Preparing students for a global society is high on the list of NMSU’s institutional priorities. The Office of International and Border Programs is the central force in accomplishing this goal, as it works with numerous other entities to provide students a broad range of international options.

The institution is steadily expanding opportunities for international study. Students can now participate in formal study abroad in more countries, earn academic credit in more disciplines, and pursue a broader range of NMSU-supported research and service opportunities than ever before.

According to Kristian Chervenock, director of study abroad, NMSU students have access to more than 500 program options, including ones led by NMSU faculty, others organized by third parties, and formal exchange programs with universities in other countries. Planning is under way for possible new opportunities in Latin America, including Cuba, Costa Rica and Chile; Europe, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland and Iceland; and Asia, including China.

A development that is likely to make more study abroad scholarship funds available is the recent Board of Regents approval of an Associated Students of NMSU student fee appropriation of $56,840 for fiscal year 2012 to support study abroad. A student panel will help Chervenock determine how the funds will be spent.

Working closely with Chervenock is Gary R. Lowe, coordinator of Aggies Go Global in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Dean’s Office. AGG helps fund international experiences for NMSU students in all majors who may not be seeking academic credit, but whose goal is to supplement their study with international service work or research. From AGG’s beginning in 2009, Lowe has obtained funding from a variety of sources to provide primary or supplemental support for nearly 100 NMSU students, accompanying faculty and some individual faculty projects.

Several recent alumni have moved on from their NMSU international experiences into the realm of international employment or jobs where international experience is crucial. Both of the following were also students in NMSU’s Honors College, which has been very supportive of adding an international dimension to honors study and aggressively promotes students’ applications for international fellowships, including Fulbright grants.

Casey O’Neill ’10 had a head start with international experiences – he spent his first 10 years in Kenya. At NMSU he majored in geography, minored in global political economy and was vice president of NMSU’s accomplished Model United Nations team.

One of the first students supported by Aggies Go Global, he spent most of the summer of 2009 in Cambodia working with the nongovernmental organization Cambodia Against Child Trafficking. He conducted field visits, interviewed experts, attended training sessions and wrote policy manual material. His honors thesis on trafficking in the U.S.-Mexico context grew out of his Cambodia experiences.

“Because of these service-oriented experiences, I chose to pursue public service after graduation,” O’Neill says. He got an internship with Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s office, where his familiarity with U.S.-Mexico border issues proved valuable. “I helped with an effort to fund drug demand-reduction programs in an effort to stem the narcotics trafficking and cartel violence south of the border.”

O’Neill spent time as a staff assistant in the office of Sen. Tom Udall before returning to Sen. Bingaman’s office as a legislative correspondent.

“An international experience during your university studies is the perfect way to expand your knowledge of people, cultures and languages, and to familiarize yourself with the global workplace of the future,” he says.

Owen Cortner ’11 arrived at NMSU knowing he wanted a career in international development. His first NMSU international experience, volunteering with an elephant conservation organization in Namibia in 2008, was partially funded by the Honors College. He participated in a Model U.N. conference in China later that year, thanks to support from NMSU’s Confucius Institute.

Aggies Go Global provided funds for two international experiences related to his environmental science major and career interests. During summer 2009, he attended the Second World Congress of Agroforestry in Nairobi, Kenya. Experiences and contacts there led him to Rwanda the following summer.

“In Rwanda, I was able to work with government agricultural scientists and talk to smallholder Rwandan farmers while assessing irrigation systems,” he says. He went on to write an honors thesis comparing irrigation water requirements in two Rwandan catchments.

“All of these experiences have cumulatively given me great exposure not only to the field of international development, but also taught me important lessons about working in challenging situations,” he says. “They have put me in an excellent position to pursue my next steps.”

What are those next steps? Teaching English in Malaysia next year on a Fulbright grant and then a master’s degree in agricultural economics or international agricultural development.

“None of this would be possible without the international experiences I had at NMSU,” Cortner says.

For more about study abroad at NMSU, visit http://studyabroad.nmsu.edu. Information about Aggies Go Global can be found at http://aces.nmsu.edu/sge.

New Mexico State University President Barbara Couture is reaching out – internationally – to strengthen the university’s global presence, and to build opportunities overseas for American students as well as recruit international students who can bring their unique perspectives and talents to NMSU.

Last spring, President Couture traveled to China in an ambitious effort to seek new opportunities for NMSU. The president was joined by NMSU Vice President for Research Vimal Chaitanya; Ken Hammond, director of the Confucius Institute; and education faculty members Dana Christman and Jeanette Haynes Writer on the China trip with the goal of seeking new partnerships and strengthening existing agreements.

They met with several leaders of Chinese universities and with Madame Xu Lin, director-general of Hanban, the Chinese national language and culture institute that funds the Confucius Institute at NMSU.

“We solidified some former agreements and made new ones, all with the aim of increasing NMSU’s ability to attract highly qualified Chinese students to our graduate and undergraduate programs and to increase opportunities for research partnerships between NMSU faculty and faculty across several disciplines at key Chinese universities,” Couture says. “China is investing heavily in their universities — several of the institutions we visited have been targeted for special funds to encourage study abroad and promote research collaborations.”

The trip matched up with the president’s goal to focus the university’s international reach to prepare students for a global society, as well as NMSU’s efforts to expand the land-grant teaching and research missions.

“Everywhere we went we found Chinese faculty to be impressed by the breadth and depth of NMSU’s offerings in engineering, science, technology, business, and the humanities and social sciences,” Couture says.