Teaching, Learning, and Facilitation

As one of the nation’s premier public research institutions, West Virginia University (WVU) serves as an economic driver and knowledge base in a region of the United States where industry and population are declining. WVU has leveraged its strengths in areas such as public health, natural gas, and petroleum engineering to develop partnerships that aim to solve both local and global problems.

When the state of West Virginia was hit by a major flash flood in June 2016, WVU students, staff, and faculty came together to offer support to the devastated communities. “Within a few hours of knowing the flooding was occurring, our entire campus joined together and we turned one of our big empty spaces into a warehouse where we could [put] supplies,” says former provost Joyce McConnell. 

The largest group in the warehouse lending support were Engineers Without Borders students from India, she says. The students quickly jumped in to help organize supplies and coordinate relief efforts, drawing on their own experience with flooding in their native country. “It was this incredible moment to see what it means to have international students bring their expertise to a crisis in a place like West Virginia,” McConnell explains. 

Each year, WVU welcomes around 2,200 international students who contribute to the student body of nearly 30,000 across the three campuses. Most international students study at WVU’s main campus in Morgantown, a city of rolling hills situated along the banks of the Monongahela River. 

In a state with a dwindling college-aged population, WVU has looked to international and domestic nonresident students to bolster its student body. According to Stephen Lee, associate vice president for enrollment management, more than half of the freshman class come from abroad or out of state. “Everything we do relies on this unique enrollment profile in terms of who we recruit and how we recruit,” he says. “International is a key component of that.”

The presence of international and out-of-state students helps bring diverse backgrounds and perspectives to a state that is largely homogeneous demographically. According to President E. Gordon Gee, West Virginians who enroll at WVU can essentially “study abroad by staying here” because of the cross-cultural exchanges they can have with international students arriving from 150 different countries. “Because many of our students come from very small towns in Appalachia, the notion of going to the university, let alone overseas, is a big step,” he says. “The international component of this institution is about what we do on campus, as well as what we do internationally.”

Centralizing International Engagement Efforts

WVU has a long history of international engagement— particularly in the Middle East due to the institution’s expertise in the petroleum industry—but many of its activities were decentralized until relatively recently. That was a trend that McConnell wanted to reverse when she became provost in 2014. “When I first came here in 1995, there was just this loose organization of people doing their own thing,” she says. “You could go to any college on campus and you would find all of these very interesting international collaborations going on, but the only thing that was centralized at all was the processing of visas.”

Support from Gordon Gee and McConnell fueled the push to consolidate WVU’s international activities under the Office of Global Affairs (OGA) in 2016. William Brustein, who had previously worked with Gordon Gee at The Ohio State University, was brought on as vice president for global strategies and international affairs to lead the newly minted OGA. The office now oversees education abroad, international student and scholar services, intensive English programs, sponsored student services, and the Health Sciences Center Global Engagement Office. 

Under the direction of the OGA, WVU has prioritized two key approaches to internationalization: leveraging the institution’s strengths and building strong international partnerships. “We need to constantly remind ourselves of who we are and why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Gordon Gee says.

Brustein adds that drawing on WVU’s expertise in areas such as energy and medicine abroad is crucial to its land-grant mission. “Our faculty are developing research collaborations all around the world. We believe the international aspects of this research, whether it’s in health, energy, or forensics, can not only help people overseas, but will also help the people of the state of West Virginia and the future prosperity of the state,” Brustein says.

Strengthening Ties with Bahrain

One of WVU’s most successful international partnerships is with the Royal University for Women (RUW) in Bahrain. Founded in 2005 by four brothers who graduated from West Virginia University, RUW is the kingdom’s first private university for women. WVU has collaborated with RUW since 2009 to create student exchanges and faculty research opportunities. Faculty members from both universities have engaged in research collaborations in the fields of energy, water resources, health care, and women and gender studies. 

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In 2019, business and economics professor Susan Jennings Lantz took a group of 10 female students for a one-credit study abroad and cultural exchange trip to RUW over spring break. “Our students are able to get behind the scenes because they are staying in the residence hall,” Jennings Lantz says. “It’s a heavily gendered experience, but it’s unlike anything that our students have experienced.”

While she was in Bahrain, pre-med major Garima Agarwal says she realized just how different the economic and social landscape is between the Gulf Coast and Appalachia. “Here in West Virginia, we’re not used to that kind of glamor,” she says. “It was also my first time attending a mosque and learning about Islam.” Agarwal had the chance to participate in a debate about feminism with RUW students as well. “They have a very different approach to feminism than we do in the Western world,” she says. 

