Seven universities in the US have been recognised by NAFSA’s annual Simon Awards this month, which honour achievements in campus internationalisation.
The College of William & Mary in Virginia, New York Institute of Technology, the University of Massachusetts in Boston and the University of Tampa in Florida, were the recipients of the Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization.
“This year’s winners exemplify a diversity of unique and shared approaches available to higher education institutions”
This award is presented to colleges and universities which integrate international education across all aspects of their campuses.
“Receiving the Simon Award this year is a testament to the hard work and commitment to internationalisation of so many faculty, students, and staff across William & Mary,” said Stephen Hanson, director of the university’s Reves Center for International Studies.
President of New York Institute of Technology, Edward Guiliano, said: “Part of what attracts faculty and students to NYIT is that we are a global university. In fact, more than 10,000 of our alumni live outside the United States.”
Named after the late Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, who championed foreign language learning and international education, the awards, split into two categories, recognise success and progress towards internationalisation on US campuses.
The second category, the Spotlight Award, recognises a specific international programme or initiative which contributes to the overall internationalisation on campus.
Spotlight Award recipients were East Carolina University with its Global Academic Initiatives programme, Texas Tech University for its K-12 Global Education Outreach, and the Galapagos Science Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Jami Leibowitz, interim Global Academic Initiatives director at ECU, said being an award recipient was a “huge honour”.
“Over the years I have looked to the previous Simon Award winners as a source of inspiration and ideas,” she said.
The GAI programme partners with 62 institutions in 33 countries to provide students with a global experience, primarily through video connection calls with students in other countries.
The seven winners will be featured in NAFSA’s report, Internationalizing the Campus: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities, set to be published this autumn.
“This year’s winners exemplify a diversity of unique and shared approaches available to higher education institutions,” said Marlene Johnson, CEO and executive director of NAFSA.
“The 2016 Simon Award institutions prepare our students for success in the thoroughly interconnected environment in which global learning is becoming a prerequisite to success, both in the classroom and beyond.”
