Tag Archives: international

“The Changing Role of Central Banks”

Drake University will host a panel discussion on “The Changing Role of Central Banks,” sponsored by The Principal Financial Group and The Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship.

The free public event is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, in Sussman Theater, located in the lower level of the Olmsted Center.

Panelists will include Jim McCaughan, CEO of Principal Global Investors; Bob Baur, Chief Global Economist at PGI; Madelyn Antoncic, executive director of institutional investment solutions at PGI; and Sean Severe, assistant professor of economics in the Drake University College of Business and Public Administration.

Foreign language conversation hours

Do you want or need to keep up your foreign language fluency? Drake’s Department of World Languages and Cultures wants to help.

Spanish Conversation Hours
Spanish Conversation Hours are scheduled for Mondays, 2–3 p.m., and Thursdays, 12:30–1:30 p.m., in Meredith Hall, Room 228. All levels of Spanish speakers are welcome. The group supports participants with an opportunity to practice Spanish, and no long-term commitment is required to attend. A native speaker facilitates the conversation in Spanish in an informal setting.
For further information, contact Visiting Assistant Professor Inbal Mazar at inbal.mazar@drake.edu

Arabic Club
Arabic Club offers the opportunity for students, faculty, and administrators to practice speaking in Arabic on Wednesdays in Medbury Hall, Room 219 between 1:15 and 3:15 p.m. All levels of speakers are welcome. In addition to practicing speaking, the group explores history, geography, culture, and others topics of interest to the group. Drop-in attendance is welcome.
For further information, contact Adjunct Instructor Nahed Waly at nahed.waly@drake.edu

—Submitted by Drake International

Comparison Project examines the Cult of Santa Muerte

El Día de los Muertos—the Day of the Dead—is a lively holiday celebrated in Latin America in honor of the deceased. This year, Professor Eduardo González of Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Gudalajara, will discuss, “La Migración y el Culto a la Santa Muerte: Asirse a lo que Sea” (Migration and the Cult of Santa Muerte: Hanging onto Whatever). Professor González’s talk will take place Thursday, Oct. 29 starting at 7 p.m. in Sussman Theater.

This event is part of The Comparison Project. The “cult of Santa Muerte” (Saint Death) is the fastest growing and most prominent religious movement in Mexico today. Professor González’s lecture explores the worship of Santa Muerte in the city of Guadalajara, focusing both on the general ways in which the church of Santa Muerte offers “a place for everyone” and on the specific ways in which Santa Muerte serves the needs of migrants attempting the crossing to the United States.

Eduardo González Velázquez is a research professor at Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education. He won the Jalisco Journalism Award in 2009 and 2007 for reporting and writing, respectively. He has published 30 articles and book chapters, including “Ciudadanos a la Mitad.” His current area of research is U.S.-Mexico migration.

Further details can be found at the Comparison Project website.

—Submitted by Drake International

Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos)

Dia de los Muertos—The Day of the Dead—is a lively holiday celebrated in Latin America in honor of the deceased. This year, Professor Eduardo González of Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Guadalajara, will offer a talk entitled La Migración y el Culto a la Santa Muerte: Asirse a lo que Sea (“Migration and the Cult of Santa Muerte: Hanging onto Whatever”). Professor González’s talk will take place Thursday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m. in Sussman Theater.

This event is part of The Comparison Project. The “cult of Santa Muerte” (Saint Death) is the fastest growing and most prominent religious movement in Mexico today. Professor González’s lecture explores the worship of Santa Muerte in the city of Guadalajara, focusing both on the general ways in which the church of Santa Muerte offers “a place for everyone” and on the specific ways in which Santa Muerte serves the needs of migrants attempting the crossing to the United States.

Eduardo González Velázquez is a research professor at Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education. He won the Jalisco Journalism Award in 2009 and 2007 in the categories of reporting and writing respectively. He has published 30 articles and book chapters, including “Ciudadanos a la Mitad.” His current area of research is US–Mexico migration.

