Virginia Tech helps launch English language center at Iraqi university battered by Islamic State

The University of Mosul's central library, once one of the largest in the Middle East, was left in ruins following the occupation of Islamic State forces. 

The library at the University of Mosul was once among the finest in Western Asia, housing more than a million books, maps, and rare historical materials. But in 2014, when Islamic State forces captured the Iraqi city, the grand library and about 80 percent of the sprawling, tree-lined campus were destroyed. Many faculty members were slaughtered or forced to flee.

Today, more than three years after the militant group was finally ousted from Mosul, students are returning, the library and other buildings are being rebuilt, and faculty members are re-establishing links with the international community.

The Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute is contributing to that staggering task by helping launch an English language center at the University of Mosul. The institute is providing virtual training in English language instruction and assessment and relevant administrative procedures to faculty members in Iraq.

“The goal is for our Iraqi colleagues to learn what they need to be able to open and operate a center that will serve their university community,” Director Donald Back said. “We also hope to build lasting relationships with faculty members there, especially around academic publishing.”

Improving the English proficiency of faculty and students in Mosul will allow the university to better engage with the world and develop academically, scientifically, and culturally, said Rawaa Qasha, director of the Department of Scholarships and Cultural Relations and an assistant professor of computer science.

Read more about the partnership with the University of Mosul...

Photos: LCI welcomes 2nd cohort of Pakistani Fellows

The LCI hosted a welcome reception for our second cohort of remarkable Fellows from Pakistan.

They are participating in the six-week Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program for Pakistan.

See more photos on our Facebook page.

Listen as Argentine students reflect on their time at Virginia Tech

Andy Morikawa, host of Trustees Without Borders and executive director emeritus of the Community Foundation of the New River Valley, talks with the visiting Argentine students about their time at Virginia Tech.

The students were part of the Friends of Fulbright Undergraduate Exchange Program hosted by the Language and Culture Institute this year.

Creating pathways to partnerships with Jordanian universities

Written by Patricia Parera

Patricia Parera, second from left, talks with the president of The Hashemite University in Jordan, Kamal Bani-Hani.

Virginia Tech was invited by the Eurasia Foundation (EF) to join a consortium of universities from the U.S. and Jordan. This consortium is being established under EF’s Creating Pathways to University Partnerships project with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Jordan. The project’s aim is to strengthen strategic and long-term institutional cooperation between U.S. and Jordanian universities and develop new mechanisms for bilateral cooperation that enhance the productivity and impact of university linkages.

Patricia Parera, associate director for partnerships at the Language and Culture Institute, was invited to participate in a mission to Jordan in March. She was accompanied by Venkataramana Sridhar, assistant professor of biological systems engineering in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering.

This visit marked a critical step in the formation of the network and helped to refine our priorities and strategic directions. In addition to research collaboration, we highlighted the need for joint capacity building and professional training to enhance the skills of faculty and staff to deepen and sustain international cooperation through collective action. We also acknowledged the need to diversify partnerships with key stakeholders in the community to elevate the visibility and impact of our work. We identified several concrete activities to advance these priorities as we continue to seek out opportunities for larger-scale funding and resources. 

In the pictures is our visit to one of the universities in the program. The Hashemite University (HU) is named after the Jordanian royal family — the Hashemites — and was established by a royal decree in June 1991. Over the past 20 years, HU has expanded its academic and research profile to reach 13 faculties and one institute with more than 225 laboratory in different colleges, all equipped with the latest technological equipment. Even more impressive is the university's increase in the number of admitted students, which has exceeds 26,000 students enrolled in 53 undergraduate programs and 27 master's programs at the beginning of the 2016-17 academic year.

HU’s comprehensive strategy for environmental management is directed toward a green campus and mitigating climate change. The university's environmental sustainability strategy is currently the leader in Jordan public- and private-sectors' institutions (especially in photovoltaics), and is one of the leaders in the region, with many of its expertise being transferred to several projects in Jordan and in the region.

