Conn College Receives $700,000 Grant From Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Connecticut College has been awarded $700,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support international initiatives and foster integration in global studies.

The grant funding will support initiatives over the next three years to better integrate international experiences into the curriculum, and to enhance College strategies for global education in the 21st century, including foreign language learning and study abroad.

“Connecticut College has long prioritized international opportunities in the form of its Traveling Research and Immersion Program (TRIP) and Study Away/Teach Away (SATA), and, increasingly, internships abroad. However, the proliferation of opportunities must be accompanied by thoughtful reflection about the curriculum as a whole, particularly with respect to how we prepare students intellectually to engage in the world and how they meaningfully incorporate what they have learned abroad back into the academic program,” said Roger Brooks, dean of the faculty and the Elie Wiesel Professor of Judaic Studies at Connecticut College.

The Mellon initiative will promote the intentional curricular integration of international learning with standing courses and academic majors, and the systematic coordination of international experiences throughout students’ four years.  

An earlier Mellon grant of $375,000 helped to better integrate foreign languages into the broader curriculum by expanding the number of Foreign Language across the Curriculum (FLAC) sections at the College, supporting a World Languages Partnership with the Regional Multicultural Magnet School (RMMS) in downtown New London, and launching a new Language Fellows program. With the new grant, the most successful programs piloted between 2009 and 2012 will continue to be incorporated in the College’s curriculum. These programs exemplify the multiple benefits of creating opportunities for students to put their language skills to wider use across the curriculum, in campus life and in the community. 

“This generous grant from The Mellon Foundation will make the international and global experience at Connecticut College richer and deeper throughout our curriculum and co-curricular activities,” said Brooks. “I have asked Professors Amy Dooling and Andrea Lanoux to serve as program directors, in their respective roles as coordinator of the International Commons and as director of the previous Mellon grant for foreign languages.”

A 2009 winner of the Sen. Paul A. Simon Award for Campus Internationalization, Connecticut College’s deep commitment to global education is reflected in the College’s mission to educate students to “put the liberal arts into action as citizens in a global society.”

Over the past decade, more than 2,600 College students have studied abroad; since 2010, 49 students have conducted original research in a foreign language in 25 countries. Through the College’s Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts, students are able to internationalize any major with intensive language study and a funded internship overseas.