The International Programs Center is pleased to announce an exciting partnership between UNCG’s School of Health & Human Services and School of Education and Universität Hamburg’s Faculty of Psychology & Human Movement Science and Faculty of Education. This new collaboration will not only explore global opportunities in joint research and lectures, but also facilitate opportunities for student/staff mobility and the exchange of academic material and information.

This spring, we welcomed to campus Dr. Erin Gerlach, Dr. Claus Krieger, and Dr. Wiebke Langer from Universität Hamburg to meet with various deans, chairs, faculty and a Guilford County Schools liaison to share research and explore student placement opportunities abroad.

Dr. Wiebke Langer spent a total of 6 weeks at UNCG and integrated herself into the Department of Kinesiology. She had strong engagement and interactions with the School of Education as well, writing a collaborative grant for international exchange with Dr. Jane He (SOE) and Professor Judy Fowler (Physical Education Health Teacher Education Concentration Program Coordinator in KIN). In addition, she is writing another grant with Dr. Ben Dyson (KIN) and her colleagues from Hamburg. During her time at UNCG, she was very active with class observations and American cultural experiences.

                                                                                          Universität Hamburg delegation is shown in photo with SOE Dean Randy Penfield

In partnership with Stellenbosch University, the International Programs Center has developed UNCG in South Africa – a novel initiative to support first year student success that will culminate in a summer study abroad program in Summer 2024.

IPC’s very own Logan Stanfield (pictured left), Assistant Director of Study Abroad and Exchange, is spearheading the development of this incredible opportunity and traveled to South Africa this spring to finalize the programming efforts. “UNCG in South Africa is going to be an amazing opportunity for our students because Stellenbosch is a phenomenal university and partner in a beautiful part of the world. I am also excited that this group will have lots of extra support for any first-time travelers. One of IPC’s goals is reaching a greater number of students who have never been abroad before and maybe wonder if study abroad is meant for them – because it definitely is!“, says Stanfield. 

Throughout their first year, UNCG in South Africa participants will engage in a series of pre-program sessions designed to support student success, strengthen ties to UNCG’s campus community, and prepare for a four week summer study abroad experience in the Western Cape of South Africa. The program is built to support UNCG’s academic core by requiring all students to enroll in Stellenbosch courses that have been pre-approved to fulfill select UNCG degree requirements. In addition, all students will take a course in South African Political History to contextualize their time abroad.

Another benefit for participating students will be tailored scholarship support, as each student will be coached to apply for at least one scholarship. Students that have no past travel experience are especially encouraged to apply, as the program is designed specifically to support first-time travelers. A visit to Robben Island (site of Nelson Mandela and other leaders’ imprisonment), world-famous scenic places like Table Mountain and Cape Point, ecological preserves home to wildlife ranging from African Elephants to African Penguins, and visits to artisanal marketplaces are just a few of the historical and cultural highlights planned for students. Recruitment for the program will begin at Spartan Orientation and Registration (SOAR) in June 2023.

From March 23 to March 25, 2023, twenty-five UNCG students attended the Southern Regional Model United Nations (SRMUN) conference in Charlotte, NC. Model UN is a simulation of international diplomacy in which students represent UN Member States and negotiate resolutions to key problems in international relations.

At this spring’s SRMUN, UNCG students represented six UN Member States—Barbados, The Netherlands, Rwanda, Singapore, Sweden, and the United States—on five UN committees: the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, International Organization of Migration, and UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Serving on these committees, UNCG students contributed to the successful negotiation of resolutions addressing various issues, including economic stabilization, multidimensional poverty, gender equality, and civilian protection in armed conflict. For their efforts, members of the UNCG delegation returned to Greensboro with eight conference awards, including for Distinguished Delegation (Singapore), Outstanding Chairperson (ECOSOC, UNRWA), Outstanding Position Paper—Delegation (Netherlands, Sweden, Singapore), and Outstanding Position Paper—Committee (IOM, UNRWA)!

This marked the fifth consecutive spring SRMUN at which UNCG delegates won one or more conference awards.  More importantly, SRMUN provided students with the opportunity to learn more about international relations, develop and practice their negotiation skills, and make connections with students from other institutions; as Catherine Lerma ’23, the current president of the Model UN Club, commented, “UNCG students prepared extensively prior to the conference and not only received a plethora of awards but successfully practiced diplomacy and collaboration with other students.” This experience was made possible with the generous support of a grant from the Kohler Fund administered by the UNCG International Programs Center, and student members of the UNCG Model UN Club are already busy preparing to attend conferences in the 2023-2024 academic year.

