With a new president about to take office, many Americans look forward to improved relations with other countries for economic as well as national security reasons. As Lancaster County resident William P. Kiehl points out in a new book, this isn't a job to be left solely to the president and the State Department.
"Global Intentions Local Results: How Colleges Can Create International Communities" explains how three area colleges and their host communities are doing their part to cultivate friends around the globe.
Elizabethtown College is one of those highlighted, along with Dickinson and Gettysburg colleges, in the 272-page paperback based on Kiehl's doctoral dissertation. Kiehl will be signing the book at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19, at DogStar Books, 529 W. Chestnut St.
Kiehl, president of PDWorldwide International Consultants, spent 33 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, was Diplomat-in-Residence at the U.S. Army War College, and was director of the Public Diplomacy Council at George Washington University until 2007.
He goes beyond the typical "Junior Year Abroad" programs most colleges have and looks at their unique efforts in depth. He cites E-town's international business major that brings in foreign students for a four-year degree and arranges for internships with local and national businesses. An International Auxiliary includes community members supportive of the program.
Dickinson College, near the War College in Carlisle, has a State Department-sponsored Young Ambassadors program that brings in a couple dozen foreign students for weeks of public diplomacy study, the author notes, and gets a lot of community members involved. Gettysburg College has a sister city exchange with Leon, Nicaragua, that involves community members as well as students.
While foreigners make only 1.4 to 5.1 percent of student body at these small colleges, Kiehl finds they enriched "the cultural life of campus communities and made inroads in-roads in the provincialism and isolation" of the small towns.
"American society must be 'in the world' and the world must be in American society, that is, in the community," if the benefits of internalization are to be gained, he writes.
The book has been published as a research study, with notes embedded in the text and sources quoted without direct attribution. Kiehl thinks it will be of special interest to educators and businesses who see the value of international connections and are interested in some practical models.
Jo-Ann Greene is editor of the books section. Her e-mail address is jgreene@lnpnews.com.
