Community college professionals dedicated to international education reflect on Stanford fellowship experience

Aaron Korngiebel, one of the five senior administrators who participated in the leadership fellowship, said his favorite part of the program was “developing relationships with fellow administrators and leveraging the community that we built to troubleshoot issues we were having implementing our plans at our home institutions.”

His project focused on revitalizing his college’s global studies program. Over the course of the year, he developed marketing materials, organized events, and garnered greater support for the establishment of such a program.

In today’s vastly interconnected world, Korngiebel believes global studies is a critical field of study. “With ever more increasingly advanced technologies, the world is becoming a smaller place,” he shared. “If we are to address some of the greatest issues of our time, like poverty, climate change, infectious disease, and others, we must use a global lens in order to find solutions.” 

“My favorite part of the fellowship was meeting, working, and talking with the fellow faculty members as well as the Stanford support staff, and exchanging ideas with them,” said Sab Matsumoto, who focused on ways to internationalize his mathematics course. Through his project, he showed how countries around the world have unique ways of teaching mathematics and examined how these teaching methodologies are influenced by educators’ beliefs and cultural values.

Thanks to the EPIC fellowship, “I have a better appreciation for global learning and gained a specific understanding of what it means to teach global responsibility and citizenship in my specific discipline,” he said.

Ted Preston focused on developing a new introductory philosophy course that centered underrepresented philosophers from Asia, the African diaspora, Latin America, and Indigenous communities. Preston said his participation in the fellowship reinforced the importance of the work he is doing to diversify the philosophy curriculum. 

His favorite part of the fellowship was bonding and developing friendships with other community college instructors dedicated to global education. “Connecting with like-minded people, and being supported by the EPIC staff, made the sometimes-lonely work of academia more collegial and fun,” he shared.

In today’s globalized world, Preston believes it is critical that students develop global competencies. “Even if my students never leave the United States, they live in Southern California – an incredibly diverse region—and the world is increasingly smaller and interconnected.”

“For my project, I redesigned an English as a Second Language (ESL) conversation course to include linguistically diverse listening materials and World Englishes to demonstrate to students that their home languages, and the many Englishes spoken across the globe, are all of immense value,” said Metz Matthews.

One of the highlights of her experience was learning from and alongside her EPIC cohort, she shared. “I can't emphasize enough how much I enjoyed getting to know and learn from the other fellows. Their dedication, brilliance, and dynamism around global competencies in education are emblematic of the incredible talent thread through community colleges today. I anticipate seeing big things from them in the years to come.”

“Participating in the EPIC program has increased my awareness of the need for including global competencies in our courses, programs, and institutions,” she added. “It has also shown me how very much is possible with resources and dedication.”

Yunteng He focused on infusing stories from cultures around the globe into his chemistry course to engage historically underrepresented students and foster diversity and inclusion in STEM.

Over the academic year, He said he appreciated the coaching and mentorship he received from Stanford staff as he developed his final project, as well as the opportunity to hear from Stanford scholars on a variety of global topics.

“It has been an extremely enjoyable year for me as an EPIC fellow. Looking back on the past year, I have had ample opportunities to engage with leading Stanford faculty, scholars, and the dedicated EPIC staff members,” he shared. “Their expertise and vigorous dedication have offered me tremendous support and encouragement to move forward.”