In designing graduate student programs, CEHD engages partnerships where students can build professional skills and support local areas at the same time.
“Central to our work is a deep commitment to supporting student learning while engaging local communities,” says Marina Aleixo, director of international initiatives.
A perfect example of this is the Mary Tjosvold Graduate Fellowship in Community Development, known colloquially as the Mary T. Scholars program. Named after alumnus Mary Tjosvold, the program sends graduate students internationally to participate in six-week, community-based professional internships in the areas of health, social work, microfinance, agriculture, and education.
Between 2014 and 2017, CEHD sent 20 students to Bamenda, Cameroon, as Mary T. Scholars. One of those students was Tiffany Smith, who took part in the program in 2017. She is currently a sixth-year PhD student in comparative and international development education in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development. As international issues are so important to her work and life, Smith jumped at the opportunity when she first heard of the Mary T. Scholars program.
“I was excited about the fellowship because it fell on the 10th anniversary of my initial international experience—I studied abroad in South Africa in 2007,” she says. “Knowing that I wanted to conduct an international dissertation study, I saw this fellowship as a great opportunity to engage with teachers in Bamenda and to take note of some of the needs they faced in their educational systems.”
