Category Archives: International

Im Freiburg

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That’s not a typo, just a tiny bit of German. I am in Freiburg Germany right now (at times it is easy to see that English is a Germanic langauge). I am very fortunate to be able to travel for Penn State this summer. I was recently named as chair of Freiburg “Faculty Implementation Committee,” or “FIT.” Last spring a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between PSU and the University of Freiburg. This is a university-wide agreement and we already have decades of collaboration between our two universities from philosophy to forestry and now energy and honors. In a few weeks over a dozen of my colleagues in the Penn State Institutes for Energy and the Environment will be arriving in Freiburg to meet with their counterparts here and we will reciprocate by hosting the Freuiburgers next year in Happy Valley. In addition to representing the university as a whole, I am also going to be working with their new University College Freiburg to establish an exchange program. I am very excited about that and more details are to come…

The trip here was fairly uneventful, although delayed by two hours. We pushed back from the gate at Dulles and they realized there was a brake problem. We returned, they fixed it, and an hour later we were on our way. Somehow we then lost another 50 minutes en route (with a tail wind, go figure). It was not a big deal for me since I simply took the train from Frankfurter Flughafen to Freiburg and walked two blocks to my hotel.

The Best Western “Hotel Victoria” bills itself as the greenest hotel in the world and I believe it. They have solar cells on the roof, wood pellet heaters for the water, and wind power from the city. (Freiburg is one of Germany’s foremost “Green Cities.”) After dinner at a local Italian café (and watching Spain-Italy tie in Euro 2012) I took a walk around town. Here a few pictures of my walk.

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A stumbling block…

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When I was being shown around Freiburg last week my guide actually stumbled and then stopped and pointed to be the “Stolperstein” upon which she had halted. This term literally translates as a “stumbling stone” and is a small concrete cube covered in brass that is etched with the name of a single Jew or other victim of the Nazi regime who was deported and killed. The dates of their deportation and death are also inscribed on the stone. It is placed on the sidewalk before the place that had been there home. These Stolpersteine are now found throughout Germany and in other countries as well.

I was struck by the word “stumbling block” particularly as it was just a few weeks ago that the Revised Common Lectionary, used by many Christian denominations, had as its reading 1 Cor. 1:18-31. The relevant passage is in the middle of that section.

For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

What the apostle Paul is saying here is that the notion of the Messiah being crucified made no sense to those Jews who were waiting and expecting God’s anointed one. Jesus’ death as a criminal on a cross was too big a hurdle for them to overcome to believe that he was actually the Messiah.

Given our English translation of the Greek σκάνδαλον (scandalon) you can understand why my ears were pricked to learn that this memorial to the victims of the Holocaust was called a Stolperstein. It seemed significant to me, as if to say that the death of so many by the Nazis and those who worked with them and failed to work against them is itself a scandalon to Christians. Or at least it ought to be. It ought to be a challenge to their fundamental faith.
Now, as it turns out, having had a chance to check a few German versions of this passage, it appears that completely different German words were used to translate scandalon. In the Hoffnung für Alle it is “eine Gotteslästerung,” “blasphemy,” and in the the 1545 Luther translation it is “ein Ärgernis,” “scandal.” The former certainly conveys the sense well and the latter is more literal, in both cases it is not Stolperstein. Still, it certainly made me pause and consider my faith.

Go to India this summer and be changed for life.

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Be a part of the legendary HOINA course. This course is in its 11th year and is life-transforming. We will have more videos and reports from students linked here in the next month or so, but here is the main information:

What is HOINA?

HOINA 2010 Homes Of The Indian Nation

Screen shot 2009-11-13 at 3.43.21 PMHave you always wanted to go to India? Do you love working with kids?

HOINA (Homes of the Indian Nation) is a set of two homes (boys and girls) in Andhra Pradesh that takes handicapped, abused and orphaned children all over South India and provides them with shel- ter, food, clothing, medical care, education and a caring HOINA family. Both homes were founded approximately 30 years ago by a Penn State alum, Darlene Large.

