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��Ʒ���˸������� students from all majors can study abroad in more than 50 countries on five continents. They take advantage of short-term programs like this year’s faculty-led winter session trip to Vietnam. This spring break, 100 students are joining embedded programs to Croatia, Austria, London, Rome and Stockholm that are part of six semester-long courses on everything from Global Entrepreneurship to a Dance Practicum. Each year, hundreds of other students opt to study for a year, semester or summer at affiliated universities the world over.

Committed to connecting students, faculty and staff to a world of international opportunities, the University’s awards competitive grants to faculty twice a year. According to Domenica Dominguez, interim director of the University’s Global Education Center, the grants support faculty efforts that internationalize the University through collaborations, teaching exchanges and the development of new international partnerships, programs and initiatives.

“The Global Education Grants underscore the University’s commitment to internationalizing the campus and to ensuring that our students develop global competencies,” says Dominguez. “It is critical that we continue to support our faculty this way, as our sustainable international partnerships and programs often derive from faculty initiatives.”

Art and Design Professor Livia Alexander received one of 10 fall 2016 Global Education Grants. Her award will fund an exploratory spring trip to Norway, where she will meet with her counterparts at ��Ʒ���˸������� partner institution, Norway’s , to research and develop an exchange program that she hopes will expand opportunities for Art and Design majors. “Norway is a leading center of design today,” Alexander says. “It is one of the best places in the world to study design.” Additionally, she notes that the University of Agder offers the advantage of a range of classes taught in English.

Marketing professors Shintaro Sato, Jie Gao and Yawei Wang were awarded a grant to explore and establish a Sports, Events and Tourism Marketing partnership program with Kokugakuin University in Tokyo, Japan, in advance of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

While Sato will be a guest lecturer at Kokugakuin University in June, he and his colleagues have already begun brainstorming ideas for research collaborations. “Towards 2020, we would like to further develop a mutually beneficial relationship with Kokugakuin University to obtain internship opportunities in Tokyo for our students,” he says.

Other students will be able to attend an international film festival in Camaguey, Cuba, in April with Communication and Media professors Beverly Peterson and Roberta Friedman, who received a grant to subsidize their travel expenses. Since 2015, the University has fostered a vibrant exchange program with filmmakers in Cuba, which will be strengthened by the forthcoming trip.

“One of our strengths is the breadth of opportunities,” says Dominguez. “If you are a ��Ʒ���˸������� student and want to study abroad, we will do everything possible to work with you to make it happen. No one should feel that study abroad is not for them. It is for everyone.”

��Ʒ���˸������� recently joined the Generation Study Abroad international initiative, with a pledge to double the number of students studying abroad by 2020. Dominguez notes that students have access to that can help transform a student’s dream of going global into a reality.