Some of the areas for possible collaboration with Virginia Tech include renewable energy, arid lands, public health and nursing, and capacity building. HU’s focus on its students as ambassadors of change who can carry the message of environmental social responsibility in their careers and future jobs is very much aligned with Virginia Tech's motto, Ut Prosim, as a way of life and Virginia Tech's Destination Areas.
 
Sukaina Al-Zyoud, HU's dean of academic development and international outreach, who visited Virginia Tech in March as part of the State Department’s International Visitors’ Leadership Program, was our main host. She is a force behind the university internationalization effort. 

The Jordanian universities would be excellent partners for Virginia Tech and for the broader Consortium of universities. Initially, the Consortium has identified the following main research clusters:

1. Water and natural resources.
2. Infectious diseases and public health.
3. Refugees.
4. Food security.
5. Education and market linkages.  

It is important to note that gender is a key constraint to achieving shared prosperity in Jordan. Gender disparities underlie a variety of issues, including poverty, inequality, and labor market dynamics. The U.S.-Jordan university consortium will strive to mainstream gender in its initiatives and propose solutions on key obstacles to women’s agency. In addition, a youth crosscutting theme will be incorporated in the consortium strategy. This could take the form of piloting a youth project; conduct analytical work on youth to inform policy dialogue, and foster youth inclusion.

Finally, we will continue to explore opportunities through Fulbright and other U.S. government programs to keep abreast of opening competitions in support of public diplomacy and leadership programs. The United States has few allies in the region, and Jordan is an island surrounded by many hostile nations to the U.S. in the region. Therefore, any effort that can promote broad-based engagement in research, professional and graduate training will go a long way.

Proposed initial collaboration with Virginia Tech and/or through the consortium of universities:

1. Supporting strategic research and partnerships.  The University of Jordan’s Water, Energy & Environment Center (WEEC/UJ) and VT’s Center for International Research, Education, and Development (CIRED) are interested in research aiming at improving the livelihoods and raise standards of living in developing countries (i.e. refugees’ issues) in connection with water, energy, and food nexus.  WEEC/JU is interested in VT’s in the Graduate Certificate in Natural Resources (GCNR) offered by the Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability (CLiGS). Such certificate program for students and professional seeking graduate-level education and training in environmental and natural resource management is of utmost importance for Jordan.  WEEC/UJ would like to participate in any executive training (certificate programs) to be offered to government policy and decision makers, NGO's officers and private sectors executives.
2. Helping Jordan cope with the impact of refugee inflows.  According to a recently concluded census, the total number of Syrians refugees in Jordan has reached about 1.3 million, representing 19 percent of the population.   Twenty five percent of the Syrian youth [between 18 and 24 years old] were in higher education when the war started . We are eager to support the displaced and their host communities, working in complementary ways with the Consortium partners by conducting research that would contribute to Jordan’s development agenda.  There is an opportunity through research and eventually investment projects to design a multi-faceted response, helping Jordan cope with the impact of refugee inflows on its economic and social fabric and turning this shock into a development opportunity.  The Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) multi-disciplinary and multi-agency project on international refugee research  could be an ideal resource for this research cluster.    
3. Train Jordanian faculty in data techniques, program evaluation, and randomized control trails. VT is in a position to organize short courses on these topics in Washington DC, by webinars or in country in partnership with the Department of Economics (Pamplin) and facilitated by the LCI.
4. Equipping Jordanian youth and refugees with vocational skills is important for both economic and security reasons. The Department of Statistics of Jordan reports that 51 percent of youth between the ages of 15 and 24 were unemployed in 2016.  In addition, women are over represented in higher education institutions, but underrepresented in the labor market.  Al-Hussein Bin Talal University (HTU) occupies a unique niche in Jordan’s higher education market – one that aligns the skills they teach with tangible employment opportunities in a more direct way than other institutions.  HTU pursues this goal by integrating employers, in the form of large corporations, into the fabric of the school and tailoring educational paths – from the two-year technical certification to an associate’s degree to a four-year bachelor’s degree. A partnership between HTU and VT’s TVET and positive youth development program designed and implemented by Virginia Tech’s Center for International Research, Development and Education (CIRED) could serve both Jordanian and refugees youth.  