What do I have to do to go on a trip?

First, submit your application. If you are selected you will be enrolled in a 2 credit GEOG 293H course in the Spring of 2009. The course is de- signed to familiarize students to Indian culture, current events and help prepare students for their summer abroad. After the summer trip, a follow up 1 credit course will be taken in the Fall of 2010 in order to reflect on experiences and to raise further awareness for HOINA .

Application Deadline: December 2, 2009

Contact Matthew Branch: mjb576@psu.edu for further details!


How can I get involved?

Every summer, a group of students from the Schreyer Honors College are selected through an application process to travel to India and work alongside the staff and students at HOINA for approximately 3 weeks.


Travel Abroad to India this Summer (And Do Very Good Work)

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Dr. Richard Stoller has passed along this important announcement. I met with Ms. Large recently and she is a wonderful woman and this is an amazing program that is transforming lives. 

For the last eight years, the SHC has enjoyed a special relationship with HOINA—Homes of the Indian Nation, a charity started by Penn State Distinguished Alumna Darlene Large.  HOINA operates children’s homes in the southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and each year a group of Schreyer Scholars spend three weeks working with HOINA children and helping with a variety of projects at the homes.  To prepare for their India experience, and to learn the wider context of globalization and economic development, Scholars take a two-credit honors course in the spring.  You can view the most recent HOINA/SHC video, produced by our 2006 students, below or at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1635908723585412801&hl=en

If you’re interested in joining next year’s group, you should apply this week – the deadline is 5:00 on Friday, November 30.  You can pick up an application in the SHC office on the ground floor of Atherton Hall, or email Dr. Stoller at rjs27@psu.edu. He can answer any questions you might have about the course or the trip. 

New Podcast! Dr. Nicole Webster

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StammtischToday I sat down with Dr. Nicole Webster who is Asst. Prof. in the Dept. of Agricultural and Extension Education. We talked about her research, work, the Social Justice Film Series, and the “Struggle for Freedom” course.  You can listen to it below or online via iTunes.

Dr. Nicole Webster [ 41:59 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Honors Globalization Trends and World Issues IST 445H

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I wanted to drop you all a quick note about a course that is being offered this semester that still has a few seats in it. This is a great course (I am even giving a guest lecture or two!) with a great instructor and includes a trip to Washington, DC. As you are finalizing your courses I strongly encourage you to see if this will fit into your schedule.

Honors Globalization Trends and World Issues IST 445H (3 credits)

Come learn about the world (and especially China!) while you rub elbows with Washington’s elite and with mid-career professionals from across the globe!

-Guest appearances by Dean Brady, Vice Provost Jones & others

In IST 445H you will learn about the drivers and effects of globalization and how to analyze government policies that respond to the issues raised by globalization.

  • Fulfills university international course requirements!
  • Includes an all-expenses-paid two-day trip to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan think tank in Washington, D.C!

Monday, 6:00-9:00 p.m., Classroom in IST Building 206
Course Instructor:
Dr. Carleen Maitland, 321E IST Building,
Email: cmaitland@ist.psu.edu, Web: faculty.ist.psu.edu/maitland
Phone: 863-0640, Office Hours:  Mondays 10-11& Wednesdays, 1-2 or by appt.

Guest Instructors:

  • Dr. Christian Brady, Dean Schreyer Honors College, cbrady@psu.edu
  • Dr. Syedur Rahman, Director Humphrey Fellows Program, sxr17@psu.edu
  • Dr. Terrell Jones, Penn State Vice Provost for Educational Equity
  • Mr. Erik Peterson, Director, Global Strategy Institute of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C., epeterson@csis.org.

Study in Oxford

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Mansfield CollegeIt has been a productive week! Not only have I nearly completed my paper for the conference, but I have met with several college and university officials about a Junior Year Abroad program for our Scholars. The good news is that on this side of the Atlantic they are more than happy to have high achieving students such as ours. The only “bad” news (and it isn’t so bad) is that I now have to work out the logistics of credit transfer and tuition payments. It will be expensive, the exchange rate is currently 1:2 pounds sterling to the dollar. That makes even a cup of Ribena expensive.