Agarwal, who graduated in May 2019, says that the experience will help inform her practice as a future doctor. “I understand their culture more closely now,” she explains. “As I see patients from that side of the world, I can take a more holistic approach to their care.”

The WVU-RUW partnership features other areas of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domain. RUW hosts a WVU civil and environmental engineering program, which launched in 2017. The program is WVU’s first full degree program offered abroad and has served as a model for the development of dual-degree programs in other countries such as China. RUW students take the same courses that are offered in Morgantown and have the option to study abroad in West Virginia for a semester or more, allowing for additional global learning and connections. The creation of such dual-degree programs involves continued support and input from stakeholders throughout the institutions.

The partnership extends to the highest levels of university leadership. President Gordon Gee serves on the Royal University for Women’s Board of Trustees, and other WVU administrators have offered their insights and support as RUW continues to grow. In 2018, David Stewart took a leave of absence from his position as associate vice president for global strategy and international affairs at WVU to serve as president of the Royal University for Women.

“I’m ‘on loan’ here for 2 years,” Stewart explains. “We did that to really cement the relationship between the two universities and to speed up the development of WVU offering other kinds of programs in the Middle East.”

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Investing in a Presence Abroad Through Global Portals

WVU’s partnership with the Royal University for Women has been the foundation of its engagement in the Middle East and has been a prototype for the development of its global portals strategy in other parts of the world. Brustein describes the global portals as “academic embassies” where WVU maintains a physical presence in the region. The portals facilitate student exchange and education abroad, faculty exchange and research collaboration, alumni engagement, and industry and state partnerships. Additionally, the portals allow WVU to offer development and training opportunities in areas such as energy and medicine. 

In November 2016, Bahrain became the site of WVU's first global portal. The WVU Health Sciences Center uses the portal to provide on-site training and certification for medical health professionals from the Middle East. Because it can be very expensive to send faculty and students to the United States and increasingly difficult to obtain visas, WVU has made training and services more accessible by offering them at RUW. An example is an advanced certificate in occupational medicine that is certified by the American Medical Association. The second global portal was launched in Shanghai, China, in July 2018 and is directed by a WVU alumnus from China. WVU is currently working with partners in South America to develop another portal representing Latin America and also plans to eventually establish a presence in Southeast Asia. 

Addressing the Barriers to Study Abroad

Approximately 750 domestic students study abroad every year through credit-bearing programs. Because nearly one-quarter of all WVU students are Pell-eligible, the institution has focused on making its education abroad programs as affordable as possible. Several years ago, the WVU Board of Governors approved a tuition waiver for faculty-led programs. “Instead of charging the standard university and college tuition fees, we only charge $50 per credit hour,” says Vanessa Yerkovich, director of education abroad.

She adds that for out-of-state students, participating in a faculty-led program can often be more affordable than taking a summer course on campus. The ASPIRE Office, which helps WVU students apply for fellowships and graduate school, also works with Pell-eligible students to apply for Gilman Scholarships. Since 2004 when the Gilman program launched, 63 WVU students have been awarded Gilman Scholarships. 

Another way in which WVU has strived to make education abroad a reality for students is by providing its own scholarships. The John Chambers College of Business and Economics offers dedicated scholarships from a donor to support students who study in Brazil, China, India, or the United Arab Emirates. According to professor Li Wang, those scholarships are specifically targeted at non-European destinations. “We want to make sure students really expand their vision and get to know these emerging markets,” she says. 

Wang designed a faculty-led program to China that includes visits to both Chinese businesses and U.S. companies operating in China. Kristin Moro, who graduated in 2018 with a degree in business administration and information systems management, caught the study abroad bug after traveling with Wang to China. Her second study abroad program to India helped solidify her desire to work in the technology industry. “The first city we went to was Bangalore, …also known as the Silicon Valley of India,” Moro says. “India is a technology hub, and it was so interesting to me as someone interested in tech to see how other parts of the world conduct the same types of business.”

Beyond the financial factor, WVU’s study abroad team and faculty members work to help dispel some of the assumptions and cultural barriers discouraging students from going abroad. Professor Lisa Di Bartolomeo says that for many Appalachian students, it can be a huge leap just to attend WVU. “People throughout the state of West Virginia see Morgantown as the big city,” she says. “If you come from a place where your high school graduated 200 people, just coming here is a huge, scary step.”