Virginia Tech chosen to host Mandela Washington Fellows from Africa

Twenty-five young community leaders from Africa will spend six weeks at Virginia Tech this summer for intensive hands-on civic leadership training.

The university has been selected to serve as an academic institute for the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, the flagship program of President Barack Obama's Young African Leaders Initiative.

"Civic leadership is at the heart of what Virginia Tech is about," said Vice President for Outreach and International Affairs Guru Ghosh. "Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) is our core value, and hosting emerging leaders from the African continent on campus is one way we can disseminate our core values. We are excited to be part of this initiative and to welcome these extraordinary individuals to our institution and region."

Read more about this in VT News.

Exporting higher learning where education is a matter of life and death

LCI Director Don Back wrote an opinion piece that was published in The Roanoke Times on Nov. 15. In it, he underscores the importance of international academic exchanges.

Read his story below or at Roanoke.com.

Back: Exporting higher learning where education is a matter of life and death

By Don Back

After rounding up the men, women and children who had tried to flee, they told them to lie on the ground and then began shooting them at random.

Amid the survivors’ cries and wails, they killed the remaining men and boys and loaded the women and girls onto trucks and buses. Many of the captives — including girls as young as 10 — faced torture, rape, forced marriage or slavery.

In the end, Islamic State fighters killed thousands of people from the Yazidi religious minority in northern Iraq; tens of thousands of Yazidis who managed to escape were stranded in the nearby mountains without food or water.

The United Nations cited the vicious 2014 attack as a possible genocide, and it was one of the United States’ main justifications for starting its air campaign against the Islamic State.

A Yazidi man I’ll call Mamo recounted these atrocities recently during a workshop organized by the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute. A professor at the University of Zakho, Mamo and nearly two dozen other educators from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region came to Blacksburg to discuss ways to strengthen their universities’ administration and reform their English language curricula. The Iraqis saw firsthand how professors at Virginia Tech use student-centered and problem-based teaching methods to create more engaging learning environments.

IKRUPP participants pose with LCI faculty members.

Just as important, the Iraqi educators also shared their experiences and spoke about life in Kurdistan, where peshmerga forces are still battling militants along the front lines in northern Iraq. By doing so, the educators helped build greater understanding and forged partnerships for continued collaboration. This is essential, they say, because strengthening the region’s education systems is among the most important ways to foster stability there.

Mamo and the others stressed that militant groups such as the Islamic State see efforts to promote critical thinking, open dialogue and wider understanding as threats to their authority and control.

Such academic mobility programs are key components of the Language and Culture Institute’s work and are vital to fulfilling Virginia Tech’s mission. As a global land-grant institution, the university aims to address society’s needs locally and globally and to encourage greater understanding of our interdependent world.

This fall, Tech welcomed its largest-ever population of new international students — 549 new undergraduate and 590 new graduate students. Overall, more than 3,500 international students are enrolled at the university, more than any other institution in the commonwealth, according to the Institute of International Education. Those students come from more than 90 countries around the world.

It is fitting that from Nov. 16-20 we will celebrate the 16th annual International Education Week, which highlights the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. A joint initiative of the U.S. Departments of State and Education, this year’s festivities are focused on the theme of “International Education: Advancing Access for All.”

The LCI's Elsie Paredes talks with an IKRUPP participant.

This celebration offers us an opportunity to reach out to the international students in our own communities and develop a broader understanding of cultures and languages besides our own.

Each year, hundreds of international students come to the Language and Culture Institute’s locations in Blacksburg, Fairfax and Radford to improve their English skills and prepare to make the transition to academic life at a U.S. university. Indeed, many of our students go on to earn undergraduate or graduate degrees at Tech.

The benefits of these academic exchanges can be seen both at home and abroad. In the 2012-13, for example, the institute and its students added more than $5 million to the Blacksburg and Northern Virginia economies, according to a report from Tech’s Office of Economic Development. These students also increase the diversity of the campus community and, in so doing, help prepare Virginia Tech students for the interconnected world in which they will one day live and work.

