Penn State extends reach worldwide with international programs

At first blush, Penn State - tucked away in the mountains hours from a major city - may not seem a likely locale for a worldly program.

But a year ago, Pennsylvania's flagship university opened its doors to a new graduate School of International Affairs, enrolling 27 students - 13 of them from foreign countries.

Taking Pennsylvania State University international is just what university president Graham B. Spanier first proposed more than a decade ago.

"There are so many ways in which we've become more international," Spanier said this week. "We felt this needed to be reflected in an academic school devoted to international affairs."

The international affairs school was just the latest frontier for Spanier. The university in 2000 completed a merger with Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, and in January opened a $60 million law school building on Penn State's main campus, with a glass-enclosed library that appears to float atop it. The building complements the law school site in Carlisle, which is getting a $50 million renovation and expansion to be completed by December.

A decade ago, under Spanier's leadership, the university started its College of Information Sciences and Technology, which today enrolls more than 2,000 students.

While the international affairs school is smaller, Spanier said it will have a profound influence on the university as it continues its global push.

The university enrolled 4,157 international students from 131 countries in 2008, more than ever before, and saw a 35 percent increase in applications from international students. China, South Korea, and India top the list.

About 30 percent of all students in Penn State graduate programs are international.

Conversely, the school sent 1,624 students to study abroad for a semester in 2008-09, another record. Nearly 1,000 more students participated in "embedded" programs in which they visited a foreign country for a week or so, a program that began in 2005.

The university has developed more than 100 formal partnerships with universities around the globe.

"Students who become future leaders have to have more international perspective in government, commerce, human affairs, philanthropy - everything. Everything is crossing international boundaries today," said Spanier, who is in his 14th year as president of the 92,000-student university (including its branch campuses and world campus).

It is rare for a state university to have an international affairs school, which are themselves not that common, said Leigh Morris Sloane, executive director of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs. Ten of the 21 American universities that belong to the association have full-fledged international affairs schools, while the others are public policy schools with international affairs tracks or dual programs.

Most universities with international affairs schools, such as Georgetown, George Washington, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Pittsburgh, and Tufts, are located in large metropolitan areas, she said.

Spanier said Penn State's lack of proximity to a major city is not a downside.

"With information technology these days, we're perhaps the most connected university in the country in terms of our sophistication," he said.

Several airlines regularly fly in and out of State College, and the school hosts visitors from around the world daily, Spanier added.

Being located in the law school building on Penn State's main campus enriches the international school, officials said.

"The law school has a very prominent faculty with deep expertise in international affairs," said law school dean Philip J. McConnaughay, who also chairs the international school's executive committee. Both are professional graduate programs; some students are pursuing joint degrees.

Because of the law school's presence in Carlisle, the international school can offer classes there, and also is exploring partnerships with nearby Dickinson College and the U.S. Army War College, McConnaughay said.

International affairs faculty boast an impressive list of prior assignments: a former senior director of Middle East Affairs for the National Security Council; a former senior adviser to the presidency of the European Union; a China specialist who is a scholar of technology transfer; and one of the world's leading experts in the use of natural science policy in diplomacy.

Students like that their professors continue to have significant world ties, such as those of international school director Tiyanjana Maluwa.

"Dr. Maluwa was going over to Africa to be an adviser, the main legal expert, for a high-level panel on Darfur convened by the African Union. And then he was coming back and teaching our class," said student Scott Hillkirk, 35, former director of international recruitment for AEON Amity Corp. of Japan's Chicago office.

Professor Flynt Leverett, whose career included 12 years with the U.S. government, including a stint as a CIA senior analyst and a National Security Council senior director, appeared this month on Charlie Rose on PBS to talk about the Iranian elections.

Leverett said Penn State's rural location has been no barrier for his students in finding internships. One is interning at a think tank in Washington this summer, another is in Germany, and a third is in the Persian Gulf region.

Student Chanda Turner, 35, of Winston-Salem, N.C., just returned from a three-week internship in Nyeri, Kenya, where she developed a code of ethics for a telemedicine project, in which people from rural areas can go to a health kiosk to have their readings checked.

The international flavor of the student body also enhances the academic experience, Leverett said. Students range in age from 21 to 54 and were selected from a couple of hundred applicants.

"I teach a core course in international economics, and when we'd be talking about foreign direct investment and what kind of impact that has, I have students there from China and India who can speak directly to what it has meant in their countries," Leverett said.

The international school aspires to grow to 100 students over the next few years and add a doctoral program, and it has begun looking to hire another half-dozen professors.

It recently advertised for a professor of institutional economics and development.

The school, the ad read, "invites nominations and applications of established scholars worldwide."

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