To help mitigate students’ apprehension over the unknown, WVU’s orientation places focus on the transition of place and emphasizes the importance of diverse environments. Additionally, the Global Living-Learning Community (LLC) provides the setting for domestic and international students to interact and connect over lived experiences. Open to all students who are interested in learning about other cultures, the Global LLC can often spark a desire to go abroad. 

Elevating Intercultural Knowledge with Global Mountaineers

WVU also recently established Global Mountaineers, a curricular certificate that encourages students to take advantage of global opportunities on campus and abroad. Di Bartolomeo, who coordinates the certificate, began by garnering the support of deans and other stakeholders across campus. Students complete an introductory and capstone global competence course, take approved core courses, meet a language requirement, and study abroad or do an international internship.

The goal of the certificate program is to add value without increasing time to degree. “I was really careful to include courses that either count for the general education or that will count toward majors where students are likely to find an interest,” Di Bartolomeo says. The certificate was launched in fall 2018, and graduate Courtney Watson was the first WVU student to earn it. “It feels very rewarding to be the first person to graduate with a Global Mountaineer Certificate because WVU is such a big school with a rich history and a lot of students, and because in today’s world, global awareness is a critical skill to have,” she says. 

Di Bartolomeo approached Watson about earning the certificate because she had already met most of the requirements as a Russian minor and three-time study abroad student. “We both agreed that it would strengthen [my] global education because it would combine my education abroad experiences, my Russian language skills, and my research skills into a nice certification, which helped when I was applying to jobs,” Watson says. 

Providing a Productive Environment for International Students

Along with expanding and promoting its internationalization portfolio, WVU has recharged its international student recruitment strategy over the last decade to offset declining enrollment from in-state students, diversify its student body, and promote cross-cultural understanding. In particular, the institution has been able to leverage its expertise in areas such as petroleum and natural gas engineering to attract students from around the world. West Virginia University offers one of only four ABET-accredited programs encompassing both petroleum and natural gas engineering in the country. 

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WVU’s international student recruitment efforts have seen an increase in enrollment from around 1,200 students in 2007–08 to approximately 2,300 in 2017–18. The top sending countries are Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, China, India, and Oman. 

Located within the Office of Global Affairs, International Students & Scholars Services (ISSS) offers support to all international students on campus. In January 2017, WVU created its Office of Sponsored Students to provide extra support to its population of sponsored students, who make up more than 70 percent of all international undergraduates and almost half of all graduate students. “We started it because we realized that sponsors and their students have unique needs that other international students don’t have,” says Cindy Teets, director of sponsored student services. 

Farhan Ahmed, an Indian student who graduated in 2019 with a degree in sport and exercise psychology, appreciates the level of service he received from ISSS and OGA during his time at WVU. “My friends at bigger universities talk about how many international students there are, but there’s not really events going on,” he says. “But here, the environment is so inclusive and so open.”

Extending and Internationalizing Health Sciences

Another draw for international students applying to WVU has been its extensive health sciences programming and specialized training. The university Health Sciences Center runs the state’s largest health system, providing increased access to health care in a largely rural region of the country. The Health Sciences Center runs five schools: dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health. 

Operating within the Health Sciences Center, the Global Engagement Office (GEO) coordinates all international engagement related to health sciences. “We live in one very small world today in respect to health issues,” says professor Chris Martin, who directs the GEO. “Our students these days have a far more contextual understanding of global health than their predecessors did.”

WVU’s health sciences programs provide training to medical and dental students from abroad. Building on the institution’s broader engagement in the Middle East, the Health Sciences Center hosts up to eight Kuwaiti students per year who complete their undergraduate degrees at WVU and then apply to WVU’s medical or dental schools. “They can be here for up to a decade. It’s a nice model because it gives them a lot of time to adjust to different educational systems. By the time they hit medical or dental school, they’re prepared,” Martin says. 

Zeinab Atiah is a third-year student at the School of Dentistry who started at WVU as an undergraduate after receiving a scholarship from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). “West Virginia University was one of the accredited universities that the MOHE accepts…[and] the best clinical experience that I would possibly get was in the USA,” she says. “Faculty members are always available for us and taught us how to be professional with our patients and build up the skills necessary to become a dentist.”

WVU also trains 19 Saudi Arabian residents and fellows in various graduate medical programs. The residents graduate from medical school in Saudi Arabia and then do specialized training in fields such as internal medicine, pathology, psychiatry, and robotic cardiovascular surgery. According to Martin, WVU’s Health Sciences Center has designed its programs for international professionals to fill unused training capacity. “We’re not displacing our usual pool of applicants. For example, psychiatry has accreditation to take seven residents per year. But we only have funding for six, so that the seventh slot is available to those sponsored students,” Martin says. 