Students interested in joining this club or learning more about Model UN, including opportunities to earn course credit, should contact the faculty moderator, Dr. Michael Broache (mpbroach@uncg.edu) of the Department of Political Science and member of the International & Global Studies Advisory Committee.

The goals of Dr. Wen-Yi Wang’s visit include (a) analyzing the data and publishing the results based on her study on academic benefits of adding short physical activity breaks in elementary school mathematics lessons and (b) observing, experiencing, and assisting the Science of Essential Balance (SEB) project (PI: Ang Chen) in the Pedagogical Kinesiology Laboratory of the Department of Kinesiology.

(a)  Dr. Wang successfully completed data organization, cleaning, and analysis. She also reviewed the literature extensively and worked with Dr. Chen to conceptualize a conceptual framework based on the domain learning theory to guide her manuscript writing. Dr. Wang has completed the introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections of the manuscript and is currently working on the conclusion section. She is expecting to submit the manuscript for publication before departing UNCG.

(b)  Dr. Wang actively participated in the SEB project throughout the year despite the impact of COVID-19. She quickly learned from the research activities about the goals of the project, incorporated her research and teaching expertise to assist in teacher professional development events of the intervention, participated in the field-based data collection activities, and helped train our graduate students using accelerometers (a sophisticated and important equipment). The Lab and graduate students benefited from her sharing of expertise in other areas as well.

(c)  In addition to the above major accomplishments, Dr. Wang was also able to accomplish other tasks such as publishing existing work initiated prior to coming to UNCG. She also submitted a major research grant to Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology. We recently learned that the grant was funded for the academic year of 2022-2023 when she returns to her university. The funded research will replicate the middle-school physical education intervention study of our Lab.

(d)  Dr. Wang just learned that due to her scholarly accomplishments (including those at UNCG), she has been promoted to the rank of full professor!

Dr. Youngshin Park is a visiting scholar at UNCG for the period of February 4, 2019 to March 31, 2023.  Dr. Park has made numerous valuable contributions to the research enterprise at UNCG. For our NIH-funded R01 called Physical Activity and Alzheimer’s Disease – II, he took the lead on developing a completely contact-less cognitive testing protocol to mitigate the risk of transmission of the COVID-19 virus. This was particularly impressive because it involved learning to use a number of programming packages including Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML), JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), WaveNet voice (en-US-Wavenet- D), PsychoPy Experiment Builder, and Python. This contact-less protocol undoubtedly contributed to our ability to resume data collection for PAAD-II while also reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission for participants and staff.  Dr. Park also created an avatar to lead participants through the protocol and this demonstrated his growing comfort with establishing a rapport with research participants. In addition, Dr. Park has recruited, trained, and secured funding for several undergraduate students who are contributing to his independent community-engaged research focused on synchronized music as a means of increasing exercise adherence and, concomitantly, the positive outcomes of exercise. This work is important because it gives Dr. Park an opportunity to mentor students while also exposing them to research experiences and providing a service to the community. He currently has a program in place at Heritage Green where students lead frail elderly residents in group exercise synchronized to music. He has also published work in Frontiers for Young Minds to share this idea with school-aged students (https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2022.806631). In sum, Dr. Park is making numerous positive contributions to UNCG while also developing his professional skills in preparation for a position in academia.

Dr. Stella de Lima Camargo joined Dr. Jonathan Chekan’s biochemistry lab as a postdoctoral scholar in Jan 2022. In the 6 months since she has been here, Stella has made impressive progress on her research project. Stella has been investigating the biosynthesis of cyclic peptides from plants. These molecules have promising biological properties including anti-viral or pain relief. In her short time, Stella has discovered that the pathway for making these compounds is widely distributed in plants. Using these insights, she predicted and then validated that previously undiscovered cyclic peptides are present in the important crop Coffea arabica. A manuscript describing her work, along with others in the lab, is being prepared and will be submitted shortly.

