The ACES Academy for Global Engagement is a year-long program designed to heighten global awareness among faculty in the College of ACES. The class of seven "scholars" will spend a year learning more about the international resources available on campus, in the state, and nation that will enhance their teaching, research and extension missions.
The College of ACES has a rich history of international programming going back more than half a century. These activities slowed considerably during the early 1990s, a time when changes in federal policies reduced funding opportunities, especially in agricultural development.
Concurrently, what was then the College of Agriculture reorganized and broadened its perspective to more deliberately include consumer and environmental sciences. With the creation of the new College of ACES in 1996 came a promise to reinvent, reinvigorate and update our international activities. ACES Global Connect sprang to life in 2002 as the vehicle to achieve these goals.
Since its founding, ACES Global Connect has created new opportunities for faculty to become active in global programs, facilitated relationships with institutions in countries such as Brazil, Jordan, France, Latvia and Mexico, and generally raised the status of the college in external international arenas.
A core of committed and experienced faculty can lead these programming activities, but that core is still too small. Some faculty participate in international activities, but many are simply not aware of such opportunities – or indeed, of the pressing need to view their scholarship and the industries that they serve through the lens of a globalizing world.
This, we believe, must change. The transaction costs for building global connections are falling rapidly. And the world is changing so quickly that scholarly programs risk obsolescence if they are not in active pursuit of some strategy for global positioning and engagement.
Goals
- To increase the number of faculty who participate regularly in global activities
- To heighten global awareness and discourse generally in the College of ACES
- To elevate the status of our global mission within the college
- To take full advantage of campus resources in international programming
- To capitalize on opportunities that leverage external resources and partnerships
Vision
ACES Global initiated the Academy for Global Engagement in early 2006. A cohort of seven faculty were admitted to the Academy on nomination from their Department Head and participated in a year long series of scholarly and experiential activities designed to prepare each participant for life long scholarly engagement in the global arena. In 2007, the class grew to 8 members, including a representative from University of Illinois Extension. In 2008, a new class of Academy Scholars are sought to achieve the same mission. The Academy:
- Familiarizes participants with campus resources and create novel synergies across college lines.
- Familiarizes participants with national resources that facilitate global engagement (for example, USDA, FAS, NIH, international programs).
- Generates candid and introspective discussion of globalization and its implications for the College, for individual Academy participants, and for our stakeholder community.
- Creates a team-building environment that will allow the group to meld interests as they contribute to create the program as a team.
- Gives the group a capstone global immersion experience.