In September, Dean of Student Life and Engagement Deborah Knaust attended the European Association for International Education Conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands. While there, Dean Deborah met with some of Franklin's partner institutions and exchanged ideas with international educators from around the world with a focus on Europe. Executive Director of the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) Darla Deardorff's presentation on her updated model of intercultural communication was most memorable as it proposed a way to reintroduce our relationship with the Earth into the learning process. Deardorff's model highlights the expediency necessary for young people to act now while there is still time to save, experience, and appreciate nature for the sake of improving our collective future. Her emphasis on sustainability and her insistence that green thinking be integrated into curricula in multiple subjects aligns with Franklin's priorities and indicates that we are a forward-thinking university. The additions of the FUS Green Office and the Social Justice and Sustainability major in recent years, alongside our emphasis on intercultural competency, make Franklin a unique place ideally situated to take on the new challenges our world faces.
Dean Deborah also joined fellow attendees at a full-day Campus Experience at Thomas More Hogeschool, a teacher's college where educators are trained to address challenges in today's classrooms. The experiential learning there inspired her to bring even deeper integration of natural elements to Franklin's on- and off-campus learning. Although it would require a mindset change, the conference proceedings inspired her to encourage the Franklin community to be even more intentional about being Earth-centric, forward-thinking, and sensitive to intercultural communication as we move forward.
When asked to sum up her experience, Dean Deborah observed that "the level of activity happening in Europe is invigorating, and Franklin is already ahead of the curve in terms of student support." Indeed, the traditional European university does not have the same centralized, all-encompassing level of student-life integration that Franklin has on our campus. The fact that representatives from so many international schools converged in Rotterdam, a port city with a high rate of immigration and a great diversity of voices, made our global mission clear: "to provide a cross-cultural and multinational learning and living environment that inspires students to engage the world."