NEWS | May 2007 - all articles

This page includes all articles in the May issue of NEWS. Return to summary of articles.

Former scholars to do fellowships with summer scholar programs
Connecting Minnesota and the World
State policymakers take steps but not strides on higher education
Nurturing a partnership with new Chinese liberal arts college
Making the most of summer
BRIEFS

Former scholars awarded fellowships with summer scholar programs

Ma Lee Vang

Ma Lee Vang, who graduates from Gustavus Adolphus College this month, spent last summer helping third graders read in a project she designed as a Phillips scholar. This summer, she'll mentor the 2007 Phillips scholars whose projects range from a writing workshop with high school immigrant and refugee students to a photography workshop for inner city Latino students to a cultural cooking class with girls.

The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation supports six scholars each year from Minnesota private colleges and universities. The selected students choose to work in community service and are potential leaders and change agents. Scholars receive a total of $14,000 over a two-year period and complete a summer project designed to be consistent with the Phillips legacy of giving back to one's community.

Vang did her summer project at Frost Lake Magnet School in St. Paul — the school she attended as a child. Her project advisor was her sixth-grade teacher. Vang deemed it a success when the kids began to understand the reading concepts she was teaching AND apply them to new reading assignments. "I made a difference there,” Vang said.

Vang's experience was very positive, but there were times when she wished for more. "It would have helped to have someone to talk to who had done this before to guide me and answer my questions,” she said. The Minnesota Private College Fund recently received renewed funding from the foundation to continue the scholars program for another three years. Part of the gift will fund a halftime Phillips summer fellowship. As this year's fellow, Vang will help organize a Summer Training Institute and reach out to the 75 former scholars to encourage them to re-connect as scholars and mentors.

When Vang's fellowship ends in August, she hopes to have found a permanent position. "I want a job where I can impact the community in a positive way,” she said.

Another scholar program
Nicole Nelson, a 2004 graduate of St. Olaf College, will also serve as a fellow this summer — for the Urban Education Summer Scholar (UESS) program. As a 2003 scholar, Nelson taught a remedial reading program at Hazel Park Middle School in St. Paul. "It was an eye-opening experience,” she said.

UESS is for undergraduate students of color attending Minnesota private colleges and universities who are obtaining teaching licenses and who want to teach in urban schools. They spend a summer in a service-learning classroom setting in St. Paul public and other urban schools' summer school sessions to gain field experience.

The best part of Nelson's summer experience was getting to know the students. "The stereotypes were completely diminished,” she said. When Nelson accepted a teaching job at Minnesota International Middle School in 2005, she was far less nervous than she would have been without the UESS experience. "With my knowledge of teaching kids of diverse backgrounds, I was much more able to meet their needs,” she said.

UESS is a partnership between Hamline University's Center for Excellence in Urban Teaching, St. Paul Public Schools, Travelers Foundation and the Minnesota Private College Fund. Since its inception, the program has prepared hundreds of teachers of color for the urban classroom.

The summer fellowship, funded by a recent Travelers Foundation gift, will enable Nelson to assist this year's 22 participants and reach out to former scholars to re-engage them as mentors. "I'm really excited to do this,” she says. "Although I'm just a second-year teacher myself, I want to pass on my experience to this upcoming group of teachers.”

Read more about the Phillips Scholarship and UESS Scholarship programs.

Connecting Minnesota and the World

The 17 members of the Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC) have a tradition of connecting Minnesota to the world. This tradition will be on display at the MPCC booth at the NAFSA 2007 Annual Conference, "Preparing Global Citizens," held May 29 – June 1 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. This gathering of professionals in international education and exchange draws more than 7,000 participants from 90 countries.

Many of Minnesota's Private Colleges have a long history of educating international students. "Colleges like Macalester, St. Olaf and St. Scholastica have made education abroad part of their core goals in education,” says Marlene Johnson, NAFSA executive director. "This area of the country is an excellent place to highlight educational programs that have an international focus.”

Beyond attending the conference, representatives from MPCC campuses have been helping plan this sizable event and Augsburg College and the University of St. Thomas have signed on as sponsors. Visibility for our colleges also will come from Macalester Professor Jack Weatherford's plenary speech and Concordia College's pre- and post-conference sessions in Chinese and Arabic.

MPCC will be sharing these key facts at the NAFSA conference:

• More than 1,700 international students study at our institutions.
• Nearly three out of five Minnesota college students who study abroad attend one of our institutions. That's more than 4,500 students.
• Many of our members lead the nation in participation rates for students in study abroad programs.
• China is a growing focus for our study abroad efforts with 16 programs in place, including one added this year with United International College — a unique liberal arts institution in Zhuhai (see related story).

Welcoming International Students
Minnesota's Private Colleges are committed to welcoming international students. While students at our institutions come from more than 60 nations, Minnesota sees the greatest number of students coming from China, India, Nepal, South Korea and Japan.

The following table sums up the international students studying at Minnesota's Private Colleges in 2005-2006*:

*Source: Institute of International Education, Open Doors Report 2006. Institutions may have more current numbers available.

