By Sarah Boyd | August 5, 2019
After attending [World View], I felt the urgency to bring global education to my students.
Anu Williams is the dean of humanities and social sciences for Forsyth Technical Community College, which serves over 7,000 students from Forsyth and Stokes counties. She started her career at Forsyth Tech as a faculty instructor for communications courses and eventually moved into an administrative position.
As a faculty member she attended numerous World View programs beginning in 2012, naming the November community college symposia as the program she found most useful; she enjoyed “[being] able to explore many of the topics presented with my students.” Now, as an administrator and dean, she encourages her faculty members to globalize their curriculum, helped by World View grants funded by UNC National Resource Centers. “The grants provided by World View made it easier for us. . . . We have more than 100 sections globalized and every semester we are adding more to this list.” In both realms – as a faculty member and as an administrator – Ms. Williams has “benefited very much from partnership with World View.”
“The most impactful program was the Global Education Leaders Program,” says Ms. Williams, who attended the weeklong institute in 2013. “After attending, I felt the urgency to bring global education to my students.” She has also seen an impact from the Global Scholars of Distinction program, which is part of the North Carolina Global Distinction initiative and is designed to help prepare students for a global world. Students complete globally intensive courses, participate in international activities, gain global experience through study abroad or a domestic immersion and give a capstone presentation. With support from leadership and faculty, Forsyth Tech was able to launch the initiative successfully in 2015. “We have close to 70 students in the program and more than 20 students have graduated.”
Going forward, Ms. Williams has high hopes for the future of Forsyth Tech’s Scholars of Global Distinction initiative. “Although we have globalized more than 100 sections of curriculum courses, we are not going to rest on our laurels until we have globalized at least one course in every program. . . . We would like to see students from every program participate in the [initiative].”
World View is thankful for Ms. Williams’ sustained partnership and is looking forward to working with her in the future.