February 14, 2017
Anne Stewart
Sentwali Bakari, vice chancellor for Student Success, and four other faculty members will travel to Washington, D.C. on Feb. 18.
These faculty members will lead a workshop at the 2017 American Council on Education/ Association of International Education Administrators Internationalization Collaborative Conference (ACE/AIEA).
Bakari, along with the rest of his team, intend to gather strategies at the one-day conference titled Internationalization through Difference: Transcending Boundaries.
Sandy Ho, director of the Excel Languages and Social Sciences Center, Anthony Cordova, director of MOSAIC, Yanjie (Ruby) Cheng, International Student and Scholar Services specialist and Jevita Rogers, director of the office of Financial Aid and Student Employment will attend as well.
Bakari’s team will attend the conference with the intention of learning how other universities are making internationalization efforts in regards to co-curricular engagements so that they can contribute to the completion of the fourth goal of UCCS’ strategic plan.
“What we want to do is contribute to the university’s efforts to enhance global and multicultural education at UCCS,” said Bakari.
One of the goals of the university’s 2012-2020 strategic plan states that efforts will be made to “increase international and domestic intercultural program opportunities.” Recruitment and integration of international students are part of this effort.
“We have challenged ourselves to come back and develop some strategic priorities, a strategic action plan that contributes to accomplishing goal four in (UCCS’) strategic plan and ways that the division of student success can enhance the university’s globalization efforts,” said Bakari.
Bakari, along with Ho as a co-facilitator, will speak about staff and faculty engagement and collaboration in globalization, a topic which he was asked to speak about by those overseeing the conference.
Bakari hopes to have the audience participate for maximum engagement at the workshop.
“We’re going to have people get into groups, and we’re going to identify themes, opportunities and challenges on different campuses, and they’re going to go into these groups and develop an action plan,” said Bakari.
This year’s workshop, which is planned in collaboration with the ACE/AIEA’s annual conference, will focus on the co-curriculum as a way to foster international learning. The co-curriculum will focus on the out-of-class experience, including clubs, organization and volunteering opportunities, said Bakari.
Bakari hopes that he can collaborate with colleagues around campus to expand opportunities for students and others involved at UCCS, which could include international internship opportunities or staff exchanges.
According to Bakari, internationalization and globalization are important for college students today because they compete in a global market and work force.
Learning about internationalization and globalization occurs in more than just the classroom setting, said Bakari. Clubs, organizations and study abroad programs act as a way to carry out these ideas.
Bakari said that this work is important to the university, and that he himself is invested in these efforts.
“I love working with international students. I love working with our students who are not from other countries, but helping them get exposed to globalization,” he said.
Exposure to different cultures is important as students begin to compete for jobs in a global marketplace, said Bakari.
“They are just in a better position when they can demonstrate or document… their exposure to different cultures, different languages, different experiences learning about different people,” said Bakari.