The Past, Present and Future of Global Education
Photo by A. Pierce Bounds '71.
Dickinson celebrates global studies anniversary year with two-day celebration
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
The junior year abroad was still a fairly new concept in mid-20th-century America, when Dickinson founded its first study-abroad program under the leadership of Professor of Political Science K. Robert Nilsson. Fifty years later, the Bologna program is still going strong, as part of a worldwide global network of 15 Dickinson programs and more than 20 partner programs around the world, and Nilsson's legacy lives on in a new study-abroad scholarship.
This weekend, Dickinson marked the 50th anniversary of its flagship study-abroad program—and the 30th anniversaries of the Bremen, Norwich and Moscow programs—with a two-day celebration of global education that drew nearly 500 registrants. Hosted in Washington, D.C., the weekend opened with a Friday-evening reception for alumni of the Bologna program, and it continued on Saturday with globally themed lectures and demonstrations led by faculty, study-abroad alumni and special guests.
Photo by A. Pierce Bounds '71.
Alumni connected at a Saturday-afternoon tasting of French wines, a paella picnic and a talk on the future of global food production with Daniel White ’06. They also attended a faculty-led lecture on Mediterranean migrations as part of the One College One Community program, followed by exhibition tours by Steve Busterna ’79 and Eric Denker ’75 at the National Gallery of Art. Others learned about wartime intelligence at the International Spy Museum, courtesy of its curator, and about the nearby U.S. Holocaust Museum’s newest exhibit, courtesy of Bremen alumna Kristy Brosius ’90, director of operations.
All were then invited to join President Nancy A. Roseman and Provost Neil Weissman at the DuPont Circle Hotel for a reception and discussion of Dickinson’s global programming, past and present, and the announcement of the K. Robert Nilsson and Juliana P. Nilsson Scholarship Fund, established by alumni to support students at the K. Robert Nilsson Center in Bologna, Italy. The day was capped off with individual class dinners for alumni of Dickinson’s Bremen, Cameroon, Malaga, Norwich, Toulouse and Moscow programs, hosted by former program leaders.
Photo by A. Pierce Bounds '71.
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Published October 19, 2015