Five Colleges to Receive 2008 Simon Award for Exemplary Internationalization Efforts
WASHINGTON, February 27, 2008 - NAFSA: Association of International Educators is proud to announce this year's recipients of the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization. Goucher College, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Pittsburg State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Valparaiso University will be featured in the NAFSA report Internationalizing the Campus 2008: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities, to be published this fall. The awardees will also be recognized at the NAFSA annual conference in Washington, DC.
Named for the late Senator Paul Simon, (D-Ill.), the award recognizes outstanding and innovative efforts in campus internationalization. Sen. Simon was a strong supporter of international education throughout his life, advocating for exchanges through his position on various Senate committees. His leadership in this area was especially evident in his robust support for the creation of the National Security Education Program, which addresses critical national security deficiencies in language and cultural expertise, and in his vision of a national program to greatly expand Americans' knowledge of the world, which was the inspiration behind the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act currently pending in Congress.
NAFSA's annual Internationalizing the Campus report recognizes institutions that are leaders in the growing effort across higher education to better prepare students for a global economy and an interconnected world. Three additional schools have been selected for program or area spotlights in this year's report. They are Miami Dade College, Colorado State University, and Webster University.
The NAFSA selection jury included Brian Whalen (Dickinson College and the Forum on Education Abroad), David Larsen (Arcadia University), Ronald Roberson (Howard Community College), Susan Buck Sutton (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis), and Chunsheng Zhang (University of Oregon).
