On November 13 from 6-7 p.m., the Honors College hosted their International Education Week 2023 Opening Talk and Reception event to commence the celebration of this year’s International Education Week on campus. The event presented speakers Jess Rodriguez Potter, Catherine Fuko and Teddy John who shared their stories on how international education has helped them attain their goals and pave their academic life.
As the recipient of the U.S. State Department’s prestigious Critical Language Scholarship, Rodriguez spoke on how her trip to Tanzania this past summer opened her worldview while expanding her knowledge of the culture and language, and significant relationships she made along the way. Catherine and Teddy are working on their master’s degree in public health at ETSU as international students from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The event allowed each speaker to tell their individual experiences and takeaways as well as hurdles and challenges faced along the way.
Karla Leybold is one of the assistant deans for the Honors College as well as the director for Global Engagement and the program advisor for the Quillen Honors Scholars Program. Leybold had reached out to Rodriguez first during last spring to discuss an event to commemorate the start of International Education Week but after encouraging for more voices to be heard, she reached out to Fuko and John to share their engagement and achievements at ETSU.
Although presented through events in the past, 2023 marked the first cohesive week-long celebration of international education, Leybold mentioned. She plans to make it an annual occurrence for the benefits of international education to be widespread among students.
“Part of it is to really increase global understanding and hopefully minimize global conflict, and to create a future workforce that has some language abilities and global awareness,” Leybold said.
Seeking for students to make the most out of their college career, international education is a good tool for those who wish to expand their academic boundaries.
“In educating students, we know that students who have cross-cultural competencies and cross-cultural understanding are highly competent in the workforce,” Leybold said.
Encouraging the growth that comes from insights into different cultures, International Education Week at ETSU pushes students to learn through experience and challenge. For more information on this week’s events, visit https://www.etsu.edu/global-engagement/
