Global Studies director leading effort to internationalize the University
By Amy Gage
Nov. 20, 2009
When Catherine Spaeth joined St. Catherine University in August 2007 as director of the Office of Global Studies, she brought with her a wealth of international experience and a determination to help broaden the University’s global reach.
“There’s a lot of interest here in study-abroad programs and in expanding opportunities for both faculty and students,” says Spaeth, who previously worked at the University of St. Thomas as a study-abroad adviser.
A Francophile with a Ph.D. in American Studies, Spaeth inherited a program primed to expand at a time when colleges and universities throughout the United States are becoming more aware of the importance of global literacy.
“The United States is clearly part of a global economy,” she says. “That affects all areas of our lives. Globalization is our future, and that gives higher education an imperative to educate students to understand other cultures and countries and to speak multiple languages.
"Study-abroad experiences need to be part of our educational system," she adds, "so students can be prepared for a global society.”
During her two years as head of Global Studies, Spaeth has helped expand the office’s influence and its offerings. More graduate students are interested in international experiences, and more graduate-level faculty are starting to incorporate study-abroad experiences into their curricula.
Spaeth has been part of a University-wide effort to internationalize the curriculum and the institution, in keeping with the values and culture of St. Kate's. “It’s much broader than study abroad,” she explains. “That committee has been thinking about international students, partnerships abroad, faculty development and internationalization of the on-campus curriculum.”
She’s also working with departments and faculty to integrate study abroad into their programs of study. “The international experience then becomes part of what you study,” Spaeth explains, “rather than considering study abroad as an add-on, as something separate from the classroom."
The St. Kate’s model
Although study-abroad programs have become almost commonplace for traditional-age college students, especially at private colleges and universities, the St. Catherine approach has a distinctive spin.
Students choose from a diverse array of programs organized by affiliate providers, rather than being restricted to a few institutional-run programs. That allows them more choice and more cultural immersion, says Spaeth, than typically happens on an “island” program that caters only to students from one institution.
Among the affiliates in St. Kate’s study-abroad programs are Arcadia University's College of Global Studies, Central College Abroad, Augsburg College in Minneapolis and the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA), which integrates social issues such as poverty and development into its offerings.
“St. Kate’s students are independent thinkers, and they don’t run in packs,” says Vera Wenzel, who ran the Global Studies office for five years before retiring in 2007. Many are willing to study abroad for a year, contrary to the current trend of leaving the country for no more than a month.
Spaeth agrees that St. Kate’s students “are adventurous. They’re all over the world,” including this academic year in China, Italy, Chile, Nicaragua, Japan, India and Ghana.
The Global Studies office designs its own shorter study-abroad programs around the capstone “Global Search for Justice” course, particularly during the January Interim. Recent examples include “Women’s Health,” which explored spirituality, culture, history, economics, environment, politics and health in three Mexican towns and villages.
Domestic travel also is part of the Global Studies program, including an upcoming service-learning program to Mississippi for physical therapy students in the Henrietta Schmoll School of Health. Currently, about 22 percent of St. Catherine students study off campus.
Spaeth is pleased by the growing faculty interest in her programs — from professors in fields as diverse as physics, nursing, holistic health and exercise science. “It isn’t a vacation,” she says. “It takes a lot of work on their part to develop a course, plan an itinerary. But it’s an opportunity to participate with students in a life-changing experience and to cement their learning in a way that might not happen in a traditional classroom.”
She chafes a bit at the term “global studies.” “Philosophically, the United States is part of the globe, too,” Spaeth says wryly.
Nevertheless, it is the international offerings that draw more interest, including from graduate students and Weekend College students, though money can be a barrier. St. Kate’s does allow students to use University-awarded financial aid for study abroad, and Spaeth hopes the institution can raise money for Global Studies scholarships.
Women and study abroad
Spaeth and Wenzel, her predecessor, both are the products of women’s colleges. They carry a lingering affection for their own experiences and a belief that women are particularly suited to the challenges and opportunities of study abroad.
Historically, two-thirds of the students who participate in such programs are women.
“Women have always traveled as a way to express independence,” says Wenzel, a graduate of Mary Washington College, then the “women’s branch” of the University of Virginia. “Some of the early study-abroad programs were at women’s colleges, such as Sarah Lawrence. Even in Victorian times, it was through travel that women could do what they couldn’t do at home.”
Spaeth has fond memories of studying in France while an undergraduate at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and French in 1981. After working at St. Thomas for almost a decade, she came to St. Kate’s not only for the chance to direct her own program but because she values an all-women’s environment.
“I had opportunities at St. Ben’s I wouldn’t otherwise have had,” Spaeth explains. “I was president of the student body my senior year. I wouldn’t have if there had been men and women.”
Contact Amy Gage, (651) 690-6829
