The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP) has announced its selection of forty-one African universities to host 59 African-born scholars from the United States and Canada. These Fellows will travel to Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda for visits ranging from two weeks to three months, where they will conduct academic projects with their peers at the host universities in order to meet specific needs at the institutions. These projects are cross-disciplinary, including subjects such as agroforestry, e-learning modules, ethnomusicology, and military mental health. The CADFP, now in its third year, is designed to avert Africa’s brain drain, build capacity at host institutions, and develop long-term, mutually-beneficial collaborations between universities in Africa and the United States and Canada. It is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with United States International University Africa (USIU-Africa) in Nairobi, Kenya, which houses the Advisory Council. 

 

Universities in eligible host countries can submit a project request for visiting scholars to come to their universities starting in December 2016, with applications open through July 5, 2016. African-born academics residing in the United States or Canada can apply any time, and are matched with accepted projects on a rolling basis. Prospective hosts and Fellows can find eligibility requirements and instructions in the "How to Apply" section of the program’s website.

Last month, IIE hosted a panel discussion and reception to mark the release of a new IIE report, Social Justice and Sustainable Change: The Impacts of Higher Education. This report, which surveyed nearly 2,000 alumni across 22 countries, yields the first results of a groundbreaking 10-year impact study of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP). The report shows that funding the post-graduate academic pursuits of emerging social justice leaders from marginalized groups leads to significant, measurable benefits for communities and organizations in their countries and throughout the world. The event provided a forum for discussion on the implications of the study’s findings, as well as the most effective ways for philanthropic investment to empower social justice leaders to drive social change.

In the recent IIENetworker magazine, David R. Lee, Heike Michelsen, and Marina Markot describe mechanisms created at Cornell University to internationalize faculty and to integrate experiences and learning into the curriculum. They share a number of new projects, courses, and programs created as a result of newly generated university-wide grant programs. "Faculty played a key role for example in two symposia on ‘meaningful international experiences’ for students and their integration into the curriculum," write Lee, Michelsen, and Markot.

The 2016 IIE Summit on Generation Study Abroad will take place on October 23-25, 2016 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC  to bring education, government and business leaders and journalists together for action-oriented discussion on how to ensure international experience is a key part of a 21st century education and make study abroad opportunities available to all. The 2016 IIE Summit is part of IIE’s Generation Study Abroad®, a five year initiative to double the number of U.S. students studying abroad by the end of the decade. Generation Study Abroad seeks to significantly increase and diversify participation by bringing higher education institutions, employers, governments, K-12 teachers, associations, and others together to build on current best practices and find new ways to extend study abroad opportunities and resources to tens of thousands of college students whose needs are not currently served by existing study abroad programs. The Summit will continue to push the envelope to change how we think and "do" study abroad as we work together to achieve our ambitious goal of doubling by the end of the decade.

IIE is pleased to announce, in partnership with The New York Times in Education, the 2016 Generation Study Abroad Voices Video Challenge. Study abroad returnees are encouraged to submit digital story submissions between 0:30 and 2 minutes long that demonstrate how study abroad gave them an edge, the impact it had on their personal or professional life, and how The New York Times content helped them navigate, enhance or make sense of their experience. Winners will receive a $1,000 cash prize, an iPad, a trip to the IIE Summit on Generation Study Abroad in Washington D.C., and a video spotlight on The New York Times in Education website. Winners will also be recognized as a Generation Study Abroad Voice.