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Fayetteville : Engineering students at UA going to India
article from Arkansas Democrat Gazette
BY CAROLYNE PARK
Posted on Monday, May 8, 2006
URL:
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/154101/
A simple errand to the fourth floor of the University of Arkansas’ Bell
Engineering Building set Marcus Hopkins on the path of a much larger journey.
Hopkins was working as a student aide for the College of Engineering when he was
asked to deliver drinks to a meeting about a new study-abroad program for
engineering students.
Now, the civil engineering student at the Fayetteville campus will be one of six
students to make the 8, 955-mile trip from Northwest Arkansas to Bangalore,
India, this summer. They are participating in a six-week pilot program to study
engineering in the southern India city of 6. 1 million people.
It will be the first UA-sponsored program in India, and the College of
Engineering’s first study-abroad program.
“This will be my first time out of the country,” said Hopkins, 22, a Harrison
native. “I hadn’t even planned on going to a meeting.”
Students will travel July 3 to New Delhi, where they will spend five days before
journeying to Bangalore. The program also will take them to Agra and Jaipu.
Findlay Edwards, associate professor of civil engineering, will travel with the
students and teach courses on air pollutioncontrol, as well as India’s history
and culture.
Other students participating in the program are Catherine Erickson, Stephen
McCall, Jonathan “Cole” Penick, Grace Richardson and Jiashou “Jimmy” Xu. They
were selected from more than 30 applicants, said Ashok Saxena, dean of the
College of Engineering.
The students chosen showed broad interests, good academic records and the
ability to adapt to the challenges of living in a Third World country, Edwards
said. The program will allow the students to study engineering in a country of
growing influence in the industry while interacting with a culture they are
likely to encounter throughout their careers, he said.
“The world is getting smaller,” Saxena said. “The relationships between
engineers in different countries is getting stronger.”
The program is the latest of several on the university’s growing list of
study-abroad opportunities, said DeDe Long, director of UA’s office of study
abroad and international exchange. Between September 2005 and Aug. 1, 2006,
about 500 students from the Fayetteville campus will have studied overseas,
including about 165 participating in 15 UA-sponsored programs this summer.
Sixteen percent of 2005 graduates studied abroad at some point during their time
at UA, Long said. The university would like to see that number grow to 30
percent in the next five to 10 years.
In his semi-annual letter to UA Alumni and Friends in February, Chancellor John
A. White said the university must prepare its students for a global marketplace
where physical distances are bridged by the Internet and other
telecommunications.
“As the world flattens, our course offerings are evolving to meet the demands,”
he wrote. “Rather than limit our teaching to one segment of the world, we are
incorporating global civilization throughout our teaching.”
Studying overseas broadens students’ perspectives and allows them to interact
with different cultures, Long said.
“When they graduate, they’re going to have to go out and work with people from
many different cultures,” she said. “The playing field is completely level now.”
Students traveling abroad this summer will study in countries including Ireland,
Italy, Jordan, Morocco, Mexico, China and Brazil. Another first-time program
sponsored by the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences will take 17
students on a tour of South Africa to study the country’s political, social and
natural history.
Traditionally, study-abroad programs have focused on the humanities and social
sciences. Only recently have business and engineering colleges begun to take
part, Long said.
The College of Engineering selected India for its first program because of its
increasing influence in the industry, said Carol Gattis, the college’s director
of recruitment, retention and minority affairs.
“India and China are becoming superpowers in engineering,” she said.
Students originally were going to study in the southern town of Thanjuvar, but
the program was shifted to the International Center for Management and India
Studies in Bangalore because it offers a more thriving metropolitan area.
“We thought it would be a richer experience for them,” Gattis said.
Officials want to enlarge the program to at least 15 students next year and
expand course offerings to attract students from other UA campuses.
The cost is $8, 500 per student. The College of Engineering is giving each
student $ 5, 500, and five of the students got additional financial assistance
from the UA Honors College. Hopkins, the only non-honors student, got a grant
from the college’s civil engineering department and the Arkansas Academy of
Civil Engineers.
Hopkins, who hopes to pursue a career in civil engineering with a global
company, said he looks forward to studying in a foreign country and gaining
experience that will make him more marketable after graduation.
“I think air pollution’s a global problem,” he said. “Being able to look at it
beyond the [United States ] is important. Civil engineering is just getting
started in the global market.”
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