As is the case for the larger institution, taking part in international networks and leveraging partnerships has been central to the Health Science Center’s internationalization strategy. “We’re a small university in terms of financial resources. We don’t have endowments, we don’t have Fogarty [global health] grants that a lot of other large universities do. So we’ve tried to work with national networks to get that coordination,” Martin says.

The institution participates in the Association of American Medical Colleges Visiting Student Learning Opportunities program at global and domestic sites, which allows medical students to take electives while trying to get into residency programs. In addition to sending students abroad through the program, WVU is the second most active site in the United States for hosting international students. 

Through that network, WVU sent a group of neurologists to Guatemala to provide training to health care workers including nurses, social workers, and case managers in the early diagnosis of disorders such as depression, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. Those frontline health care workers can then find additional support from WVU physicians through telemedicine, which uses technology to diagnose and treat patients remotely.

Allie Karshenas, associate vice president of clinical operations and institutional advancement, says that the engagement of health sciences abroad is beneficial not only to the partners abroad, but also the home state. “By working with these small countries that are impoverished and under-resourced, we are able to internalize those values for our learning,” he says. “Most of what we learn can come back in the form of improving our own processes, access to health care, and access to technology in our own state.”
 

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As one of the oldest public universities in the United States, Miami University welcomed its first students in 1824. Today, the institution brings a global outlook to its three campuses in southwestern Ohio through its curricular requirements, robust faculty-led programs, study abroad center in Luxembourg, and comprehensive support for international students and scholars.

In October 2018, more than 900 alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of Miami University gathered in the Château de Differdange, a fifteenth-century castle located in a village just 20 minutes from Luxembourg City. The event commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Miami University John E. Dolibois European Center (MUDEC), which has served as a study abroad site for Miami students since 1968. 

The center was founded by alumnus John E. Dolibois, who was born in Luxembourg, immigrated to the United States, and enrolled as a student at Miami University in 1938. Shortly after graduation, Dolibois was drafted to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. He interrogated Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg trials and later served as a U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. In 1947, he became Miami University’s first full-time alumni secretary. Dolibois took on several more roles at Miami before he was named vice president for university relations in 1981. Throughout his life, Dolibois continued to work to strengthen ties between Miami University and countries such as Luxembourg.

At the 50th Jubilee Celebration, Miami University President Gregory P. Crawford bestowed an honorary degree upon the Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg Prince Guillaume, whose father and grandfather had also received the same honor. 
“We have had tremendous support from Differdange and Luxembourg,” says Phyllis Callahan, who retired in July 2019 after serving almost 5 years as provost. “We also have a broad base of extraordinarily devoted alumni who spent time there over the years. It gives us a foothold in a part of the world where there are opportunities for our students to learn.”

The establishment of MUDEC, along with more than 140 faculty-led programs to countries all over the world, has helped Miami University make its mark in the field of international education. Miami’s undergraduate study abroad programs rank among the top five in the nation among public doctoral universities. 

It is a distinction that the institution has held for several years, according to the Institute of International Education’s 2018 Open Doors report. The university also hosts more than 3,000 international students every year, and it offers a myriad of curricular and cocurricular opportunities for faculty, students, and staff to engage with the world. 

“The international efforts here are not a single domain of one college or one unit or one department,” says Crawford. “It’s all throughout our culture here at Miami, which is very exciting.”

Nurturing a Culture of Internationalization

At the helm of Miami’s study abroad and international education programs is the Global Initiatives division, directed by Cheryl Young, who serves as assistant provost and senior international officer. While Miami University has a long tradition of international engagement, Global Initiatives is relatively new. The division, housed at Miami’s main campus in Oxford, Ohio, was created in 2013 as part of a strategic reorganization of globally focused academic support units. Then-provost Conrado “Bobby” Gempesaw wanted to centralize the university’s international activities, bringing them together under the Global Initiatives umbrella. The division now oversees study abroad, international student and scholar services, continuing education, the Confucius Institute, and the Center for American and World Cultures (CAWC). 

“Provost Gempesaw asked me to develop a plan for comprehensive internationalization at Miami University,” Young says. “We brought all of these units together with the plan to make sure that we infuse intercultural and global dimensions throughout the university.”

An essential component of Miami’s internationalization efforts is the Global Miami Plan (GMP) for Liberal Education, which outlines a six-credit global perspectives requirement and a three-credit intercultural perspectives requirement that serve as part of the university’s general education courses. Students can take one of more than 80 approved globally focused courses on campus or participate in education abroad. 