In return, our international students receive the benefits of a high-quality Virginia Tech education. After their studies here, they return home to become leaders who better understand American society and values. By emphasizing mutual understanding and cross-cultural openness, we are, in a very true sense, enhancing America’s national security and public diplomacy.

We live in an ever-evolving international landscape where knowledge of the world is a necessity, not an option. For those of us dedicated to a system of higher education that is focused on the dual mission of discovering and disseminating new knowledge while also preparing the next generation of global citizens, there is no more important task than creating an environment in which international exchanges are encouraged and collaboration can flourish.

Virginia Tech welcomes 10 Humphrey Fellows from 8 countries

Khim Ghale, a journalist from Nepal, talks with Blacksburg Councilwoman Leslie Hager-Smith during a reception for the Humphrey Fellows at The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center.

Khim Ghale has worked as an editor and district bureau chief for the largest Nepali language newspaper in Nepal. But like his colleagues in the United States and elsewhere, he is anxious about the future of journalism.

As a Humphrey Fellow, Ghale will spend a year in the United States developing his leadership skills and studying ways to marry modern technology and traditional journalism. First, though, he'll spend the next four months with nine other Fellows improving their English at the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute.

Read the full story at VT News.

LCI strengthens universities in Iraqi Kurdistan

Participants in the Iraqi Kurdistan Rural Universities Partnership Program pose on graduation day with professors and administrators from the LCI.

When a university group from Iraq's northern Kurdish region traveled to study at Virginia Tech this past summer, their home was at peace. 

But by the time the 14 administrators and faculty members arrived in Blacksburg, fighters with the Islamic State had taken surprise aim at the region's capital, and more than 1,700 people had been killed.

"In our region, there was an anxiety against these terrorist forces, but when we left, there was not the sense that Irbil was in danger," said Hawraz Hama of the University of Raparin, about 70 miles east of the Kurdish capital.

Despite the turn of events, he and others in the delegation stuck to their training commitment: "In our country higher education needs to be improved."

Read more about the program, which has just been renewed for another year.

Virginia Tech program helping strengthen universities in Iraqi Kurdistan

Participants from the Iraqi Kurdistan Rural Universities Partnership Program show off their certificates and pose for a photo with faculty and staff from the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute.

When a group of university administrators and faculty members from Iraq’s northern Kurdish region left home to study at Virginia Tech this summer, the area was at peace. But by the time the 14 educators arrived in Blacksburg, fighters with the Islamic State had unexpectedly taken aim at the region’s capital and more than 1,700 people had been killed.

The university group was part of an innovative program designed to reform curriculum and instruction in rural Kurdistan. Participants say the program, which has just been renewed for a second year at Virginia Tech, is vital because strengthening the region’s education system is key to fostering long-term stability and preventing the rise of militant groups such as the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Don Back (left) and Paiman Ahmad

“Universities are the places where we can lead society to be a model society,” said Paiman Ahmad, a participant from the University of Raparin. “When we build up our education, we start seeing improvements elsewhere.”

Funded by the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and run by the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute in partnership with the Washington nonprofit IREX, the Iraqi Kurdistan Rural Universities Partnership Program was designed to strengthen university administration, modernize course content and teaching methods, and improve English-language instruction. In addition to Raparin, the program also includes the University of Halabja and the University of Zakho. Each of the universities was founded in the past 10 years.

“One of our main goals was to move from a ‘classical’ model of teaching, where a professor stands and lectures with very little interaction with students, to a ‘modern’ model and student-centered teaching,” Ahmad said. “The old way is common across Iraq, but we are younger, we want to embed new technology, new pedagogy to help us stand out.”

Lori Mason, the project director at IREX, said the U.S. Embassy has a very keen interest in supporting these rural universities. “The Iraqi Kurdistan region has been developing very quickly over the past 20 years. In the urban areas, the development is rapid, and there are a lot of opportunities for engagement with the outside academic community. That hasn’t been the case for the rural university,” she said. “For the most part, these institutions are young, the faculties are young, and they embrace change really very quickly. In that sense, they’re a good fit for introducing these types of [student-centered] ideas because much of it is implemented in terms of their own individual classroom instruction.”