Sending Students Abroad
Of the Minnesota college students who study abroad, 58 percent attend Minnesota's Private Colleges. This contribution to international exchange far exceeds our size in the market, given that we enroll 18 percent of the state's college students.

The following table sums up the study abroad numbers for Minnesota's Private College students participating in study abroad programs in 2004-2005*:

*Source: Institute of International Education and MPCRF. Institutions may have more current numbers available.

The strength of our study abroad programs can be attributed in part to the liberal arts emphasis on global diversity and awareness. Our institutions also are committed to preparing students to be good citizens and exemplary leaders through international education.

Visit our campus Web sites to find out more about study abroad programs and international admission. View the MPCC handout for NAFSA PDF (499 KB)

State policymakers take steps but not strides on higher education

With the close of the 2007 legislative session, it appears that policymakers have taken some worthwhile steps without moving far enough to truly address the state's fundamental education challenges. State action on the five components of An Education Agenda for the Common Good, which was supported by the members of the Minnesota Private College Council and other community groups, appears insufficient.

Here are some of the key components of the Omnibus Higher Education Bill (House File 1063) that Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed into law on May 30:

• Achieve Scholarships
  A highlight of this session has been the creation of new Achieve scholarships that will offer new encouragement for hard work in high school. Championed by Gov. Pawlenty's administration, the scholarships will be awarded to low-income students who have undertaken rigorous college-prep coursework. This is the kind of step the state needed to take to encourage those least likely to go to college to do just that. The Council's agenda called for a similar new scholarship effort but at a higher funding level. The bill appropriated $10.8 million for the biennium to fund one-time scholarships of $1,200.
• Need-Based Aid
  The biggest disappointment this session was the decision to increase base funding for need-based aid through the State Grant Program by only $2 million. This means that the state has not significantly addressed the falling value of this program's average awards, particularly for students from lowest-income families. Our advocacy did help sustain the program at a time when its funding faced several threats. For example, the bill did retain all of the Pell Grant and program savings and assigned them to improvements in the Grant Program, compared to earlier proposals to siphon these dollars for other non-financial aid uses.
• Postsecondary Child Care Grant
  The bill does improve childcare support for student parents. This was a key part of our agenda, given the need to help more low- and middle-income students afford post-high school education and the barrier that childcare costs can create. The bill includes a $300 increase in the maximum annual grant for child care expenses for student parents. 
• Minnesota GI Bill
  To help support the education needs of recent veterans, the state has created a Minnesota GI bill with $12 million of funding for the biennium. Along with the direct benefit to these veterans, there would be a positive impact for the state from any resulting increase in the number of Minnesotans who earn college degrees. Funds will be able to be used by veterans at private as well as public colleges.
• Public System Appropriations
  Policymakers were focused this session on moderating tuition increases at public institutions in the two government systems, the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. This resulted in appropriations that exceeded the governor's recommendations and very nearly matched the public systems requests. This spending is of concern; moderating tuition for current students is inefficient and costly when compared to the state's ability to instead target supports for low- and middle-income students through the State Grant Program.

Looking ahead, we must always keep in mind that Minnesota is at a critical juncture for its economic and social future. Demographic changes are radically altering the age composition of our population and workforce and our school age population. Academic preparedness is critical for all students, but especially those students for whom the current system is not as likely to reach effectively. The state will need to nearly double its production of bachelor's degree recipients within the next decade. International competitive standards will draw into question the stability of Minnesota's quality of life and economic vitality in the decade to come.

Long-term vision is central in understanding how the latest higher education bill falls short of our common needs. Our economic advantage in the global marketplace relies heavily upon investment in our future workforce, essentially our future students and higher education institutions. Much more needs to be done.

Nurturing a partnership with new Chinese liberal arts college

The path Bill Frame walked each day between his Zhuhai apartment and the UIC campus

After a six week-stint in Hong Kong and southern China, Bill Frame has seen Chinese higher education in much greater detail. The former president of Augsburg College has had a hand in nurturing the development of United International College (UIC) — a new liberal arts college in Zhuhai, China. "This is a unique and exciting opportunity that can advance the capacity and readiness of both of our countries to embrace the global society in which we now find ourselves," Frame says. He consulted with faculty and staff to identify and begin developing the details of the partnership agreement the Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC) signed earlier this year with UIC. The partnership will foster staff, faculty and student exchanges between UIC and interested members of the Minnesota Private College Council.

"Here's a college that needs us, and the six members of the Council that are initially collaborating in the partnership acknowledge that we need UIC," Frame says. "Of the three distinguishing elements of UIC's identity — English-speaking, international and liberal arts — the one we can really help with is liberal education. After all, our faculties and leadership share the relatively new conviction that the humanities as well as the other liberal arts and sciences must be constantly present ingredients in the teaching of the professional arts — not merely a preparation for professional training."

Frame states that China has had great success in graduating specialists in science and math, but it hasn't cultivated the skills that produce leaders. UIC intends to graduate men and women who are capable of leadership by means of mission and strategy. Its education features critical thinking and deliberative conversation, and supposes that "an open mind,” as Frame puts it, "helps liberate imagination and ingenuity."

