SGS wraps up another ‘EPIC’ year

Whether they study history or mathematics, music or computer science, it is critical that today’s students are prepared for global citizenship. Stanford’s Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) strives to achieve this goal by empowering educators to reimagine global teaching and learning in new and creative ways.

The lynchpin of the EPIC program is the community college faculty fellowship, which brings together faculty from across the country to work on innovative projects focused on internationalizing academic and co-curricular programming at their home campuses. Over the course of an academic year, the fellows collaborate with staff from Stanford Global Studies, the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education, and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis as they develop their projects.

“Global issues affect us all, no matter where you come from or what your political ideologies are. It is important that our students are not only knowledgeable about the rest of the world, but that they are able to think about global events outside of their own perspective,” said anthropology instructor Allison Tripp, one of 11 faculty members who participated in the fellowship this year. Her project focused on integrating global oral histories and storytelling into her course in cultural anthropology. 

Another project led by Thomas Chen, professor of cell biology at Santa Monica College, focused on helping students learn about underrepresented biologists from around the world. “For the past four decades, I have been focusing on my own funded research and assigned teaching duty … and kept global perspectives largely to myself,” Chen said. “The EPIC experience changed my teaching approach such that I will teach science as a human endeavor that intersects with all cultures and is borderless.”

Tripp and Chen shared the outcomes of their work alongside other fellows in their cohort this spring at the annual EPIC Symposium, which is open to those interested in learning about the challenges and opportunities of globalizing curricula at the community college level.

Ran Abramitzky, professor of economics and senior associate dean for social sciences, delivered a keynote address at the symposium about his recent book, Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success. Abramitzky discussed how he used big data to reassess some of the common myths about immigration and the American dream over the past 200 years, such as the notion that immigrants in the past got rich quickly whereas immigrants today struggle to achieve the same success. 

“To get a sense of how we collected the data on immigrants in the past, you can think of us like the curious grandchildren searching for branches of the family tree but now multiply this millions of times over,” he said, describing how he used thousands of interviews with immigrants coming through Ellis Island, secondary accounts, and other sources to conduct data analysis. “The big takeaway from the whole book,” he explained, “is that the American dream means different things to different people, but the American dream … is just as alive now as it was 100 years ago.”

For the first time ever, the symposium included a panel featuring senior community college administrators who participated in SGS’ new leadership program, launched this year in partnership with the Center to Support Excellence in Teaching. The leaders discussed the unique ways they approached expanding international education on their home campuses, from creating short-term study abroad opportunities for students to hosting international film festivals. 

“This program has allowed me to see the different projects my colleagues are doing to promote global learning, and with this, I can be a stronger advocate for global learning at my institution,” said Debbie Lee, the dean of intercultural and international studies at De Anza College, who focused on revitalizing her college’s global studies program.

“There were several memorable experiences from the EPIC program,” added Adam Wetsman, dean of behavioral and social sciences at Rio Hondo College, who helped faculty at his college incorporate global perspectives into their courses. “First, I enjoyed being exposed to many of the resources Stanford has to offer, from guest speakers who were experts in their fields to places like the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Another significant element of the EPIC fellowship is having the opportunity to network with a diverse set of faculty and administrators from across the state.”

At the symposium, EPIC fellows and symposium participants had an opportunity to further network and discuss collaborative opportunities with board members of the Global Educators Network (GEN), a growing association of community college educators founded by EPIC alumni whose mission is to advance global studies in and out of the classroom. GEN regularly convenes workshops on prominent topics in global education, offering a vital way for EPIC fellows to continue their good work and build connections with other community college faculty and staff after their fellowships conclude.

“This program has been such a wonderful opportunity,” said Tripp, reflecting on her experience as a fellow. “I am so happy that I applied and got the chance to work with such amazing mentors and my cohort. I've learned so much and am really grateful to have been welcomed into such an awesome community at Stanford.” 

Watch videos from the 2023 EPIC Symposium here, and view the projects by this year’s EPIC fellows and leaders.

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