Contact: Deborah Pierce, Division of International Programs
(815) 753-1989
December 2006
DeKalb, Ill. — The Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program hosted a forum on Dec. 4, 2006, in Chicago for university presidents, chancellors and provosts from across Illinois to examine ways to increase student opportunities for study abroad.
The forum sought to help participants understand the findings of the Lincoln Commission, to summarize current strategic challenges in enhancing study abroad opportunities, and to develop top-level commitment to strengthening and improving those opportunities.
The goals of the Lincoln Commission include sending 1 million students a year to study abroad by the year 2016-17, and increasing the diversity of students, institutions and destinations.
The hosts of the forum included John Peters, president of Northern Illinois University; Peter McPherson, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC); and William DeLauder, executive director of the Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program.
Three study abroad experts presented a panel discussion on strategic challenges to study abroad across the variety of institutions in Illinois: Teodora Amoloza, professor of sociology at Illinois Wesleyan University and executive director of the ASIANetwork; Jeremy Geller, director of Student International Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Zinta Konrad, director of the International Education Office at the College of DuPage. The panel moderator was Deborah Pierce, executive director of the Division of International Programs at Northern Illinois University.
Forum leaders asked participants to commit to supporting A Call to Act, the checklist for addressing challenges to sustained growth in study abroad.
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