The RPI community celebrated the kickoff of the Rensselaer Engineering Education Across Cultural Horizons program last week with several events, including a presidential colloquy examining the importance of international education, and the signing of a memorandum of understanding by President Shirley Ann Jackson and the rector of the Technical University of Denmark, Lars Pallesen.
The REACH program will offer students the opportunity to participate in structured study abroad programs, as well as other international experiences such as internships, exchange programs, and other overseas opportunities.
This program will be phased in over the next several years. In 2009, 25 percent of engineering majors will study at partner universities and, in return, an equal number of undergraduates from these partner universities will study abroad at RPI. The percentage of Rensselaer students going abroad will increase gradually through 2015, when REACH will be fully implemented and all engineering juniors will be expected to participate in an international experience.
Director of International Programs for the School of Engineering Lester Gerhardt said the Institute is in the process of forming new relationships and actively seeking out potential new REACH partner universities to ensure that students have a range of geographic and cultural options for study abroad destinations.
In addition to participating in a study abroad semester through the School of Engineering, other international experiences are also being investigated, which may include short-term research-intensive study abroad programs through Summer@Rensselaer, attending the floating university of Semester at Sea, working to improve the quality of life in disadvantaged communities with Engineers Without Borders International, volunteering in developing nations with the Peace Corps, or helping to spread environmental awareness with Engineers for a Sustainable World.
Jackson expects that the REACH program “will provide unprecedented opportunities for the Rensselaer community.”
Last Friday, Jackson moderated the colloquy regarding the Institute’s new program, which took place in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies auditorium. Pallesen, in addition to Vice President for the Institute for International Education Sabine O’Hara, Senior Advisor on Globalization to President Guaning Su at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore Lim Mong King, and Founder of SOSventures Investments Ltd. Sean O’Sullivan ’85, participated in the colloquy, which examined the need for students to partake in an experience abroad.
The colloquy began with the signing of the document between Jackson and Pallesen, which legally and symbolically formalized the partnership of RPI and DTU on the REACH program, and reinforced the dedication of both universities to providing all students with the opportunity to be global citizens with multicultural experiences. RPI will later sign similar documents with its other REACH partners.
DTU and Nanyang Technological University are the first universities to partner with Rensselaer for the REACH program. The three universities have a longstanding history of collaboration and cooperation, having participated for more than a decade in the Global Engineering Education Exchange program.
Following the signing ceremony, Jackson began the colloquy that examined issues including the importance of international education, the opportunities and challenges of multicultural education, and how to best inform current and prospective students about the importance of a meaningful international experience as part of their education.
O’Sullivan asked during the colloquy, “Why come to an engineering school if you’re not going to create products for the world? You won’t be able to compete unless you’re creating something which is the best in the world in the first place.”
Pallesen was a strong proponent of the REACH program, stating he was very glad the universities would be exchanging students. “[Students] should get into understanding that [those abroad] are raised differently; they think differently.” He continued that this is important to engineering students because, “Unlike in other fields, the more we learn, the less secure we should be on what the solution should be to a new problem. You have to be creative in our field.”
Dean of the School of Engineering Alan Cramb stated, “I am confident that this bold new program … will be long remembered as the opening page of a definitive new chapter in the history of Rensselaer, as well as in global engineering education.”
