Crossing Borders

Despite only being on the job only since July, but already he has a clear idea of what the Center should be doing and no shortage of ideas for doing it.

"Since its beginning, the mission of Berea College has been to teach people to cross borders," said Holman. "The goal of the International Center is to assist the members of the campus community to do just that."

Holman, who grew up in Louisville, has been crossing one border or another most of his adult life, having spent 10 of the past 21 years outside the United States and all of the other 11 outside Kentucky. He has strong beliefs about the value of international experiences.

"The most important thing that can happen to a student is often not obviously academic," Holman said. "The kind of awakening that frequently comes in a foreign experience involves a transformation of the heart that can make our students better scholars and better people."

With this in mind, Holman is building on existing programs and creating new ones to increase international educational opportunities both on-campus and world-wide for Berea students and staff. He brings 15 years of international teaching and administrative experience to the job, that included posts in Japan, Korea, and Canada.

Working with Holman are Alina Strand, international student advisor, who directs the long-established program for assisting international students enrolled at Berea, and Suzanne Kifer, study abroad advisor and Center assistant director.

Two new major programs will begin this spring, Holman said, and several are in the planning stages.

One of them, Berea Term Abroad, for which Kifer is responsible, will allow more Berea students to experience the unique opportunity for self-awareness than comes from an extended stay in another country, Holman said.

"It is not -- as I often hear some people say -- that students should go abroad so they will appreciate "all we have" in the United States," he said. "Perhaps what an experience abroad does is more to help a person to appreciate WHO he or she IS and to appreciate and celebrate the 'other'."

A new on-campus program will bring the world to Berea.

"We're going to focus on one country or region of the world each semester that will involve everything from performing arts, exhibits, scholarly and popular speakers, crafts, even food," Holman explained.

"We're doing Japan first and it will be a template for doing other regions. Mexico and Central America will be the focus during fall term 2000" said Holman.

Japan is a natural first choice for Holman, who is completing requirements for a doctorate in Japanese language and literature at the University of California at Berkeley and spent a total of eight years in Japan as a student, teacher and administrator. He also is assistant professor in Berea's foreign languages department where he supervises courses in Japanese.

Among the events scheduled for the Japan semester, Holman said, are a taiko drum workshop and concert, a community-wide kite festival led by a master kite master from Japan and visits by the abbot of one of the main sects of Zen Buddism in Japan and Beata Sirota Gordon, who wrote the women's rights sections of Japan's new constitution following World War II.

Holman said he hopes to involve as many academic and co-curricular departments as he can in the semester focus program. "There are parts of a campus that often get left out when you talk about "internationalization," he said. "I want to make it as broad-based as possible. There is an international aspect to just about everything."

Faculty development is another important dimension of the Center's programs, Holman said.

During the Japan semester an on-campus faculty seminar will be offered. Later, there will be faculty study tours to countries in preparation for a semester focus and tours arranged around faculty interests, Holman said.

"The Center's resources are available to assist any faculty member who wants to incorporate more international content into their courses," said Holman. "We can also assist faculty planning sabbaticals or other international activities."

A wide range of educational exchanges is also being developed, Holman said.

"Exchange agreements are one of the most economical ways to get students abroad," Holman said. "They also "leaven our loaf" at Berea, by bringing additional international students to campus for a short time."

An agreement with Japan's Kansai Gaidai University has existed for several years and a new agreement with Kyushu University will see the first students exchanged in fall 2000.

"l'm exploring additional exchange possibilities at universities in Malaysia, Thailand and Korea," said Holman. "Farther down the road exchanges will be sought in other parts of the world."

Naturally, the Center is developing a comprehensive site on that border-crosser- of-all-border-crossers, the world-wide-web. It will link the International Center with the campus, and Berea with the rest of the world, Holman said.

It's a good symbol for the way Holman wants the campus community to view the International Center.

"We want to be the clearinghouse for all things international, " he said.