Greetings!

I have just returned from a two week visit to China to establish collaborations with universities and school systems. These agreements provide for offering master’s degree together, faculty exchanges, and collaboration between our Ohio K-12 schools and Chinese ones. This interest in China and the Chinese language has exploded in the last year with Ohio’s focus on disciplines and languages supportive of much needed economy revitalization. Click here to see.

We are determined to be active in the globalization thrust evident at every segment of our society. I point to

• Collaborating with area school systems in promoting Chinese language instruction. We have prepared the largest number of Chinese language teachers in Ohio (18) last year and will prepare 40 more over the next two years thanks to a $1.5 million dollar grant. We also have received another $1 million dollar grant from the federal government to train teachers in TESOL techniques.
• Applying for a Confucius Institute sponsored by the Chinese Government to prepare teachers of Chinese and support their work in schools, businesses and universities and offer related Chinese cultural content (health, business, etc.).
• Developing a K-12 International School of Cleveland with a Chinese language emphasis.
• Signing agreements with Chinese universities and schools to offer a joint master’s degree, collaborate with K-12 schools, and arrange placement of Ohio English teachers in Chinese universities or schools.
• Providing student and faculty exchanges between Chinese and American universities and school systems.
• Collaborating with the greater Cleveland business community as they attract Chinese professionals and businesses to Ohio.

The intensity of the activity is demonstrated by the fact that I have traveled to Korea, Israel, Turkey, and China twice in the last fifteen months. Why, you may ask? We are attracting students to study at CSU. For example, groups of five Korean students are studying TESOL at CSU as part of their master’s degree in Secondary School English at Chung-Ang University in Seoul. We have had two visiting scholars from China this year and sent ours to China and South Africa. Interestingly, China and Korea want to place our TESOL and English speaking teachers in university and school system jobs and offer attractive packages for them to work abroad.

We are fortunate to have twenty of our full time faculty who were born abroad and are helping us establish collaborations. We are also building upon a traditional value for diversity in all its forms. We are the only nationally ranked college in Ohio for providing graduate education to students of color.

James A. McLoughlin, Dean