The two colleges I have spoken with are Mansfield College (above) and St. Catherine’s. Oxford has a unique collegiate system where undergraduates apply directly to one of the 31Mansfield Library undergraduate colleges and the college, through system of tutorials ensures that their students pass the exams. (Oxford undergraduates are graded solely on their final exams taken at the end of their last year. There are preliminary exams and papers along the way, but the only grades come from those finals. Talk about pressure!) The university is responsible for providing the faculty lectures and seminars that students attend along with their tutorials.

In this arrangement Schreyer Scholars would be directly enrolled within the college and the university. They would have access to all the lectures and seminars and be tutored by the college’s tutors. They would have rights and access to the Bodleian Library, the Oxford Student Union, in short, they would be true Oxford students.

So stay tuned! I will have to work with the appropriate people at PennState to make sure all credits would transfer and so on. I hope to be able to accept applications at the latest next winter for the fall of 09, but maybe as soon as this winter for fall 08!

I will be heading to Slovenia for an international conference in my field so I may not post for a couple of weeks. Have a great summer!

Rested and Ready to Go!

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In the airWe are back in England! We arrived yesterday morning at 8:40 am, 20 minutes early thanks to a 100 knot tail wind. After an hour or so in line for passport control and 40 minutes waiting for a very confused woman to finish her non-order (how do you come to a rental car place, argue for 40 minutes about a car and then leave without one?) we got into our Vauxhall Vectra with a Tom Tom and we were on our way! The Bodley

Along the M25 our son Mack was ecstatic to see Thomas the Tank Engine. He was life-size and up on a lorry. (Which was a relief to me. I had promised him he would see Thomas, since we were in England, etc. but wasn’t sure how or where. Now I was able to show him Thomas and obviously he was off to get a new paint job.) We arrived in Oxford by noon with a stop at Sainsbury for some essentials (McVities Digestive biscuits!).

After a short nap we headed downtown, I registered with the Bodleian Library (very quick since I had been a doctoral student they simply reactivated my status; because I was here on the cusp of digitization, 1993-1997, they already had my picture in the computer and just printed out the card, good through 2011), and we walked around the town taking some pictures (see our Flickr account and look for my daughter’s version of “Where’s Waldo”) and ended with dinner at the Bishop’s Mitre.

Today I am off to do some research for the paper I am presenting next week in Slovenia. I will meet with the representative of an undergraduate college for lunch to try and develop a study abroad programme in Oxford. So, for now, this is Oxford out!

In the Bishop's Mitre

I’m leaving on a jet plane…

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Today I am off to Oxford, UK (not MS) and then on to a conference in Slovenia. Blogging will be slow in the meantime, but it is for a good cause! Not only am I doing academic research, but I am meeting with several people in Oxford to establish a study abroad program for Schreyer Scholars at the University of Oxford. PSU has not had such a relationship in the past and judging by conversations on the telephone, I am very optimistic that we can get this set up for Fall 08!

This also gives me an opportunity to remind everyone the second point of our mission statement (“build a global perspective”) is not just about taking good courses at PSU on global issues, although these are very important, and not only to travel on short term projects of two weeks or less, but also to take the opportunities to study abroad, taking a semester or even a year to study in another country and often in another language. Many students assume that such programs are primarily for folks in the humanities but PSU Engineering, for example, has one of the most comprehensive and integrated study abroad programs of any engineering program in the US. The Eberly College of Science has relationships with universities from France to Singapore, and so on. Be sure to check out some of the many PSU study abroad options.

Starting next month we have a new staff member, Lisa Kerchinski is our new full-time Career Development Coordinator. We are very excited to have Lisa join us and she brings with her a wealth of experience including years at PSU. Among other things Lisa will be helping students with internships and developing opportunities for our students to partake in international internships.

So the opportunities are many and myriad for expanding your global horizons! Oh! And don’t forget! As a Schreyer Scholar you are also eligible for a Schreyer Ambassador Travel grant.