Internationalization Mini-grants
Report: 2004-2005

Environmental & Social Compliance Portal for International Product Supply Chains
Darrell Brown, Jesse Dillard, Scott Marshall, School of Business Administration

Funds will be used to support the construction of an Internet-based information portal for the Center for Professional Integrity and Accountability (School of Business Administration) focused on environmental and social compliance issues in international product supply chains. In the modern international business context, consumers, regulatory agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are placing increasing pressure on corporations to improve and report the environmental and social conditions present along their international product supply chains. However, there exists no centralized source of information on best practices in this area. This project entails (1) collecting and categorizing a breadth of information regarding international product supply chain compliance and (2) developing and activating a webpage as part of the Center for Professional Integrity and Accountability's website. This webpage will serve as a valuable resource for best practices for US and international corporations, academics, and students.

Causes and Consequences of Flood Hazards in Gangwon Province, Korea
Heejun Chang, Geography

Funds will be used to support research examining the physical and socioeconomic dimensions of flood hazards in Gangwon Province of Korea. The recent floods in the province resulted in the enormous loss of life and economy, inhibiting the sustainability of the province. With collaboration with Professor Changhwan Kim from Kangwon National University, we seek to analyze the complex causes and consequences of flood hazards using a statistical model and geographic information systems (GIS). The findings of this project will be incorporated into teaching in both PSU and Kangwon National University curricula. A paper summarizing the major findings will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for international dissemination. This proposal will provide baseline data for larger grant proposals and will establish a long-term collaboration between PSU and Gangwon National University.

Development of Migration Studies Master's Specialization
Samuel Henry, Emily de la Cruz, Education & Curriculum

Over the last four years, faculty members in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) have designed and taught in the Migration Studies Program in Morelia, Mexico. It has become an exemplary international program and at last search, was the only graduate education summer study abroad program. Funds will support ongoing and continued Migration Studies program development with a goal of planning to infuse this already successful international program into the regular Master's degree program in C&I. The goal of the funded project is to support program development toward availability of a Master's degree in education internationalization specialty, with cross boarder preparation for education professionals for work with children, youth and families in schools, social service agencies and other community and governmental agencies.

Summer Session Russian Film Course
Martha W. Hickey, Foreign Languages and Literatures

Funding will be used to support the design of a new course on the narratives of contemporary Russian culture through film. The summer program will also include a repeat offering on Modern Russian Media (in Russian) and a guest lecture in the "Tour the World at Home" series, both given by visiting scholars from Russia. The goal of the film course is to give PSU students and members of Portland community an opportunity to consider some of the cultural implications of the demise of the former Soviet Union for Russia, to increase local awareness of connections with Russia that are reiterated in our own community, and to engage the increasing number of students of Russian heritage on the PSU campus.

Asset Mapping for Internationalization Planning
Pauline Jivanjee, Constance Lehman, Pamela Miller, Joy Rhodes, School of Social Work

This project represents an international collaboration between PSU, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), and the Jesse F. Richardson Foundation. Funding is for the translation and reproduction of appropriate Spanish language training materials to be used by PSU faculty and students in a community-based learning project in Nicaragua. The increasingly aging population in Latin America has caused considerable concern among educators, health providers and others around the world. PAHO, an international public health agency, approached the Jesse F. Richardson Foundation (a non-profit agency that serves elders through global partnerships) about creating a pilot program aimed at training care providers of elders in developing countries. Dr. Keren Brown Wilson (Adjunct Associate Professor at the Institute on Aging at PSU and President of the Jesse F. Richardson Foundation) is coordinating the program. Key components include: developing and teaching an International Aging course at PSU, developing and translating training materials in Spanish, and organizing a service learning experience in Nicaragua. Dr. Martha Pelaez, the Regional Advisor for Aging and Health with PAHO, has volunteered to serve as an educational fellow with PSU. Dean Marvin Kaiser, Dr. Margaret Neal, and additional PSU faculty and students in gerontology and international studies also are involved.

Partnership Between the National University of Internal Affairs (NUIA), Kharkov, Ukraine and Portland State University
Annette Jolin, Criminology and Criminal Justice

Portland State University (PSU) visited the National University of International Affairs (NUIA) in Kharkov, Ukraine in September 2004. As a result, PSU has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NUIA and received the first draft of a multi-phase project plan that was developed by NUIA. The objective is for American criminal justice professionals and researchers to meet their Ukrainian counterparts in order to produce a plan for a policing model that places American best practices into a Ukrainian cultural setting. Funding will be used to assemble a team of criminal justice experts, and once this is accomplished, to prepare a request for funding their visit to the Ukraine to the Fulbright Senior Specialists Program, Council for International Exchange of Scholars.