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Many students also use study abroad to fulfill their capstone or thematic sequence requirements in the GMP. 

“It is designed to help students understand and creatively transform human culture and society by giving the students the tools to ask questions, examine assumptions, exchange views with others, and become better global citizens,” according to the university website. 

Building on the GMP, Miami recently launched a Global Readiness Certificate that has both academic and cocurricular requirements. Coordinated by the CAWC, the first cohort will be piloted in fall 2019 in the College of Education, Health and Society. Approximately 12 to 15 students will go through the orientation, attend globally focused or multicultural on-campus activities, participate in a community engagement or servicelearning project, complete six credits of off-campus study, and take specific approved courses.

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“A big piece of it is that we don’t want students to just check the boxes. They actually have to reflect on what they’re doing and engage with global opportunities in multiple ways,” says program coordinator Alicia Castillo Shrestha. 

Advancing a Global Vision Through Study Abroad

More than half of all Miami students spend time off campus through study abroad or study away in the United States by the time they graduate. In both the 2016–17 and 2017–18 academic years, over 2,000 students went abroad. The institution aims to have at least 60 percent of its students study off campus by 2020. The vast majority of students who study abroad participate in one of Miami’s short-term faculty-led programs, which have grown exponentially since the introduction of a winter term in 2014. Most of the university’s faculty-led programs count toward the Global Miami Plan’s global perspectives requirements. 

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Interactive media studies major Brian Velasquez completed a faculty-led program at the University of Calabria in Italy. In addition to a class taught by a Miami faculty member, he took a coding class focused on knowledge representation that was taught by a faculty member from the local university. “I thought that was pretty cool to get a professor with a different teaching style,” Velasquez says. “The coursework was a lot different. Rather than having class two or three times per week, we had class every day,” he adds. “It was an eye-opener to see a different way that people live.”

Velasquez studied abroad immediately after his freshman year, which he says had a huge impact on his personal growth and understanding of different backgrounds. “I definitely look back and appreciate the people that I met because of how far I’ve come socially and professionally in the classroom,” Velasquez says. 

Bolstering Miami University’s Profile in Europe

Approximately 10 percent of all Miami study abroad students travel to MUDEC, which can host up to 120 students per semester and another 40 in the summer. Students stay with host families in the local community and participate in a study tour that takes them to other parts of Europe. 

The majority of courses taught at MUDEC meet the Global Miami Plan’s general education requirements and have a European focus. Each year, two Miami faculty members travel to MUDEC for one semester, and four others teach an eight-week “sprint course,” which entails an accelerated class format and a brief study tour. All other courses are taught by local European adjunct faculty.

While most Miami students studying in Luxembourg take general education courses, some schools and departments have used the opportunity to develop specialized programs for their majors. Miami’s Farmer School of Business, for instance, offers the FSB LUX Plus, a summer business program based at the Luxembourg center that also takes students to the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Italy. Additionally, cohorts of Miami architecture students get the chance to travel to MUDEC where they can take the general education classes offered to all students and then major-specific architecture classes. 

Deepening Community Relations

Miami University’s long-standing engagement in Luxembourg has allowed the institution to develop deep ties with Differdange that go beyond MUDEC. In 2017, Oxford and Differdange signed a sister cities agreement, which has contributed to internationalization on campus and in the surrounding communities. For example, local grocery stores in Oxford stock Bofferding, the leading beer in Luxembourg. The brewery’s chief executive officer Georges Lentz is a Miami University alumnus. 

Over in Luxembourg, École Internationale de Differdange et Esch-Sur-Alzette (EIDE), a local public school that offers curriculum in English, has served as a student teaching site for Miami University teacher candidates for the last 4 years. The majority of students enrolled at EIDE are English language learners (ELLs). “This creates a perfect site for placement of Miami’s teacher education candidates who can improve their ELL teaching skills while also getting an authentic international study abroad experience,” says education professor James Shiveley, who also oversees the MUDEC Curriculum Committee. 

Under Shiveley’s supervision, nine teacher education and special education undergraduates from Miami University planned and ran two weeklong day camps for ELL elementary and middle school students on site in Luxembourg in July 2019. The Miami students, who enrolled in a three-credit course, received free housing from MUDEC. Financial aid for the Miami students was provided by the College of Education Partnership fund and MUDEC, with additional financial support coming from the Luxembourg Ministry of Education and the city of Differdange. 

