The Multiplier Effect

Despite populist xenophobia on the rise worldwide, 2025 taught me the value of long-term vision and network collaboration grounded in unwavering commitment to the dignity of all persons. 

I do not make light of the challenges. Current actions undermining international exchange and understanding are as extraordinary as they are indefensible. Yet, what I saw this year was long-term advocacy efforts crystallizing. Some of these efforts begin with pragmatic moves serving grander ideals.

Strength in Numbers—and Networks

With gratitude to NAFSA's economic indicator tool, the Pennsylvania Council for International Education (PACIE) launched a campaign earlier this year on the economic impact of international students statewide, gaining the attention of several officials in the Pennsylvania Department of Education, State Legislature, and Office of the Governor. Growing from a 1969 founding by the University of Pennsylvania, Pennslyvania State University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Temple University, PACIE continues to advance advocacy at the state level, now with a reenergized group of senior internationalization officers.  

PACIE's strength comes from its network. Yes, the University of Pittsburgh houses six federally funded international studies centers; the University of Pennsylvania hosts more than 10,000 international students and scholars; and Pennsylvania State University's international student population brings more than $400 million and nearly 5,000 jobs to central Pennsylvania. Separately, these and other global Research 1 institutions in the state are unmistakably impressive, but when they're collaborating with leading liberal arts and comprehensive regional institutions, our shared impact is clearer in Harrisburg. Gannon University’s international students support more than 500 jobs in Erie. International students attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania support more than 100 jobs in the small town that goes by the same name—Indiana, Pennsylvania. But this is not just about jobs. 

Cheryl Matherly's leadership at Lehigh University and across our state network helps clarify how university internationalization empowers entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystems. Equidistant from the major cities of Philadelphia and New York, the Lehigh Valley has grown through immigration and economic dynamism. That connection between international inclusion and economic dynamism is persistent across Pennsylvania—often expressed through networks.  

The University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning celebrates the contributions of that city's distinct ethnic enclaves. When the nation was founded here, Philadelphia was the most cosmopolitan of American cities. More recently, a network of Philadelphian business, education, and government leaders launched Think Philly, clarifying that we remain a site of extraordinary educational resources, retain proximity to most of the U.S. population, champion international inclusion, and offer relative affordability when contrasted with competing metro regions. From Villanova Univeristy to Temple University to Drexel University and beyond, the power is once again in the network. But it's also not only about economic dynamism. 

Telling the Story of Inclusion

Our state, region, and country have been formed through continuous effort to understand the culture and institutions that enable pluralistic inclusion. Against dismissive, dichotomizing narratives coming from the far right and the far left, we must continuously retell our story of steadily expanding inclusion and extensive international collaboration.

About 30 miles east of the rural community where I grew up, Franklin & Marshall College students benefit from Lancaster’s decades of intentional inclusion, experiencing a global community on the scale of a small city. The oldest continuously operated public market in the United States, Lancaster Central Market is certainly one of the only places in the world where you can choose among kimchi, empanadas, pierogies, collard greens, Amish whoopie pies, and more. Considering the many decades of civil society, nonprofit, and faith institution organizing that supported Lancaster's journey to become the inclusive city that it is hints at the length of time I'm thinking about when I reference long-term vision and network development. 

When the University of Pennsylvania was founded in 1740, it was one of the first nondenominational schools open to students and teachers of all religious backgrounds. This reflected the then-radical religious pluralism that informed the founding of Pennsylvania and later influenced the Declaration of Independence. That document would commit the United States to understanding and advancing this truth: that all people are created equal. 

They emerged from different eras and address different challenges, but the Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights express the same principle at their core: the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. 

We who believe in global citizenship and we who believe in democratic citizenship are part of a movement to advance pluralism, inclusion, and shared respect for human dignity. Movement toward ideals occurs at interpersonal, civil societal, legal, and institutional levels, fueled by networks and collaboration. 

The Power of Experiential Learning

Earlier this year in Inside Higher Ed, I argued that civic education must attend more clearly to building pluralistic community and developing analytical rigor regarding international comparisons. Even as such efforts move forward in formal civic education spaces, much can be learned through experiential learning off campus and across cultures.  

A civil society network I cofounded more than a decade ago, The Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative, understood and understands itself as a network of educators and organizers advancing more just, inclusive, and sustainable communities through reflective community based global learning and research.

Now under the leadership of Samantha Brandauer (Dickinson College) and Sarah Stanlick (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), the collaborative gathered with another network, The Nobis Project, this year in Savannah, Georgia. Together, they created a workshop: “Place-Based Pragmatism & Pedagogy: Food, Land, Culture, & Community Nourishment,” building community through experiential learning, including a visit to a rice farm, a walking tour highlighting Black history in Savannah, and shared meals.

Theirs was a place-based global inquiry, working to better understand histories that crisscross continents and empires, all the while seeking to improve one another's capacities to collaborate and cocreate today. They are a network rooted in the dignity of every person and the possibility of pluralistic inclusion. As long as such networks exist, persist, and innovate, I am grateful. And I have hope.  •

Eric Hartman is a senior fellow and director of the executive doctorate in higher education management at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.