Elsie Paredes, Sabah Sulaiman Haji, and Liz Bowles

The program was designed so that colleagues in Kurdistan and the U.S. could develop mutual understanding and cultural awareness in order to establish sustainable relationships and professional networks for academic collaboration.

Don Back directs the Language and Culture Institute and led workshops for the Kurdish administrators. He said the program is an example of Virginia Tech’s land-grant mission.

“From a global higher-education perspective, it’s in the interest of both U.S. and international universities to form partnerships,” Back said. “Such collaborations allow us at Virginia Tech to really share the best of our university while also helping address the specific challenges that confront Iraqi Kurdistan.”

Ultimately, he said, the partnership could lead to collaborative research opportunities and student and faculty exchanges.

The program began in January with intensive workshops in Irbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region. Led by faculty from the Language and Culture Institute, the training focused on topics such as curriculum design and instructional methods for English language faculty as well as academic leadership. Participants were introduced to tools such as Moodle, an open-source learning platform. Ribwar Mohammed, who is in charge of curriculum development at Raparin, said his university is already using the online site to help professors interact with their students.

Back said Moodle allows Raparin faculty to put syllabi online and provides greater access to students. “It’s gratifying,” he said, “to see firsthand something that we had introduced being very effectively used.”

Hawraz Hama (left) talks with VT's John Dooley.

Following the workshops, the institute’s faculty led semesterlong online courses. “It was intensive training,” said Hawraz Hama, the chair of Raparin’s English department. “We faced different assignments regarding leadership, professional development, university governance, and being a good leader. It was also good to be introduced to so many new online tools.”

He said his department, which he has led for the past two years, is facing growing pains. “When I graduated from high school in 2003, Iraq was under the process of being liberated by American and coalition forces from Saddam’s regime. The demand for learning English was immediately increased, and it’s only continued to grow since. Our [English department] is growing, because the demand is increasing every day.”

The program’s capstone experience brought the Kurdish educators to Virginia Tech for three weeks. For many, it was their first trip to the United States.

“Before coming to Virginia Tech, most of my information about the United States came from TV or movies,” Hama said. “I expected that American people are, let’s say, not helpful, based on the movies. But when I arrived in Washington, and at Virginia Tech, I found that on the contrary, American people are very helpful and very friendly, and they are ready to help if you need help.”

In Blacksburg, participants met with university leaders, observed classes, conducted research, and participated in a variety of cultural experiences, including a trip to hear the old-time music at the Floyd Country Store’s famous Friday Night Jamboree and a hike up the Cascades.

“The participants were all highly motivated and appreciative of this partnership and the educational activities that we conducted,” said Elsie Paredes, associate director of the Language and Culture Institute. “During the seminars, the discussions and conversations were very profound and engaging. It was a true learning experience for me, not only in regards to the culture, but also the personal stories of some of the participants who shared them with us.”

Omar Fouad Ghafor (left) and Barzan Hadi Hama Karim

Mohammed said he was returning home with a sense of optimism, despite the ongoing violence. “I have lots of ideas now on how the University of Raparin can continue to succeed,” he said.

Hama was similarly enthusiastic. “This trip to Virginia Tech could be a turning point in my professional life,” he said. “The quality of the instruction, the topics, the teachers, the excursions – all of them have been fantastic.”

Hama said he has already instituted changes at his university based on what he learned during the program. The university has approved curriculum reforms that he says will better prepare future English teachers. Courses on some traditional linguistic subjects were eliminated and ones on classroom management, teaching methodologies, and materials design were added. Hama said the Virginia Tech program “accelerated the process of improving the quality of education at our new established universities.”

Back said IREX has approved Virginia Tech to continue the program in 2015.

Read more:

• WVTF's Robbie Harris has two reports on the program
• WSLS: Virginia Tech hosts educators from Iraq
• See more photos from the program graduation