Helen Gordon Childhood Development Center and Hand in Hand Partnership: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel
Ellie Justice, Helen Gordon Childhood Development Center

PSU's Helen Gordon Childhood Development Center will partner with Israel's leading provider of integrated Jewish-Arab schools, the renowned Hand in Hand Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel. Hand in Hand is committed to advancing peaceful co-existence of Jewish and Arab populations in Israel through integrated, bilingual (Hebrew-Arabic) and multicultural education. Helen Gordon Center staff and teachers will provide technical assistance and support to Hand in Hand teachers through consultation, including exchanging documentation of children's projects and learning, sharing teaching resources, and hosting visiting teachers from Israel. the partnership between Helen Gordon Center and Hand in Hand will strengthen the practice of early childhood teaching in a valued international program, and at the same time support Helen Gordon Center's interest in creating an international dimension in its teaching, programs and professional development.

Psychological Correlates and Outcomes in a Japanese Batterer's Treatment Program
Eric Mankowski, Psychology

Funds will be used to support an investigation of attitudinal and behavioral outcomes of domestic violence intervention programs for abusive men in Japan. Taking seriously the increase in domestic violence rates, the Japanese government passed a new law in 2001 to protect domestic violence victims by providing safe environment, such as an access to a shelter facility. However, based on preliminary research, only four intervention programs are offered in Japan to prevent men from committing further abuse. There are no prior studies investigating the attitudinal and behavioral outcomes of these domestic violence interventions, as the programs typically refuse to participate in a study because they are concerned about preserving the confidentiality of the individual clients. However, PSU has successfully developed a relationship with one of the intervention programs (Men's Support Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan, Principal facilitator: Dr. Kenichi Hara) and received their permission to conduct this study.

Learning and Adjustment Program for International and Minority Students
Lemmy Meekisho, Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Funding will be used to develop a program designed to expose international and minority students to information on how to improve their probability of success at PSU. At the undergraduate level effective learning inhibitors include study skills, time management, anxiety, and adjusting from a home-based environment to a college environment. At the graduate level, research-dominant issues such as creativity, individual effort versus team effort, applications versus basic principles will be more critical. These two scenarios will be emphasized in an attempt to internationalize the learning environment in order to assist pertinent students in performing at levels comparable to those of local and mainstream students. Program topics include the following: Time management; approaching professors and TA's; plagiarism; copyright regulations; understanding as opposed to reproducing facts; individual effort versus team effort; and avoiding common traps.

Global Aging and Health: Focus on Elders in Nicaragua
Margaret B. Neal, Institute on Aging

Funds will cover the costs of Spanish language translation of materials and in-country interpretation services. These materials and interpretation services are needed for PHE 410/510 - Global Aging and Health Issues, a course focused on learning about and serving frail elders in Nicaragua. Faculty from the Institute on Aging, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Jesse F. Richardson Foundation, and the Pan-American Health Organization will work with PSU's Education Abroad Office to offer the course, which will be offered over several weekends in Winter term 2005 and will culminate in 11 days of service learning in Nicaragua over Spring Break 2005. Training materials for use with Nicaraguan health and social service workers will be translated, and meetings with Nicaraguan government officials and faculty at the University of Nicaragua, Managua will be interpreted with the aid of this mini-grant.

"Power, Domination, Peace and Conflict" Conference
Barbara Tint, International and Intercultural Conflict Resolution

In June 2005, PSU's Conflict Resolution Graduate Program will host a conference of the International Union for Psychological Science's Committee for the Psychological Study of Peace. The conference brings together approximately 50 academics, scholars and practitioners in the field of Peace Psychology. The conference aims to include the perspectives and voices of peace psychologists from developing and conflicted regions in order to foster a true sense of internationality among its participants, and to incorporate multiple cultural perspectives into the conference proceedings. In order to maximally achieve this goal, a number of scholarships must be provided to those without the resources to travel great distances to attend this conference. Funding will be used to subsidize these scholarships and to fund a prominent keynote speaker.

Connecting Educational Communities: Teacher-to-Teacher Exchanges in Guatemala
Manya Wubbold, Foreign Languages & Mark Wubbold, Finance & Administration

Connecting Educational Communities (CEC) returns to Guatemala this summer for its third year of work in the Mayan schools of Secún, Caliaj and María Del Carmen. Each year CEC brings educational supplies and last year the group brought three bilingual elementary school teachers who led teaching teams consisting of a Portland teacher and several PSU "student aides" in each school. Each team worked with a Guatemalan teacher to develop lessons using the educational supplies. Funding will support CEC's efforts to add new content to the program so that teaching exchanges can be the focus of the group's work in the schools. Connecting Educational Communities will also begin capturing these teaching exchanges on digital video; this documentation will inform research while being a resource for the entire PSU community.