The literature abounds with information on study abroad, international internships, volunteer and work experience.  Internationalizing the campus and the curriculum are the new buzzwords in higher education.  Often multiculturalism and diversity are included in the international goals of the university.  New campus based programs and linkage agreements with foreign universities are providing affordable opportunities for students to travel and participate in a variety of academic exchange programs.  Both study abroad and work through volunteer services or international internship programs are effective approaches to prepare college students for leadership and work in a global economy. 
 
Several national initiatives have been implemented to encourage greater participation of African-American college students in international careers.  At the core of these new initiatives is study abroad.  In 1995, the United Negro College Fund created the Institute of Public Policy (IIPP) to identify, recruit, and train students for careers in international affairs.  Through a partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, students were identified and recruited to participate in several major components of the IIPP model. 

More recently, the Academy for Educational Development, a nonprofit agency based in Washington, D.C., created the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Fellowship Program.  Graduate fellowships support master's degrees in public policy and international affairs in over 35 U.S. graduate schools.  To prepare highly qualified students for graduate school, a Junior Institute is held during the summer on the campus of five schools of public policy and international affairs.  Participants engage in intensive course work designed to improve their communication skills and enable them to analyze public policy and understand international issues. 

United States Representative Donald M. Payne (D-N.J.) has a plan that would increase the presence of African Americans in global affairs.  He thinks that more students of color should pursue careers in international affairs.  His plan is in effect another piece of a big picture, which is to include the opportunity for more students to participate in study abroad at the undergraduate level regardless of major or career choice. 

Professor Victor Jones thinks that his mission is to give something back to the African-American community.   This past summer, he didn't hesitate to accompany a group of students to Europe.  It was a chance for him to return to Paris, where he spent 10 years working as a professional architect, and London, a city that afforded him invaluable 
experience as an adventurous Harvard student looking  for practical experience in his field.  Today, he teaches in the southeast at Clemson University and commutes once a month to his hometown, Los Angeles, to run a studio program for domestic exchange students who want to study architecture on the west coast.  In 1994, Victor Jones 
was a recipient of the J. William Fulbright Foreign scholarship confirming his commitment to the importance of international experiences. 

Professor Jones states, I have always been grateful to those individuals who helped me broaden my horizons. Opening the doors to historic cultures is a clear path to exchange and learning. Acquiring the skills to speak a foreign language has been particularly meaningful. This is especially important for young African Americans 
who more often feel limited by their immediate surroundings. He continues, Foreign travel programs, like the one at Clemson, provide an opportunity for these individuals to realize their great potential, not only as members of their immediate region, or community but as citizens of the world living and working in a global context.  

Kenneth Koontz is an 18 year-old native of Charlotte, North Carolina, who plans to become an architect. The highlight of his past summer featured his participation in Clemson University's Summer Travel /Study Abroad program in architecture. He visited the Mystic Temple of Stonehenge in southern England known worldwide for its huge and ancient stones. On a tour that took  Ken and 19 of his classmates to two of the great 
capitals of the world, London and Paris, he was able to get an exciting glimpse into his future career as an architect.  Not only did he view art and architecture but he was also mentored by Professor Jones, who could take the side streets to places where he had lived and worked in these two fascinating cities.  Ken has captured the international 
vision passed on by his mentor. 
 
At 19, Tara Harvey manages to squeeze twice as much into her life as other young people her age.  She is a student at San Francisco City College.  Tara lives in the San Francisco Housing Projects, but she is not letting that stop her from achieving her goals.  I want to learn to look at people as people.   Last summer, Tara went to Caerffili Wales to help run a summer camp for local children.  She teamed up with World PULSE (Program for Understanding, Leadership, Service and Exchange), an organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area, which engages Bay Area young people from low income communities to become local and international voluntary community leaders and global citizens.   World Pulse is a unique program that gives students from different Bay Area neighborhoods a chance to learn from and educate each other while sharing a life-changing experience of educational travel and global service.  Travel opportunities include sites in France, Germany, Mexico, Turkey, Wales (UK) and the United States.  Because no previous travel experience is required, the program is very attractive to many of its participants. 

Study abroad in Central America pushed Jaecinta Harris in the right direction career wise.  Her hometown is San Diego, but she is a student at Evergreen State College in Seattle, Washington where she is majoring in comparative literature and ethnic studies.  She signed up with the Center for Global Education and earned college credit through Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The scholarship award she received, along with financial aid, enabled her to enroll in the Sustainable Development and Social Change Program. 

Jaecinta found the experience empowering.  In leaving this country, I was able to compare and contrast my perceptions of the world with those who are also inhabitants of it.  This allowed me to deconstruct the identity that has been forced upon me and redefine myself according to my own values.  The act of re-discovering myself has been more than just empowering.  I have learned the language of open-minded dialogue and acquired the ability to examine a problem from many different perspectives.  It is for these reasons that I am leaving America again, soon to return again and again and again.   The Center for Global Education is nationally recognized for its work on experiential education.  Students, like Jaecinta are trained to think more critically about global issues and encouraged to become a catalyst in creating a more just and peaceful society. 

When queried about her experiences in South Africa, Natalie McFarlin, a sociology major at the University of Michigan, gave the following account.  I was shocked to see that American culture is so pervasive in South Africa.  I remember feeling excited, but disappointed at the same time.  The familiarity of it was comforting, but I also wanted to experience Africa.  I realized later that no matter how hard I tried to fight it, the images of Africa so prevalent in our society were ingrained in my brain.  I had expectations based upon the media's representations of Africa.   Upon returning to the United States, I felt more patriotic than I had ever felt in my life.  I gained a better sense of self.  I have become more interested in the international community and I am determined to no longer be content with having knowledge of only my immediate environment.  

