SJSU Salzburg Program to Serve as Model for Higher Education Globalization
Contact: Pat Lopes Harris, 408-656-6999
SAN JOSE, Calif., — The SJSU Salzburg Program has been named one of the nation’s top ten citizen diplomacy programs in the field of higher education by the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy, in partnership with the U. S. State Department and the NAFSA Association of International Educators. As a result, San Jose State has been invited to participate in the first U.S. Summit & Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy to be held November 16 through 19 in Washington, D.C.
“It is very gratifying for San Jose State University to be recognized as a national leader in promoting global citizenship,” Interim President Don W. Kassing said. “As the foremost public institution of higher education in Silicon Valley, we are strategically committed to preparing people to live and work in an interdependent world. This award encourages us to do even more.”
The summit will be the first such meeting since President Eisenhower’s People-to-People Conference on the same subject 54 years ago and will launch a “Decade of Citizen Diplomacy,” with the goal of doubling the number of American citizen diplomats by 2020. A description of the SJSU Salzburg Program will be included in a comprehensive portfolio to be distributed at the summit and available online for the general public and interested parties.
The SJSU Salzburg Program was established to help San Jose State develop a more integrated approach to globalizing the university. In 2005, SJSU entered into a long-term partnership with the world-renowned Salzburg Global Seminar to participate in its International Study Program on Global Citizenship. Each summer the program provides faculty, staff, students and administrators with the opportunity to explore pressing issues from an international perspective during intensive week-long sessions at the seminar’s home in the heart of Austria. Participants spend the following academic year working on applied projects to enhance the university’s work on global affairs and engage in other activities to promote global citizenship.
The U. S. Summit & Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy will broaden the momentum generated by the work of the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy (USCCD) as a national resource base and network for Americans to be engaged as citizen diplomats. The summit will also leverage the results of two major leadership forums focused on the revival of citizen diplomacy as a critical component of U. S. public diplomacy and foreign policy strategy.
In preparation for the summit, USCCD created nine task force groups: Higher Education, Business, Community-Based Organizations, Development Assistance, Global Health, International Cultural Engagement, International Voluntary Service, K-12 Education, and Youth Service. Each of the task force groups selected ten exemplary programs based on innovation, sustainability, replicability and institutional partnerships.Â
Read more on the SJSU Salzburg Program.
http://salzburg.sjsu.edu/
Read more on the U. S. Summit & Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy.
http://uscenterforcitizendiplomacy.org/summit/
San Jose State — Silicon Valley’s largest institution of higher learning with 27,400 students and 3,190 employees — is part of the California State University system. SJSU’s 154-acre downtown campus anchors the nation’s 10th largest city.