Further details can be found at https://comparisonproject.wp.drake.edu/next-event-102915-la-migracion-y-el-culto-a-la-santa-muerte-asirese-a-log-que-sea-migration-and-the-cult-of-santa-muerte-hanging-onto-whatever/

Announcing a new concentration at Drake

The Department of World Languages and Cultures is pleased to announce the approval of a Latin American Studies concentration. This multidisciplinary program offers students who have studied Spanish the opportunity to add a regional focus. The concentration provides a coherent framework for the study of Latin America and is designed to prepare students for leadership roles by increasing their specialized knowledge of the peoples, cultures, languages, and social systems of Latin America. It is also intended for heritage speakers of Spanish who wish to gain greater understanding of their identity, as well as for those who simply wish to acquire more knowledge about Latin America.

The Latin American Studies concentration requires 18 hours of coursework, 12 hours of which must be taken at Drake. No more than nine hours may be completed in any single discipline. Students in this concentration must complete at least one Spanish class at Drake above the SPAN 052-level (fourth semester) or one Portuguese class at another institution above the fourth semester.

Students can contact the Director of the Department of World Languages and Cultures, Marc Pinheiro-Cadd, at marc.pinheiro-cadd@drake.edu or for further details about program requirements please refer to www.drake.edu/wlc/

—Submitted by Drake International

Students: Interested in learning more about studying abroad?

Students who attended the annual Global Opportunities Expo may be ready for the next step in planning for a class or semester abroad. Whether you are interested in discovering more information about Drake’s administered programs abroad, direct exchange programs, or affiliate programs, you may wish to take some next steps:

  1. Speak with your advisor about your aspirations for studies internationally.
  2. Apply for a passport or check the expiration date of your current passport.
  3. Seek further insights from the Study Abroad webpage.
  4. Look for dates of upcoming informational meetings.
  5. Investigate funding for study abroad.

—Submitted by Drake International

How to propose a J-Term travel seminar

If you have not contacted Annique Kiel about your interest in leading a J-Term 2017 travel seminar, please do so ASAP at annique.kiel@drake.edu or by calling 271-3039.

Proposals for J-Term 2017 travel seminars must be submitted to the appropriate college/school curriculum committee by Nov. 6, 2015. Please contact Annique with questions on this process.

Repeat offerings:
If your travel seminar was approved under the new process last year (approved in fall 2014 or after), and there are no significant changes to the syllabus or itinerary, it does not need to be re-reviewed by the school/college curriculum committee. You still need to inform the school/college curriculum committee that you wish to offer the course again, so they can move it forward through their process. School/college curriculum committees need to approve it, even if they do not need to review it again.

New travel seminars:
Faculty/staff members proposing new travel seminars will need to provide curriculum committees with a draft syllabus and draft itinerary, plus a credit calculation worksheet, curricular evaluation, and routing forms, which can be found online.

Please also provide answers to the following questions:

A. Curricular evaluation:

  1. How does the course meet curricular requirements (major, minor, AOI, etc.)?
  2. How is course content and delivery enhanced by the international or domestic location?
  3.  How does the course propose to integrate students into the host culture?
  4. How do proposed excursions or site visits link to the learning objectives of the course?

B: Best Practice: (Please note answering no to these questions does not mean that your proposal will not be accepted. Rather, it helps the Drake International staff with the planning of your proposal should it be accepted by the appropriate curriculum committee.)

  1. How familiar is the lead instructor or co-leader with the proposed international location (e.g., professional connections, experience visiting/living/working there, language abilities, etc.)? If neither have prior experience, please note there is financial support available through Drake International for travel seminar scouting trips.
  2. Has the faculty member successfully taught the proposed course or a similar course at either Drake or through another academic institution?
  3. Is the proposed course being offered in collaboration with a university abroad? Does Drake currently have a formal relationship with that university? See list of current partner universities.
  4. Is service-learning included in the curriculum? If so, has an appropriate organizational partner been identified to facilitate service-learning activities on site? If you plan to incorporate service-learning in the travel seminar, please connect with Drake’s Office for Community Engagement and Service-Learning.

