By Harmeet Kaur
Senior Staff Writer
Emory's Office of International Affairs recently named the recipients of its annual internationalization awards, which honor Emory faculty, alumni and staff who have contributed to making the University more globally oriented.
Professor of Anthropology Peter Brown, Young-Ihl Chang ('87G) and Associate Director of the Center for International Programs Abroad (CIPA) Kenya Casey received the Marion V. Creekmore Award for Internationalization, the Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award and International Outreach Award, respectively.
Brown received the Marion V. Creekmore Award largely for his roles in establishing the Global Health Institute in 2006 and developing the undergraduate Global Health, Culture and Society minor in 2007, according to an Oct. 30 University press release. Brown said that when he came to Emory 35 years ago, the University was well known due to its hospital but was more of a southeastern liberal arts college.
"There were hardly any courses that had to do with other parts of the world," Brown said. "There wasn't any School of Public Health. You couldn't take courses in Arabic, Russian, Chinese or Korean, so Emory has really changed a great deal."
Atlanta is the "global health crossroads of the world," as home to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), various NGOs and the Rollins School of Public Health, Brown said.
He said this makes Emory an ideal location for the Global Health Institute with an academic center for improving global health, according to its website. Brown added that the institute also involved collaborations with numerous departments and schools throughout the University.
Brown said the goal of the Global Health minor, which is now the largest undergraduate minor at Emory, is to help undergraduates become world citizens. According to Brown, offering global health as a minor rather than a major allows it to supplement a liberal arts education instead of providing "premature, graduate training" in global health.
Brown said he was surprised to receive the award.
"I'm very humbled by it," Brown said. "I just did my job. That's all."
Chang received the Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award. The award recognizes international alumni who have distinguished themselves through service to universities, governments or the private sector, according to the website of Emory's Office of International Affairs. Chang served as president of the South Korean educational institution Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary (PTCS), according to the press release. Previously, Chang served in other positions at the institution and received the Highest Order of Service Merit earlier this year.
Casey received the International Outreach award for increasing minority participation in study abroad programs, according to the press release. In 2007, Casey said she began the Minority Outreach Initiative at CIPA to address study abroad participation disparities in underrepresented minority students at Emory.
She said this entailed spreading awareness about available scholarship opportunities for minority students or those with high financial need and restructuring scholarship-advising programs to work more closely with students on scholarship applications. Casey said these initiatives showed an increase in the number of students who received financial awards to study abroad.
Casey said she was driven on this issue because she was the first person in her family to travel abroad, outside of those serving in the military. She said the experience was eye-opening and that it changed the trajectory of her career.
"The reason I feel so strongly about promoting these issues is because those opportunities were not available for me," Casey said. "There are some students who would like to participate in different international opportunities, but finances are a barrier."
Casey said study abroad offered both academic and personal gains.
"A lot of fields and places of employment are looking for people who have exposure and experience working with different cultures and environments," Casey said. "It says a lot about a person if they were able to live and work in another country."
The Office of International Affairs will officially present the awards to Brown, Chang and Casey at International Awards Night on Nov. 18 at the Emory Conference Center Hotel.
– By Harmeet Kaur
