USF wins 2010 Senator Paul Simon Award for
Comprehensive Internationalization.
The University of San Francisco is among five institutions
of higher education in the country to win the 2010 Senator Paul Simon Award for
Comprehensive Internationalization.
The award, created in 2003 and presented annually by NAFSA:
Association of International Educators (formerly National Association of Foreign
Student Advisers), recognizes outstanding and innovative efforts in campus
internationalization, a cause for which the late Sen. Simon (D-Ill) was a
strong advocate. Sen. Simon’s leadership helped create the National Security
Education Program, meant to address critical national security deficiencies in
language and cultural expertise as well as the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad
Foundation Act – currently awaiting action by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations
committee.
Rated by U.S. News & World Report as one of the most ethnically diverse universities
in the country for a number of years, USF has students from 75 nations. In
addition, USF sponsors a wide range of programs designed to expose students to
professional work outside the U.S. and to help them apply their classroom
learning to global projects.
“Being chosen as a recipient for the 2010 Senator Paul Simon
Award for Comprehensive Internationalization is a mark of distinction and we
are honored,” said USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J. “Our international
focus is seen not only in our curriculum, but also in the international
students we have at USF, and the global service learning programs we’ve
cultivated. It is central to our mission to offer our students, faculty, and
staff opportunities to serve others while working for justice throughout the
world.”
USF Vice Provost Gerardo Marin, who has been instrumental in
international curriculum development at USF, said that diversity is an
elemental part of the USF experience and something USF is committed to growing.
“From the faculty we hire, to the international partnerships built, we are
continually improving and increasing the number of programs that challenge
students to become leaders who will think beyond their own neighborhoods and
cultures,” Marin said.
USF and this year’s other awardees – Carnegie Mellon
University, Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Loyola University Maryland,
and Northeastern University – will be honored at the annual NAFSA conference in
Kansas City, Mo. in June and profiled in the fall 2010 NAFSA report “Internationalizing
the Campus 2010: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities.”
