College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Healthy Behaviors Translate into a Healthy Workplace
Tall, Hardy Grass May Be Energy Crop of the Future
Poultry Industry Steps Up Biosecurity Efforts
Student Team Debuts Decadent, Convenient Banana Dessert
Crop Improvement Technology Provides Benefits to Developing Countries
A Pearl of Wisdom for the Chesapeake
Getting to the Root of the Matter
Process Verification: A Boon for Beef-Cattle Producers
Microbiologist Works to Better China's Water Quality
Students Adopt Strawberry Mutants
Teaching Character and Learning from It, Too
Building Partnerships with Urban Boarding Schools
What Do Biodiesel and Omega-3 Fatty Acids Have in Common?
EQIPping Growers to Protect the Environment
Timely Notifications Ward Off Vegetable Foes
How Important Are Locally Grown Foods?
To Bloemfontein and Back
Students gain invaluable experience abroad
|
| Lauren Eckard and Daisy Chung, Virginia Tech students, visited Golden Gate Highlands National Park in 2006. |
Approximately 8,200 miles from Blacksburg you will find the hustle and bustle of a campus community, very much like that of Virginia Tech. Bloemfontein, South Africa, is home to one of the oldest universities in the country, the University of the Free State (UFS). More that 25,000 students attend this multi-cultural, multi-lingual institution committed to South Africa’s transformation.
For the past 10 years, Virginia Tech and the UFS have forged a partnership through their highly successful, bilateral student exchange program. The program not only allows students to learn about agricultural principles and practices in a foreign country, but also provides an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in the culture where they can explore the similarities and differences first hand.
“Spending a semester in South Africa opened my eyes to a whole new culture and way of life,” says Leah Harris, a senior majoring in animal and poultry sciences and agricultural and applied economics. “We had to learn to be open to new ways of thinking and to be tolerant of other opinions and points of view."
| "I believe this program is one of the most successful one-to-one exchange programs that the university is involved with," says Jim McKenna. |
The idea for the exchange program between the two institutions began with UFS, which sought out a U.S. partner. Like Virginia Tech, the UFS serves as the primary agricultural university for the area. At the same time, Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences was looking to establish a formal exchange program with an overseas university, according to John Crunkilton, associate director for academic programs in the college.
The UFS was surveying universities in Texas, New York, and California, but it wasn’t until Piet Gous, president of the Free State Agricultural Union (roughly the equivalent to the Virginia Agribusiness Council) urged UFS administrators to explore a possible partnership with Virginia Tech. Gous earned his doctorate in agronomy at Virginia Tech in 1969.
The dean of agriculture from UFS made an initial visit to Blacksburg in the fall of 1996. The following semester, a delegation from the UFS came to more closely examine Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech then sent a delegation to the UFS campus in Bloemfontein in the fall of 1997 where it met with faculty members, toured the campus and the surrounding community, and visited classes.
Crunkilton – a member of the delegation that traveled to South Africa and later the coordinator for the program – says that the group felt very comfortable with what it experienced and saw at the university. “We saw the program at the University of the Free State complementary in many ways to ours, especially for the students with an eye to the future,” says Crunkilton.
The program was launched in the fall of 1997 with 10 South Africans arriving in Blacksburg; Virginia Tech reciprocated by sending seven students to Bloemfontein the following spring.
Since its inception, more than 120 students have participated in the exchange program, 65 of them from Virginia Tech. This past summer, officials from the universities signed a third memorandum of understanding, agreeing to continue the program until 2013.
Program success
“I believe this program is one of the most successful one-to-one exchange programs that the university is involved with,” says Jim McKenna, interim head of the Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences.
McKenna, who helped establish the program, explains that it began as a bilateral program whereby the two universities swap students. Bilateral exchange programs tend to be more affordable, as students pay tuition and lodging at their own institution. The only additional costs to the students are their transportation and food.
“Students usually find that the food costs are less than what they pay here at Virginia Tech, and over the years we have been able to offer some travel scholarships to help pay a portion of the travel expense,” explains McKenna.
Virginia Tech students enroll in the UFS’s first semester, which begins in February and runs until June. Because most students do not have much international travel experience, the college usually sends a faculty member to escort the students to South Africa. The professor spends four to six weeks at the UFS and serves as the on-site advisor to the students.
“This is reassuring to the students and parents,” says Richard Fell, professor of entomology. Fell escorted a group of 10 students to South Africa in 2001. “While the faculty members are there, they have the opportunity to collaborate and interact with UFS faculty and lecture in classes.”
| 2 | >> |