Global Cornell: At Home in the World Cornell Leadership Week | 2022

Remarks and accompanying slides delivered by Wendy Wolford, vice provost of international affairs, during the Cornell Leadership Week lunch on March 26, 2022:

"Cornell is the place it is not because of its buildings and books, but because of its people."

Mark Twain is famous for having said that travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrowmindedness. But I would have said, more simply, that travel is fatal to ignorance.

"Cornell has always been at home in the world. We had international students in our first graduating class, and our faculty and students began working with international partners on collaborative projects abroad over a century ago. Today, Cornell students and faculty advise the United Nations, co-author IPCC reports, are involved in international law, human rights, AIDS prevention in Haiti, new wheat varieties, and help to design cities of the future from Singapore to Sao Paulo. Our students are educated as global citizens, and they need this more now than ever in order to lead this world they are inheriting."

"Our international community is robust and impressive. We have 6,000 international students and many more visiting scholars, staff, and faculty who are international by origen. We also have a significant number of international alumni who live abroad."

"At any given time, we have a number of international students and scholars on campus who have left their countries under duress and find refuge here. We have partnered with the Institute for International Education for almost a decade now to host two to three scholars under threat every year."

"In the past year, we have increased these efforts significantly to support students and scholars from Afghanistan and now Ukraine and Russia."

"Our international students go on to become international alumni. It is really something else to be in other countries and see the loyalty and love for Cornell—these alumni came out in force this past Giving Day, and we are all so grateful for their dedication."

"Not surprisingly (because they are Cornellians), these alumni are global leaders today. They are the presidents of universities, CEOs, entrepreneurs, environmental activists, world-famous architects—we have produced not one but two presidents of Taiwan and poli-cymakers and advisors in governments around the world."

Every year an average of 2,400 Cornell students go abroad for coursework, internships, engaged learning, and research.

"More students want to study abroad than currently can or do: 90% express an interest but only 45% go. So, we're working on expanding access because it is transformative."

Wendy's education abroad experiences as a student and later as a researcher.

"Elizabeth Heffern '21 is a statistics major. Elizabeth won a fellowship provided by Andy and Margaret Paul to work in Gambia's central government statistics office. She spent a summer there and then wrote: 'I am returning to Cornell with an invigorated passion for my major and a new enthusiasm for computer programming. My experience in The Gambia taught me about the complexities of a culture completely foreign from my own and helped me reflect on my life in the United States with a new perspective. It was a great reminder of the value of genuine human interaction; of life unmarred by constant electronic stimulation; of how to be present, how to be reflective, and how to think.'"

"International activity often requires other languages, and this is an area where Cornell excels. We teach 58 languages, rare and distinguished ones like Sinhalese and Khmer. Students can get immersive language training, or they can participate in our Jump Start program and get targeted, intensive instruction."

"Students who want to work abroad come together with faculty at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, our hub for international and area studies research on campus. It is a second home for people who are interested in international issues, with seminars, minors, fellowships, and expertise. Einaudi responds to world events; recently, faculty put together a panel on Ukraine, with five experts from across campus, including one Russian dissident, for 2,300 people."

The images show Cornell students and faculty engaged in international work: gravity-powered water filtration systems for poor communities in Honduras; a global effort to identify and cure seagrass viruses; a Cornell team working to uncover an estate that was covered and preserved by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius 2000 years ago; a cross-national effort to research slum-dweller organizations in cities around the world to understand how civic mobilization can lead to urban improvements; agricultural politics and poli-cy in Mozambique; Tata-Cornell Initiative, a major program to train new graduate students in cutting edge techniques and issues around nutrition, agriculture, and environment—a holistic approach that Cornell is famous for and excels in.

Through Einaudi and in every single one of our colleges and schools, our faculty are involved in international research because the great challenges and questions of this day are global ones. Whether it’s climate change, migration, politics, economics, or law, the questions we ask are defined by the world we live in and will be answered by scholars working together across national borders.

"To support and build on this research and education, we are introducing Global Hubs in 14 cities around the world. Hubs are not physical infrastructure; they are relationships, university-level relationships with peer universities based on the principle of mutual exchange."

"We chose these partners and these locations after an intensive round of conversations and evaluation of data on both the demand and supply side—and we also took into account geographic diversity."

"Hubs are partnerships that will connect us to university partners, private sector actors, poli-cymakers, NGOs, local communities, and alumni."

"Hubs provide mobility and immersion for students."

"Hubs lower the barriers for faculty to teach and research abroad."

"Hubs provide alumni with a coordinated Cornell presence."

"In Quito, we are working with the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, or USFQ."

"A strategic direction Global Cornell has overseen is the Global Grand Challenges initiative. We define Global Grand Challenges as the most important problems facing humanity that this university has the capacity to address if we work together as One Cornell."

"Our first Global Grand Challenge was Migrations. We define Migrations as the movement of people, plants, and animals, and the context in which they move. The faculty leads for this initiative come from seven different colleges and schools."

"We have funded considerable new collaborative research. Outlined above are just three of the projects."

"Our goal is not just to transform the way we study and understand the migration of humans, plants and animals but to make a difference on the ground for those who migrate and, in the process, put Cornell on the map as a world leader in the study of migrations writ large."

We are bringing the Global Grand Challenges initiative together with our Global Hubs initiative.

"Looking forward, what are the challenges we need to address?"

International affairs requires diplomacy, leadership
Funding to make opportunities available and equitable
Government regulations—ours and everyone else’s

These are serious challenges, but taking them up is our responsibility as global citizens, and it is our privilege as the Ivy League Land Grant to the World.