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Private donations from alumni who studied at MUDEC have also provided scholarships for students from Luxembourg to study in Oxford. Claudia Zaunz, a journalism and English literature double major from Luxembourg, is one of the current recipients. She says she didn’t realize how important Luxembourg’s close connection with Miami University would be until she was on campus. “When I arrived at Miami during orientation, the campus was nearly empty,” she says. “I walked into the Armstrong Student Center and saw the sign: Lux Café. I couldn’t believe my eyes! The windows feature the text of ‘Ons Hémecht,’ the national anthem, and there are pictures on the wall of Luxembourg City…. It made it so much easier to make Miami [my] home away from home! Lux Café is my favorite spot to study for exams.”

Welcoming Students From Around the World

Zaunz is one of approximately 3,000 international students who are currently pursuing their undergraduate education at Miami University. For the last several years, the institution’s investment of time and resources in international undergraduate student recruitment has paid off, growing enrollment numbers from fewer than 500 students in 2009 to over 3,000 in 2018, an increase of more than 500 percent. 

Undergraduate international recruitment is housed in the Office of Admissions, which has four dedicated international recruiters. There were fewer than 100 international undergraduates on campus when Aaron Bixler, senior associate director for international enrollment, started at Miami in 2003. Today, 85 percent of Miami’s 3,000 international students are Chinese. A significant number of students also come from India, Vietnam, South Korea, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. 

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Bixler says that part of Miami’s early success with recruitment in China was because the school quickly expanded to secondary markets outside of Beijing and Shanghai and hired a full-time recruiter based in China. “Having someone there on the ground freed us up a bit to try to explore new markets,” Bixler says. 

Combining Academic and Linguistic Support

To further expand the recruitment pipeline, Miami University established a bridge program in 2011 for international students who are academically qualified but need some extra language support. The American Culture & English (ACE) program, housed at Miami’s main campus in Oxford, offers students with a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score between 65 and 79 conditional admission. Students in the bridge program take courses in speaking and listening, reading and writing, and social science, as well as an elective that counts toward one of their general education requirements. 

According to director Carol Olausen, the program is built around an intensive advising model that helps students to develop skills for academic success. Xiaoyi Huang, an early childhood education major, shares her experience: “I love the ACE program because it’s not only a smooth transition from China, but it [also] kind of blew my mind because of how English textbooks and daily life conversations are so different.”

Students are also required to participate in a minimum of eight extracurricular events during the semester. “It helps them become comfortable with campus resources,” Olausen explains. Zhuoran Bao, a Chinese student who started in the ACE program, notes, “I had more time to get involved on campus, like volunteering or joining organizations like dance club.” She adds that she met U.S. students through the program, which was important to her as a media and culture major. 

Students who first complete the ACE program have been found to achieve better outcomes than their international peers who did not start in the program. They have a retention rate of 73 percent compared with 68 percent for international students as a whole, according to Olausen. 

The success of the ACE model led to the development of tailored programming for all international students, many of whom struggle with speaking English and listening despite potentially having high TOEFL scores. “Because TOEFL scores often show you more of passive skills rather than productive skills, we identify students through a speaking test administered to all incoming international students,” Olausen says. Students who struggle with speaking and comprehension are automatically placed in a transition course to further develop those skills.

In addition to the ACE program, Miami University has an English Language Center at its Middletown campus, located about 20 miles from Oxford. The center serves approximately 300 students per year, including during the summer. Many students who complete the intensive English program later enroll at Miami as degree-seeking students. The English Language Center also offers a summer program for around 75 English language learners enrolled at local high schools. 

Rewriting the Rules of Language Learning

In 2018, Miami launched the English Language Learner Writing Center, which is coordinated by Larysa Bobrova. She hired 10 consultants who collaborate with multilingual writers and are trained in second language acquisition theories. The idea is not to offer proofreading or editing services, but to help non-native English speakers become more aware of their own writing process. “We discuss strategies that our consultants can use to help students to correct their own errors,” Bobrova says. 

Bobrova also offers training for faculty members in how to design and give feedback on assignments for English language learners. Moreover, education students taking courses in ELL instruction have been able to observe writing consultations at the center to gain skills and insights they can apply to their future careers as educators. 

Like Miami’s overall approach to internationalization, the mission of the multilingual writing center is to be inclusive and welcoming to all students. “Writing persuasively in a language does not imply being a native speaker,” Bobrova says. “This is something that both our students and our faculty need to know in order to make their pedagogy inclusive and to celebrate the diversity of language and cultures.”