Final selection of J-Term offerings:
Should more than 15 J-Term 2017 travel seminars be proposed, a subcommittee of the Global/International Policy and Academic Council (GIPAC) will decide which seminars that have been approved by the appropriate curriculum committee will go forward this year. The criteria used to make these decisions will be:

  • Geographical distribution
  • School/college distribution
  • Whether or not the course is offered in collaboration with one of Drake’s international strategic partners
  • Distribution between new and repeat offerings
  • Whether the course emphasizes community engagement/service-learning
  • The degree to which the program integrates the site’s location/culture
  • Input from the appropriate department chair and/or dean.

Compensation:
Compensation for a three-week travel seminar (defined as at least 14 days of travel) will be $6,800 for the instructor, $1,500 for the co-leader. (Per HR policy, compensation is lower for Drake staff members that are instructors or co-leaders on travel seminars.) If the course has co-instructors (two people both responsible for the academic component of the course—assignments, grading, etc.), the co-instructors will each receive $4,150. Should the travel seminar involve less than 14 days of travel or less than 3 credits of work (as indicated by the Credit Calculation worksheet), compensation would be reduced. We can clarify the exact amount based on the specifics of the travel seminar in question. Finally, note that for a 3-credit travel seminar, an instructor or co-instructor (though not a co-leader) in a J-Term travel seminar, can, with permission of the department and the appropriate dean, replace monetary compensation with a course reassignment.

—Submitted by Drake International

Grants available for advancing international strategic partnerships

Faculty and staff are encouraged to work with their academic unit and Drake International to develop collaborative activities that align with the unit’s mission and goals and advance Drake’s existing partnerships. Grants to support these endeavors are available for awards commencing July 1, 2016.

Each faculty or staff member interested must complete the International Partnership Planning Proposal FY16 and the FY16 International Partnership Planning Budget and submit them to your dean no later than Nov. 13, which can be found here.

Preference will be given to proposals that align well with the stated goals of the unit.

Additional information is available at www.drake.edu/internationalcenter/exchanges/partners/

—Submitted by Drake International

Global Health Consortium Conference, Oct. 14

The seventh annual Heartland Global Health Consortium Conference, “Educating for Sustainable Global Health,” will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, in Parents Hall of Drake’s Olmsted Center. The event is free for students, faculty, and staff. Registration is required and includes lunch.

The conference will include panels on the following topics:

  • Service learning from the community partner perspective
  • Food insecurity, waste, and “Next Course,” the food recovery program at Drake
  • Social determinants of health
  • Development in a global context: summer internships in Mysore, India
  • A partnership model for service-learning based on authentic, holistic community dialogue
  • Service learning, “voluntourism,” and ensuring that communities benefit as much as students
  • EMBARC and educational aspects of its work
  • Medication use on medical mission trips

Learn more and find a link to register here.

Encourage students to apply for global learning scholarships

The application for Global Learning Scholarships is due by this Thursday, Oct. 15. We expect students may be asking advisers more questions about this following the Global Opportunities Expo held this past Thursday.

Please encourage student applications among your advisees who are interested in studying abroad, participating in global service-learning, or experiential learning abroad. Priority will be given to students studying abroad in 2016. These are need-based scholarships.

The following is a summary of eligibility requirements:

  1. Applicants must be admitted, currently enrolled, degree-seeking Drake students.
  2. Applicants must apply for a scholarship before the term they intend to use it.
  3. Only complete applications will be reviewed.
  4. Students from all majors, including undergraduate, graduate, and law students, are eligible.
  5.  Applicants must have a college GPA of at least 2.5 at the time of application.
  6. Priority is given to students who have financial need.
  7. Scholarships are for existing Drake-affiliated, exchange, or faculty-led programs.
  8. Students who have not previously received a global learning scholarship may be given priority.
  9. A disciplinary check will be done and may affect an applicant’s eligibility to receive this scholarship.
  10. Applicants are able to apply for scholarships up to a year in advance.

Complete eligibility requirements, expectations and the application are available here. 

Direct your questions to Maria Rohach, Global Learning Program Coordinator, at maria.rohach@drake.edu.

—Submitted by Drake International