Dexter Stowers is pursuing a bachelor's degree in sociology with plans to study race, ethnicity and social stratification.  He studied in Lyon, France at Faculty Catholique last summer and returned to his hometown of Anderson, South Carolina with an unbelievable fluency in French.  Dexter enthusiastically relates some of the highlights of this incredible experience with his peer group and faculty around the campus of Clemson University.  I studied with students from all over the world.  One of the most important aspects of my trip was that, for the first time in my life, I was not identified by skin color but by my citizenship American.  Many of the students whom I met were from Africa.  I was overwhelmed by their ability to speak several European languages and multiple African languages fluently.   Dexter has assumed a leadership role on campus as vice president of the French Club.  Having become friends with the Ambassador to France from Togo, he hopes to make his next trip abroad to Africa.  He now has a better understanding of the African Diaspora! 

Traditional education included a foreign language course for most liberal arts majors, but now the new challenges are to make foreign languages and multicultural awareness relevant to science and engineering majors as well.  Engineers and science majors are just as likely to work in a company that does product development and manufacturing for an international market.  Global economies have redefined traditional education.  In addition to learning a foreign language, students have been encouraged to travel and participate in a total cultural immersion experience. 

Janiy Yates was particularly excited about studying at the Technical University of Budapest (TUB) when he signed the agreement to participate in the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) based at Georgetown University.  The cost was reasonable because he was able to pay the same fees he would normally pay for a semester at his home university.  That was one real advantage as well as the fact that the language of instruction was English. 

Upon his return, prospective employers were more interested in Janiy's semester at the Technical University of Budapest (TUB) than they were in his accomplishments as an honors graduate in chemical engineering with fabulous cooperative education experiences under his belt.  Their questions included everything, but at the heart of the interview was what motivated a young African-American male from Beaufort, South Carolina to go to Hungary for a semester then travel to Romania and other countries before returning home. 
The profiles of students engaged in the process of acquiring a global view lend testimony to the fact that all students can benefit from a study abroad experience.  These students come from different socio-economic backgrounds and different geographic regions of the United States.  I am reminded that educating African-American college students to become confident world leaders is a village process.  Dr. Kobina Atobrah, a native of Ghana who also studied in the United States and received a doctorate degree in engineering from Princeton University, recently spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.  I think the greatest challenge, particularly for African-American youth, is to know Africa (Sub-Saharan Africa for that matter).  Reconcile with their own identity in the context of Africa without feeling ashamed or apologetic about it, and feeling proud in the process.  That will be the surest way of uprooting the undertones of an inferiority complex one comes across, lingering in the minds of our youth.  Organizing a series of summer programs for our students to go to Africa, plan opportunities for cultural immersion, enjoy the food, culture, dances, literature, festivals, history (slave castles and all), schools, colleges, and commercial life, is a first step in debunking the myths about Africa," he says.  He further notes that Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, founder of the NAACP and one of the great leaders of the 20th century, redefined himself in Africa. 

There are other great leaders of the 20th century who traveled abroad to gain a new perspective which they brought back to America.  We as educators must be quick to tell our students about how the nonviolent philosophy of Mahatma Ghandi influenced Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and consequently the civil rights movement that evolved in America.  Dr. King actually traveled to India and trained with Ghandi.  He later received a Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership in the nonviolent social revolution that changed America. 

As an educator, I am fully aware that leadership skills can be taught; however, some of the best lessons might still be learned beyond the borders of the American classroom.  A look at contemporary political leaders will clearly unmask the impact of these experiences in a foreign environment.  One might compare and contrast United States President Bill Clinton and his unique experiences as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in London with that of Ghana's first President, Kwame Nkrumah who studied as a foreign student at Lincoln University, a Historically Black University (HBCU) in Lincoln, Pennsylvania.  Lincoln University can boast that it has trained more than one African president and numerous diplomats. 

As we move toward the next millennium, I think that educating African-American college students for global leadership should be a high priority on the higher education agenda.  I am convinced that our future leaders will use the personal computer and a passport to a much greater extent than the present generation.  And, I find it comforting to know that so many people and organizations are preparing students of color with cross-cultural training and leadership skills for the future. 

World PULSE 
4379 Howe St. #3 
Oakland, CA  94611 
Phone:  (510) 338-0874 
Fax:  (510) 338-0875 
http://www.worldpulse.org 
Email:  info@worldpulse.org 
 
Center for Global Education 
Augsburg College 
2211 Riverside Avenue 
Minneapolis, MN  55454 
Phone:  (612) 330-1159 or 1-800-299-8889 
Fax: (612) 330-1695 
Or send an e-mail response to: 
Globaled@augsburg.edu 
http://www.augsburg.edu/global/ 

The Institute for International Public Policy 
United Negro College Fund, Inc. 
8260 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive 
P. O. Box 10444 
Fairfax, VA  22031 

The PPIA Fellowship Program 
Academy for Educational Development 
1875 Connecticut Avenue, N. W. 
Washington, D.C.  20009 
PPIA homepage at:  www.aed.org/ppia or call 1-800-613-7742 

Work Abroad:  The Complete Guide to Finding A Job Overseas 
Transitions Abroad 
P. O. Box 1300 
Amherst, MA  01004-1300 
Phone: (800) 293-0373 
Fax: (413) 256-0373 
www.transabroad.com 

U. S. Representative Donald M. Payne (D-NJ) 
Sponsor of: The Expanding International Education for All Act, H.R. 3311 
For more information, contact Representative Payne's Office at (202) 225-3436