Dieter Wanner
Associate Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs
Office of International Affairs

"Incorporating international components into the curriculum of our students is critical to their education and their future. It is essential that students understand the economies and cultures of those who live in other parts of the world as a way to become better global citizens. By learning another language, studying abroad, investing themselves in an international education, students will become empowered to connect their own experiences with global conditions."

Daniel Sedmak
Executive Vice Dean, College of Medicine
Director, Health Sciences Center for Global Health
and Office of Global Health Education

“The need for global health experts is greater than ever and OSU as a globally-involved public university takes seriously its obligation and privilege to train students in this critically important field.”

Daniel Sedmak, MD, is the director of The Health Sciences Center for Global Health (HSGCH) and the Office of Global Health Education (OGHE) at Ohio State. The HSCGH, which focuses on developing countries, is a Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health whose mission is to excite students about careers in global health and to create global opportunities for them in research and education. The OGHE provides medical students at Ohio State with the opportunity to learn about global health issues through didactic, self-study and participatory learning. Creating formal affiliation agreements with medical centers around the world provides opportunities for students to have rich international experiences they can use to improve patient care throughout their professional lives.

Gregory Jusdanis
Professor, Director Modern Greek Program
Department of Greek and Latin

"I think it is important for faculty members and students to get involved in international education because it provides both students and professors with a sense of how people from around the world live and think. In this way, they can both learn about other ways of life and also get to know something about themselves. Central to this is the comparison students make between their own way of life and that of other people around them."

Gregory Jusdanis currently takes a group of honors students, who take the Culture of Contemporary Greece course he teaches every winter, to Greece on spring break. After spending 10 weeks learning about Greece, students get an opportunity to get a first-hand experience of Greek culture and society.

Dave Hansen
Former Director and Associate Dean
International Programs in Agriculture

"International education is vitally important to enable our faculty, students and stakeholders to be responsible world citizens as well as significant contributors to our economy broadly writ in this global environment. In addition to helping strengthen our national economy through providing a work force that is prepared to deal with other economies and societies, it will enable us all to better contribute to world understanding, the welfare of millions of people who go to sleep hungry each evening, and the welfare of billions of people who live on less than the equivalent of $2.00 each day."

Dave Hansen was responsible for creating and administering programs that promoted internationalization of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

John Casterline
Lazarus Professor in Population Studies
Department of Sociology

"A number of the most significant human challenges are intrinsically global, they cannot be confined to national borders. Climate change is perhaps the most obvious case, but there are many others, including issues of global inequality and poverty. International education impacts the future vitality and health of the university. Opportunities for scientific contributions, and for growth as an institution, increasingly depend on international exchanges of faculty and students."

John Casterline works closely with institutions in the Arab region and in West Africa in research on demographic change and its consequences. His research frequently involves students and faculty from OSU and institutions in the regions.

Grace Johnson
Director, Study Abroad
Office International Affairs

"We value international education because it prepares us for understanding, meeting, and even embracing the social, economic and environmental challenges of the world we live in. We do not, cannot, live in isolation."

Grace Johnson is director of the Study Abroad program which offers more than 100 programs in over 40 countries in many fields of study.

Patricia Sieber
Director
East Asian Studies Center, Institute for Chinese Studies

"Currently, 10 out of the top 100 global universities are in East Asia. That number will keep growing in the years to come and with it the importance of knowing East Asian languages and cultures."

Andy Spencer
Senior Lecturer
Department of Germanic Languages and Literature

"The experience of studying abroad is a crucial component of a modern degree and not just because it serves one so well in a later career. Studying abroad opens eyes, ears, and doors: students return not just more aware and interested, but more interesting and engaged, and can with good justification claim global citizenship, which, unlike a national passport, doesn't expire after ten years."

Andy Spencer has served as Resident Director for OSU's Eight-Week Summer Study in Dresden, Germany Program for the past 10 years.

Chan Park
Director
Korean Studies Initiative

"Whether we like it or not, every region of the international community is our neighbors."