Re-introducing liberal arts
The agreement with the Minnesota Private College Council is the first UIC has reached with an American college or group of colleges. UIC itself is the product of a partnership between Beijing Normal and Hong Kong Baptist Universities. It is the first fully sanctioned liberal arts college to be created in China since the early 20th century.  

UIC opened in fall 2005 and currently has 1,200 students and 11 majors. The eventual target enrollment is 4,000-4,500 with half of the enrollment places filled by students from abroad. The expectation is that UIC graduates will be bi-lingual and combine professional competency with broad cultural literacy. 

Visits by UIC leader and students
This summer, 30 UIC students will visit six MPCC members, spending one week on each campus. They will earn academic credit from UIC by writing about the role of Minnesota's private liberal arts colleges in preparing immigrant and native populations for life in a free society. The hosting institutions include Augsburg College, Bethany Lutheran College, Concordia College, Gustavus Adolphus College, Hamline University and the College of St. Scholastica. To help prepare for student visits, Dr. Edmund Kwok, executive vice president of UIC, visited each campus during a 10-day trip May 17-27. As part of his trip, Kwok promoted new ideas for connecting Minnesota and China; his meetings included business leaders as well as directors Tony Lorusso from the Department of Trade and Susan Heegaard of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.

Frame anticipates that the collaboration will also include semester or yearlong teaching stints by MPCC faculty and teaching assistants starting this fall. "This is an opulent opportunity to get a big taste of China at a critical moment in history and in the Pearl River Delta — China's manufacturing and export center,” Frame says. The first MPCC student exchange with UIC is planned for next spring.

A mutual benefit
The collaboration among MPCC colleges to accommodate the partnership is a healthy development and the exchange can help bring Chinese and U.S. higher education into a regular dialogue. "We need to understand each other's national educational objectives,” Frame says. "And we each may find things in the other's traditions that help us practice the collaboration required in the new global society that we share.”

Making the most of summer

This summer at Hamline University, middle and high school science teachers will learn how to incorporate forensic science in their teaching to get young students excited about science. The three-day Forensic Science Educational Conference will include lectures and hands-on workshops on fingerprints, firearms and tool marks, DNA analysis, trace evidence and blood stain pattern interpretation. Armed with this knowledge, teachers will have new tools to enrich and develop challenging, innovative science curricula.

This is just one example of the diverse summer programming occurring at the 17 member schools of the Minnesota Private College Council. Although the usual contingent of college students is absent, a different set of students enlivens campuses. Each one of our colleges is engaged in programs that encourage and prepare K-12 students to get ready for college — or help better their teachers. Here are some additional examples of this summer's programs:

• At Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Professor William Bukowski will stir the creative juices of students in his Young Michelangelo Art Camp. The camp welcomes 5th- to 7th-graders in the mornings and opens to high school artists in the afternoons. Bukowski has been offering the camp since 1988 and teaches drawing, painting and cartooning.
• The Carleton College Liberal Arts Experience (CLAE) brings 50 of the best and brightest sophomores of African descent from across the country to Carleton for an all expenses paid, one-week summer program. The CLAE program introduces students to the strengths of a liberal arts education through an array of courses in science, art, social sciences, and technology. Another Carleton opportunity, the Summer Teaching Institute, is for high school teachers of Advanced Placement, enriched and accelerated classes.
• At the College of St. Catherine's Business & Technology Careers Camp high school girls find out how business and technology skills are combined in different careers. The girls build an online shopping mall and discover how it feels to be "at college” by taking classes and staying overnight on campus for a week. 
• Concordia University, St. Paul offers a weeklong Music Theatre Camp for 6th- to 12th-graders. Students receive training in acting, dance and movement, vocal technique, plus professional seminars in auditioning and performance. On the final day, they present a performance to family and friends.
• Concordia Language Villages — a program of Concordia College, Moorhead — continues its tradition of offering the most extensive language and culture immersion programs (in 14 languages) in the U.S. More than 6,000 young people participate each summer.  
• Girls entering 7th grade in the fall can attend the University of St. Thomas' Science, Technology and Engineering Preview Summer Camp (STEPS), hosted by the School of Engineering. The five-day introduction to the world of technology and engineering will include experience designing, manufacturing and flying a radio-controlled airplane.  

MPCC schools continue to seek ways to engage with future students and enhance the preparation of students and teachers throughout Minnesota. Find out more about preparing for college success.

BRIEFS 

• Bethel University President George Brushaber announced that he will retire in June 2008. His 25 years at the helm makes him the longest serving college president in Minnesota.
• Minnesota's Promise is a framework for creating and sustaining world-class schools in Minnesota. Informed by more than two years of public input, dialogue and research, Minnesota's Promise now identifies ten strategies to achieve its vision. Join the discussions on each strategy in the discussion forum on the LearnmoreMN Web site.
• The Knowledge Exchange, a collaborative of Minnesota institutions focusing on the knowledge industry, hosted Sam Pitroda, chair of India's Knowledge Commission on May 29 to explore Minnesota-India collaborations in many areas. For more information on the Pitroda visit contact Bruce Corrie, 651-641-8226 or corrie@csp.edu.