The third week of November is that special time of year when we remind the campus community of our raison d’etre, by promoting the smiling, multicultural faces of our international students, highlighting the exciting destinations of our study abroad students and honoring faculty who have strong track records of global activity. This year marks the 20th year of the national celebration, which came into being in the spring of 2000, when President Bill Clinton issued an executive memorandum stating, “It is the policy of the federal government to support international education…” and committing the administration to “encouraging students from other countries to study in the United States.” Since this proclamation, International Education Week is celebrated at US universities in the third week of every November every year. 

It comes as no surprise that this year’s International Education Week looks very different. As we enter the ninth month of the pandemic, the typical activities used to celebrate the week, such as study abroad fairs, award presentations, and guest lectures, have been cancelled or pushed into the zoom-iverse. In some ways, offering lectures and presentations via zoom allows for broader participation from the campus community; but the in-person interaction and energetic celebration of people from different cultures is all but impossible to capture with a screen full of little boxes. This year, international educators are forced to reimagine how to celebrate the value of cultural intersectionality with digital-only interaction. 

As we work to pivot our celebratory modalities, it is also an opportune moment to honestly evaluate campus goals for one of  the major internationalization initiatives, study abroad. For many students, study abroad has morphed into a bucket-list activity that appears to happen in isolation of both academic and professional goals. Higher education enables this conception by neglecting to fully integrate education abroad programs into the curriculum. It also misses an important opportunity to link skills acquired abroad, such as foreign language and intercultural communication, to future careers as well as service to the local community. Senator Fulbright’s vision of educational exchange is short changed by universities solely focused on study abroad programs that improve the bottom line of the budget and students’ cute instagram posts. 

Looking forward to International Education Week 2021, the opportunity to refocus our priorities and goals for study abroad is within reach. The international programs that we reimagine today will help shape a future world community that understands our global inter-connectedness and works to develop global solutions to our local issues.