UNCG Partners with NC Global Leadership to Host
12 International Entrepreneurs through the
US Department of State

This spring, UNCG partnered with NC Global Leadership to host 12 international entrepreneurs through the US Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership program. The program entitled, “Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development: A Regional Project for the North East and North Africa”, was arranged by World Learning, NC Global Leadership, and the International Programs Center. 

The specific objectives for the project included: 

• Observing the effectiveness of the business sector in creating jobs and alleviating poverty worldwide;

• Examining the legal and regulatory systems that allow entrepreneurs to flourish, and identify policies that may discourage such enterprises;

• Discussing societal barriers facing entrepreneurs, especially women and other disadvantaged groups, and best practices in overcoming these restrictions; and

• Exploring various business models, support mechanisms, and innovations such as micro-lending, multi-level marketing, the use of the internet, and others.

Many thanks to Dianne H.B. Welsh, Ph.D., Hayes Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Bryan School of Business and Economics for sharing her insights with the delegation as well as our community partner, Josephus Thompson III, Founder and Director of The Poetry Cafe for creating a space to “use creative arts to build communities and foster understanding across cultures”.

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS 

Egypt 

Ms. Hadeer Elsayed Soliman Elsayed ALY

Managing Director, the Happiness Factory

Egypt

Ms. Aya Mohamed Mahmoud Abdelfatah DAWABA

Technical Director, RWAQ-Cairo Business Incubator, Al-Azhar University

Egypt 

Mr. Mohamed Ramzy Mohamed HELAL

CEO and Founder, Nubiavest Incubator

Iraq 

Mr. Hussein Hayder Hashim ABOALMAALI

Founder, Zuqaq 13

Iraq 

Mr. Maytham Saad Muhi AL MUALIM

CEO and Founder, Berhyah

Iraq 

Mr. Mohammed Abdulridha Hussein HAICHEL

Owner, Ishtar Company for TV Production

Jordan 

Ms. Sajeda ALRAHAIFE

Executive Manager, Greater Karak Municipality

Kuwait

Mr. Naser ALAHMAD

Assistant, Minister’s Office, Ministry of Commerce and Industry

Qatar 

Ms. Saba Mohd AL FADALA

Executive Director, Center for Youth and Entrepreneur Empowerment, NAMA

Saudi Arabia 

Mr. Hamed Abdullah ALDHUWAYHI

General Director, Pixel Media and Advertising Production Agency

Saudi Arabia

Mr. Sultan Mamdouh ALJUKHAYDIB

Owner and Manager, Private Enterprise

Saudi Arabia 

Mr. Moaid Osama S MAHJOUB

Director, Economic and Commercial Affairs, Mahawir Oula Company

IPC FUNDED AWARDS 2022-23

Congratulations to our Kohler Fund award recipients! This year, we celebrate the work of several faculty projects supported by the Kohler Award! The Kohler Award supports faculty in areas of research, teaching, student programs, special projects, and international linkages. Twenty-one faculty were funded a total of $22,000 in Kohler Awards this academic year. Check out this list of awarded faculty and their projects!

Additionally, $11,900 was awarded to 20 faculty to support faculty attending professional conferences outside of North America. IPC is grateful to the Office of Research & Engagement for supporting the International Travel Fund. 

A special thank you to the IPC Discretionary Committee, composed of faculty members from all academic colleges and schools, that review applications and help award the funding. 

Want more information on how to secure funds for international initiatives? Click here 

Story Gallery: ‘Women, Life and Freedom’

Our special thanks to Weatherspoon Art Museum for sponsoring an ISA event called “Story Gallery”. We also like to invite your organizations to come visit this special story gallery concentrating on the ‘Women, Life and Freedom’ movement, supporting all the Iranian Women who are fighting for their rights.  Please do take a moment to shout out this event on your social media if you are interested.

Tour Weatherspooon Art Museum

Hi Dear fellow student leaders

I am Gnananjali Ramineni, Student president of International students Association (ISA). I am happy to say that Weatherspoon art museum offered ISA a special tour of their museum on November 18th 2022, 2:00 PM. ISA is happy to extend this invitation to you. We invite one representative from your organization to this special tour. This is an informal event just to connect, network and enjoy art together as allies.

Click link below to RSVP

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSew9uhY3jJOfCdSVSWo_El31Ra_pYCxRpkWhRALtTaZngIQ4g/viewform