve participants’ ability to use English effectively in a peacekeeping context, and the participants’ and government officials’ responses have been extremely positive. The consensus among the various stakeholders, including the Nepali Army and Peacekeepers, is that the course is engaging, student-centric, and extremely relevant for the intended audience. Based on this success, discussions are in progress to globalize the course, making it available for all peacekeeping training around the world, and expanding its use to police and other military audiences beyond the UN Peacekeepers in the future.
The work of UN Peacekeepers is complex and advances multi-dimensional mandates. According to the UN website, “UN peacekeeping helps countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace.” The UN offers unique strengths, including “legitimacy, burden sharing, and an ability to deploy troops and police from around the world, integrating them with civilian peacekeepers to address a range of mandates set by the UN Security Council and General Assembly.”
Welcome
Welcome to the newly reimagined Global Programs quarterly newsletter: Global Matters. In each issue, you will discover some of the myriad ways in which Boston University fulfills its identity as a leading global research university. Global Programs helps lead, coordinate, and support the University’s many global endeavors, and this newsletter will give you a window into education, research, and service-learning activities and initiatives that define the global BU experience. You may find study abroad profiles, international research highlights, student and faculty testimonials, data about Terriers abroad, and upcoming events and deadlines – a sample of the many initiatives led or supported by Global Programs and many others on the Charles River, Medical, and Fenway campuses that define BU’s dynamic global impact. We hope you enjoy the new format. If you have any questions, suggestions, or stories to share, please be sure to let us know at global@bu.edu.
Sincerely,
Willis G. Wang
Vice President and Associate Provost for Global Programs
Exploring Maternal and Child Health in Africa as an Undergraduate
Carolyn Hoffman’s BU Study Abroad Experience Fosters Passion for Research, Global Citizenship
Launching a research study as an undergrad can be a daunting endeavor, especially when that study is international in scope and revolves around the effects of a rebel group in power. More
BU’s International Peer Mentor Program Welcomes Mentors & Mentees for Academic Year 2019-2020
With the start of the new academic year, Global Programs is thrilled to welcome new incoming international students as well as new and returning mentors to the International Peer Mentor (IPM) Program. The IPM program – originally conceived by the Office of Orientation – “is designed to provide facilitated reflection and affinity group support for new international students, to help make sense of what they are observing and encountering in the U.S. and how they may differ from where they grew up,” according to Amanda Miller, Managing Director, Strategy and Communications, who oversees the IPMs within Global Programs.
Being an international peer mentor provides current Boston University students the opportunity to serve as part of a large support system for new international students. International peer mentors help incoming international students with their transition to living in the U.S. and being a student at BU. From answering questions, to lending a supportive ear, mentors volunteer their time to help create an inclusive community at BU.
This year we also introduced the International Peer Mentor Leader Program, through which nine former international peer mentors were selected to provide leadership and support to this year’s cohort of 124 peer mentors.
Dinithi Samarasekera (ENG ’20)
“As an international student, leaving home can be scary for a lot of people because you are leaving your culture, language, and family behind,” said International Peer Mentor Leader Dinithi Samarasekera (ENG ’20). “You’re also becoming an adult, and it can be intimidating. Having someone who you can talk to and someone who’s gone through that process is really important.”
Dinithi served as an IPM and now acts as a student leader for the program. She helps mentors if they have questions or want guidance in supporting their mentees. Dinithi also went through the program as a mentee when she was coming to BU for the first time from Singapore.
“It’s great to know that you have a support system, and the IPM program connects students to it before they even arrive in Boston,” Samarasekera said.
In addition to developing personal connections to their mentees, mentors also introduce them to resources for international students across the University, such as the Compass and First Class.
The Compass is a full suite of resources to support BU’s international community. Academic, community, housing, and career-related resources and information can be found on the Compass.
First Class is an online noncredit pre-arrival course designed to prepare incoming international students for the transition to BU and the American classroom. It is delivered on the edX platform Edge and is comprised of short videos, polls, and self-checks designed to be completed from anywhere on any device.
“It [First Class] taught me how to prepare myself for academics and social life – and vocabulary that can be really helpful, like syllabus…what it’s for and how to use it,” said Ariane Vigna (COM ‘22). “It was also helpful because it directed us to resources on campus, and it helped me transition to BU.”
These resources, in conjunction with the IPM program, aim to support students in their first year at BU and deepen connections between students from many different backgrounds and lived experiences. It also gives students who act as mentors the opportunity to grow their abilities and skills.
“It’s taught me a lot about self-confidence,” Samarasekera said. “At first, I doubted whether I could mentor people because I felt like I had just gotten here myself. I gained a lot of confidence as a mentor because I realized everything that I could share, having gone through the process of coming to BU and becoming involved in campus life.”
The IPM program also collaborates with offices across BU who regularly engage with international students, including, among many others, Residence Life, Orientation, the BU Hub, CAS Student Programs & Leadership, and the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, for both mentor trainings and best practices for supporting students.
Global Feature
Global Feature
Global Feature
