NAFSA Webinars

Overview
The presentation discusses the need for American students embarking on study abroad to be equipped to respond to opinions which are critical of the U.S. How can study abroad professionals ensure that the students have political awareness to understand viewpoints critical of the U.S. and effectively express the range of arguments that will support an international understanding?

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Presenters
Lew Jillings
Lew Jillings was born in New Zealand and took his masters in German at the University of Auckland. After graduate study in Basel, Switzerland, he did his doctorate in German literature at the University of London. For over twenty years he was a German professor in Stirling, Scotland, including a year teaching at the University of Giessen, Germany. In 1990 he came as a Fulbright Scholar to the Unite States and taught at the University of California, Davis and UCLA. His academic interests are medieval literature, polemic of the German Reformation, and culture and propaganda in the Third Reich.

Coming to Penn State in 1996, he entered administration, was director of the Summer School and from1997 chief academic officer at the Mont Alto campus. In 2000 he joined International Programs as associate dean and has been head of the office since 2002.

John M. Keller
As director of the Education Abroad (EA) area within Penn State's International Programs office, John M. Keller works with a staff of ten to administer more than 150 programs in 40 countries. A former U.S. diplomat who served in Italy, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jamaica, the White House, and Australia, he completed a Ph.D. in communications after he left the Foreign Service. He also holds master's degrees from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, the University of Minnesota, and RMIT in Melbourne, Australia. John serves as adviser for Penn State's faculty Fulbright program and chaired the CIC Study Abroad Directors' (STAB) group until last month. He is interested in encouraging students who participate in international study programs to bring the political awareness they develop overseas back to their home campuses. He considers that international educators need to emphasize the political side of international programs at a time when the United States needs to work hard to improve its international standing. Study abroad is an important part of America's "soft power" and John is interested in exploring how this power can play a larger role in America's public diplomacy.

Orval J. Gingerich
Orval Gingerich is the associate dean for international programs at Augsburg College, where he is also Director of the Center for Global Education. The Center has nationally known programs in Central America, Mexico, and Namibia. Previously, he served as director of cross-cultural programs and associate professor of education at Eastern Mennonite University. In 2002, EMU presented an award to Gingerich for his role in establishing and sustaining the college's successful cross-cultural program that fully integrated study abroad into the university's general education program known as the Global Village Curriculum. Foundational to his international interests are his three years of teaching secondary school in Nigeria following completion of his undergraduate degree at the University of Iowa. Since then he has provided leadership for several study abroad groups in Ghana. Gingerich has an Ed.D. in comparative and international education from the University of Virginia, an M.Ed. in experiential education from the University of Colorado, and a B.A. in science education from the University of Iowa.