Associate Professor of Communication Arts Steven Youngblood has been selected to fill the newly-created position of Faculty Coordinator for Internationalization – a role that provides many benefits for staff, students and the progression of Park’s international values.
A two-time J. William Fulbright Scholar, director of the Center for Global Peace Journalism and 17-year faculty member, Youngblood was selected to this role over a number of applicants.
Dennis Kerkman, associate professor of Psychology, along with other members of the Internationalization and Multicultural Education Committee were responsible for bringing Youngblood to this position.
“He is our international star globetrotter,” Kerkman said. “There are not only a number of places he has visited but has also worked. He has contacts and knows editors and TV reporters in Latin America, Asia, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.”
Faculty Coordinator for Internationalization is a new role not only for Youngblood but also for Park University.
With specific goals and a broad vision, Youngblood will spearhead this office, which includes a number of responsibilities.
A large portion of this role includes assessing the current state of internationalization of Park courses and programs and identifying areas for growth and development.
This touches both staff and students on a classroom level.
“In general, in this role, I’ll be encouraging faculty to take further steps in internationalizing their courses and bringing international elements into their classroom,” Youngblood said. “And towards that end, we are working on a possible grant program that can provide small seed grants to faculty to encourage them to internationalize their courses and also to encourage them to conduct international research.”
Park Promise, which is the university’s long-term strategic plan, places high value on prioritizing globally-oriented education in the classroom, Youngblood said.
“The thing that makes (Park) different from Rockhurst or William Jewell is that we have always placed a strong emphasis on international education,” said Kerkman. “Internationalization is part of the plan.”
Investing attention on internationalizing Park education has significant effects on students and their coursework, shifting the outcome from a local sphere to an all-encompassing global sphere.
“We are trying to make sure we have an international perspective that cross-cuts the whole curriculum,” Kerkman said, “ensuring that everyone who graduates from Park will have a global perspective, and emphasizing that there are different ways of doing things. We are developing good, responsible global citizens that know what others cultures are like to be able to do business and report in those countries and understand that there are cultural differences in psychology, journalism and business. We live in a global economy.”
Youngblood will also be responsible for serving as a resource to faculty members on integrating international and multicultural dimensions into resources, learning activities, assessments and program outcomes.
He will also serve as a resource to the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in faculty development on creative ways to address internationalization and multiculturalism through teaching, research and service.
“One of the things that are important is ‘shared governments’ to make sure that the faculty gets input on the way things are going and to keep faculty involved,” Kerman said. “The faculty is on the front lines doing the teaching. (Youngblood) is a liaison between faculty and administration. He is responsible for presenting faculty views to administration, getting (administration’s) point of view and bringing it back to the faculty.”
Other duties include identifying expertise among the faculty with demonstrated potential to contribute to the formation of faculty exchanges and partnerships, such as recipients of Fulbright, Fulbright-Hays and Spencer Foundation grants.
With his Fulbright Scholarship experience, Youngblood said his goal is to increase scholarship applicants.
“Part of my new role will be thinking of ways we can get Park faculty interested in pursuing Fulbright scholarships,” he said. “Those scholarships have been the most tremendous experiences of my academic career and have really opened a number of doors for me and have made me a better teacher. So I’m going to really push and encourage Park faculty and assist them as much as I can to apply for these scholarships.”
Above all, in accepting the role as Faculty Coordinator for Internationalization, Youngblood places top priority on his responsibility to globalize coursework for students.
“The most important thing I can do in this role is to get faculty more engaged in international programs and in internationalizing their coursework,” he said.