Goucher College Receives 2008 Simon Award for Exemplary Internationalization Efforts

Release date: February 27, 2008 |

Goucher College has received the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization from the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA): Association of International Educators, the world's largest professional international education association.

Named for the late Senator Paul Simon (D-Ill.), the award recognizes outstanding and innovative efforts in campus internationalization. Simon was a strong supporter of international education throughout his life, advocating for national programs to address Americans' deficiencies in foreign language expertise and global cultural awareness.

In every way possible, Goucher College is dedicated to promoting international education in the 21st century. In fall 2006, Goucher became the first traditional liberal arts college in the nation to institute a universal study-abroad requirement. Starting with the first-year students who entered in August 2006, every Goucher graduate must study abroad for at least three weeks. The college provides each student a minimum voucher of $1,200 to assist with the costs. Many scholarships for international study are available to Goucher students, and, as part of the current fundraising campaign, the college is seeking gifts to create an even larger pool of scholarship funds.

Four other schools -- Nebraska Wesleyan University, Pittsburg State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Valparaiso University -- also received the award.

Goucher and the other schools will be featured in the NAFSA report Internationalizing the Campus 2008: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities, to be published this fall. The report recognizes institutions that are leaders in the growing effort across higher education to better prepare students for a global economy and an interconnected world.

The awardees will also be recognized this May at the NAFSA annual conference in Washington, D.C.