As a faculty advisor of the National Consortium of Teaching about Asia, Chan Park works for OSU's East Asian Studies Center's initiative to educate teachers of the American Midwest about East Asia and Korea.

Jackie Royster
Professor, English
Professor, African and African-American Studies

"In order to work together cooperatively in the broader interests of humanity on planet earth, we must make a deliberate commitment to build our knowledge and understanding of peoples around the world; to develop clearer respect for their histories, cultures, beliefs, and practices; to acknowledge the intricate linkages of our past, present, and future to the past, present, and future of others globally; to translate our knowledge into positive and productive action."

Jackie Royster helped form the Africa Network which allows individuals in different areas of academia and research to work together with one common goal: creating and sustaining peace and prosperity on the stricken continent.

Dave Kraybill
Professor, Agricultural, Environmental & Development Economics
College of Food, Agricultural & Environmental Sciences

"People around the world are increasingly interconnected today. Information, goods and services, money, and people hop from one part of the globe to another with great speed. In this globalized world, events and trends in the United States affect the lives of people in other countries and vice versa. To be a productive worker and a responsible consumer, it is important to know a lot about the cultures and political, economic, and social conditions in other regions of the world."

Dave Kraybill teaches a course on African economic development in the Autumn Quarter and then takes the students to Uganda for an intensive two weeks of study on African livelihoods.

Merry Merryfield
Professor
Social Studies and Global Education

"Today’s students live in a world characterized by increasing global interconnectedness. Students need to be prepared for the changing nature of public discourse and action and develop skills in interacting and working with individuals and communities across the planet. International education works to develop worldmindedness, an awareness of how knowledge of and interaction with people, events and issues around the world can inform their decisions and enrich their lives."

Merry Merryfield researches how students are learning about the world and developing perspective consciousness and intercultural competence and she teaches courses in global education, cross-cultural experiential learning, and in African Studies.

Donna Guy
Professor
History

"It is important to our mission as educators to value international education as students need to know that while the United States is the center of their world, it is not the center of the world for most people."

Donna Guy internationalizes her teaching of Latin America, Gender, and Sexuality histories and she uses Spanish fluency to teach in Latin American and promote a global dialogue.

Nina Berman
Associate Professor
Comparative Studies and German Studies

"Many of the central challenges of our time are global; environmental concerns and political conflict can no longer be addressed by drawing on behavioral patterns and world views that are rooted in outdated belief systems, such as nationalism and ethnocentrism. Exposing students to global perspectives on a range of issues is thus crucial to our contemporary academic mission."

Nina Berman helped design the new World Literature major and her teaching addresses questions related to intercultural and transnational contact.

Joe Brandesky
Professor of Theater
The Ohio State University - Lima

"Business and cultural activities are routinely conducted on a global scale, yet many of our students still behave as if the United States is somehow insulated from life outside our borders. I firmly believe that American students need to visit their global neighbors in order to attain a perspective that will serve them in today’s “small world”. Learning languages and immersing oneself in different cultures expands and enhances student’s notions of what the world is and better enables them to become functioning and productive global citizens."

Karl Danneberger
Professor, Turfgrass Science
Horticulture & Crop Science

"It goes without saying that our economy is so closely tied with the international markets that what goes on overseas influences all of us. In our case, sports and sportsturf follows economic development that is booming in many parts of the world. Students who go into the work force now most likely will have contact with colleagues and more likely a greater opportunity for professional development and growth by having an understanding, appreciation, and experience internationally."

Karl Danneberger authors technical turfgrass maintenance notes and podcasts that are published in five languages and read by superintendents across the globe.

Miller McDonald
Professor, Seed Biology
Horticulture & Crop Science

"My teaching and research programs recognize that the seed industry is now a global enterprise. Our students must be exposed to these cultural, economic and geographic differences to be successful in their futures and understanding when operating in different countries."

With a goal to provide a comprehensive global seed technology curriculum for U.S. students and industry employees, Miller McDonald helped establish the Consortium for International Seed Technology Training with Brazil and Chile.