By Sarah Geegan, Derrick Meads

Education Abroad at the University of Kentucky recently awarded grants to five faculty members to develop innovative programs abroad. In addition, a graduate student was awarded a grant to support her research into education abroad experiences and possibilities for the future.

Faculty-Sponsored Program Development Grants recipients include:

·         The Nile River: A History of Water Politics in Africa. Awet T. Weldemichael, assistant professor, Department of History, UK College of Arts and Sciences — will establish a program in Uganda that will take students to the upstream countries of the Nile (ideally Uganda and Ethiopia) to experience the physical and human environments surrounding the sources of this historic river and along its flow toward Sudan and Egypt.

·         Mountains to Coast: Field Studies in Costa Rica. Christopher Barton, associate professor, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, UK College of Agriculture — will establish a field-oriented course in which students will receive hands-on training, in various locations in Costa Rica, with an experiential education emphasis.

·         Family, Consumer and Culture in South Korea. Hyungsoo Kim, associate professor, School of Human Environmental Sciences, UK College of Agriculture — will travel to Seoul, South Korea, to design a program for students to understand a variety of subjects in family sciences from diverse cultural perspectives. 

·         Service Learning in Healthcare. Wuyang Hu, associate professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, UK College of Agriculture — will design and lead a program in Beijing that will introduce students to the literature on global food, food safety, resource management, agricultural development and trade in China with an emphasis on international business practices.

·         Viva! Vancouver: A Global Sustainable City. Brian D. Lee, associate professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, UK College of Agriculture — will establish an innovative and new education abroad program in a city that has initiated the goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020. The course will focus on how Vancouver’s landscapes and socioeconomic systems are integrated to create a high quality of life while also being sustainable.

For more information about Faculty-Sponsored Program Development Grants visit: www.uky.edu/educationabroad/faculty/faculty_grants.html.

EA Outcomes Assessment Research Grants Spring 2013 Recipient:

·         Going Abroad for Graduate Admission? Kayla M. Johnson, who has a master's in higher education, education policy and evaluation, UK College of Education — will conduct an impact study, which addresses the following research question: “How do education abroad experiences impact graduate school admissions decisions?” This project seeks to inform Education Abroad programs and potential participants about whether or not studying in a foreign country will strengthen a student’s chances of gaining admission to a variety of graduate programs.

For more information about Faculty-Sponsored Program Development Grants visit: www.uky.edu/educationabroad/financial_aid/research_grants.html.

“We are partnering in new and exciting ways with our faculty and graduate students on the continuing assessment of student learning abroad,” said Anthony Ogden, director of Education Abroad. “Recent research shows that it is no longer enough just to send students abroad, but we have to intentionally design programs that lead to measurable outcomes.”