How Do We Provide An International Experience For Undergraduate Technology Students At Regional Campuses?

In comparison to students from other countries, American students are lacking in global skills and knowledge that would be greatly enhanced with the student having an international experience. This paper presents the evidence that there is an overwhelming need for providing international experience for students in technical fields and evidence that American students are not receiving such experience. The lack of student participation is especially prominent at Community Colleges or regional campuses, where large number of students tends to live at home and commute to campus. The paper then presents several programs that have been attempted at various institutions and discuss their shortfalls. Finally the paper examines several programs that offer promise in providing such experience. The need for International Experience According to Byron Newberry, [1] and J. C. Swearengen, S. Barnes, S. Coe, K. Subramanian [2] globalization of manufacturing professions will require its practitioners to master engineering methodologies, cultures and languages from more than one country. And in an era of global manufacturing people will need cross-cultural skills and experience that will allow them to successfully deploy science/engineering/management competences in collaboration with any person anywhere in the world. In order to compete in a global industrial marketplace “people skills” will require much more than sensitivity to the needs of fellow workers. The ability to work in teams and to be able to implement strategies and manufacturing solutions across nationalistic lines will be absolutely necessary. You might be sourcing code from India, manufacturing raw materials in Beijing, China, assembling in Malaysia and distributing through other countries. Michael Valenti mentioned in [2] that the “workplace is more likely to be a global one... graduates need to know that making products and services for the world market is the key... students must be prepared to be transferred abroad if necessary”. By the year 2020, manufacturing as a process will be “multidisciplinary, multicultural and highly transient” [24]. Engineers should be able to work productively with radically different cultures, educational background, technical standards, quality standard, professional registration requirements and across the time zones. Companies struggle to find talented U.S. graduates with international experience because “internships abroad have not entered the curriculum of very many American engineering schools... The ability of U.S. Engineering graduates to function in developing countries, and who speak another languages and appreciate professional and cultural differences will make international trade successful for U.S.based companies” [2]. Two national ACE surveys [3] a telephone sample of 1,006 Americans aged 18 and older, and a telephone sample of 500 four-year-college-bound high school seniors examines the international experiences and attitudes regarding the importance of international education, as well as global knowledge. The student survey tests international experience, attitudes about P ge 11691.2 international education at the postsecondary level, and intentions to participate in international education. Each survey is intended to inform higher educational institutions about the importance Americans place on international learning opportunities. 1. Asked about their ability to speak a language other than English, 17 percent of the national survey respondents claimed a working fluency in another language, while 48 percent professed to be fairly or at least somewhat proficient. Both figures are a substantial drop from the 58 percent found in a previous survey of foreign language proficiency done in 1988. Despite the linguistic interest and ability demonstrated by this group, colleges and universities nationwide continue to decrease foreign language requirements. The study found that people who speak multiple languages are more likely to travel abroad than those who do not. Young people (18 to 24 year olds) claimed the greatest facility with foreign languages. Over 85 percent of the national survey respondents indicated that knowledge of a foreign language was important—a significantly higher percentage than was found in a Gallup Poll conducted some 20 years ago. Eighty-five percent also believed that knowing a foreign language would help them