Describe your initiative/project

The mission of the Clemson Abroad Champions program is to broaden the coalition of individuals on campus invested in promoting global engagement opportunities to Clemson students. As a unit, they initiated a two-part training program in the fall of 2018, open to interested faculty and staff who want to better understand what study abroad looks like at Clemson and serve as a study abroad resource for students.

To become a Clemson Abroad Champion, interested individuals were required to attend two workshops during the 2018-2019 academic year: Clemson Abroad 101 and Supporting Students. After completion, they earned a Clemson Abroad Champions sticker and desktop globe, both of which can be displayed in their office or workspace as a tool for letting students know that they are a study abroad resource and open to discussing global engagement opportunities. Champions will also be listed on the Clemson Abroad website, with a short biography and a description of their work/involvement with an underrepresented community (or communities). 

During the 2019-2020 academic year, the program plans to recruit a new group of Champions. For 2018-2019 Champions, there will be an opportunity to participate in a newly created Clemson Abroad Champions Taskforce, which aims to identify ways in which current practices of the program can be more inclusive and better support students from diverse backgrounds.

What need does this initiative/project intend to meet? What conversations/other projects led to its creation?

This idea was initiated through a conversation with the Director of Diversity Education at Clemson and was modeled after the LGBTQ+ Ally training model. At Clemson, there is a small percentage of students who actually visit the Clemson Abroad office and/or hear about specific programs offered. Many students have stated that they’ve heard about study abroad options through their faculty, advisors, or other staff on campus. With Clemson Abroad Champions marketing in various office spaces, students may see these items while meetings with faculty/staff on campus and identify them as resources for talking about studying abroad. 

The Champions program also aims to recruit a diverse group of faculty and staff in order to help diversify the pool of study abroad participants, and to help the study abroad office identify and reduce blind spots in recruitment efforts. The creation of the Clemson Abroad Champions Taskforce is to further the impact and make program processes and practices more inclusive.

Which student group(s) did your institution target as part of your initiative/project?
Since the goal of the program is to broaden the coalition of individuals on campus invested in promoting global engagement activities, there is no specific population targeted. However, in the application process for Champions, applicants were asked to voluntarily self-identify whether they belonged to an underrepresented population or had an interest in serving a specific underrepresented group in their role.

Tell us step by step the process taken to implement this initiative/project?
The Clemson Office of Inclusion and Equity has an annual grant application for their Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Grant Fund. In July 2018, Clemson Abroad submitted an application for the grant fund and was notified of approval in August 2018. The funding received was used to bring Diversity Abroad on campus for the Supporting Students workshop in February as part of the two-part workshop series. 

In October, the application for 2018-2019 Champions was opened through an online system and 56 applications were received! Around 45-50 of those individuals attended the first training session, Clemson Abroad 101, in November. Clemson Abroad 101 was organized and run through the Clemson Abroad office and provided an overview of the study abroad structure at Clemson University. From late November/early December, the office worked with Diversity Abroad to develop a custom workshop for the second training session. Supporting Students, facilitated with Joelle Tolifero of Diversity Abroad in February, focused on how to effectively advise all students that may be considering studying abroad, particularly those from underrepresented groups. 

The next meeting with this year’s Champions is set for late April and will be a reception to honor their work and present their sticker and desktop globe. CISabroad is hosting the reception and developing a workshop series for this year’s Champions who elect to serve on the Task Force in the next academic year.

Which obstacles were encountered throughout the planning and implementation phases?

Clemson Abroad is a fairly small office and there is no sole staff member dedicated to diversity and inclusion, so the Champions program was implemented on top of everyone’s regular workloads. There were also a few staffing changes during the 2018-19 academic year, which made program implementation a little tougher to manage. However, since there was such a great response to the program from on-campus colleagues it was anticipated that this program would have a large impact in the future. Since we are a small office, we need advocates across campus to help increase access to international education for all students! 

Which faculties, departments, centers and/or students groups on campus were involved in the process?

Most of the implementation of the Champions program was run through the Clemson Abroad office. To recruit participants, information was sent to various campus offices including: representatives from 7 academic colleges, the Office of Inclusion and Equity, and the Gantt Multicultural Center. Individuals who participated in the program largely came from departments housed within Clemson’s 7 academic colleges, but there was also representation from the Center for Career and Professional Development, the Academic Success Center, Clemson Libraries, Clemson Online, Calhoun Honors College, Office of Scholarships, and the Office of Inclusion and Equity. The main off-campus partner was Diversity Abroad.

Were there any new assessments and/or procedures produced due to the initiative/project? Describe any new processes, policies, assessments, or other tools that may have been created or updated to reflect the office’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

As of right now, no new assessments or procedures have been put into place as a result of the Champions program. During the 2019-2020 academic year, the Clemson Abroad Champions Task Force will work to identify some of these tools.

How would your institution approach this initiative/project differently if you were to start over?

During program implementation, our team members kept saying that we were “building the car as we were driving it”. We knew that our overall goal was to increase the number of international education champions around campus, but what we didn’t know was that our Champions wanted an even higher level of involvement. After each workshop, they kept asking us, “What’s next?”. We didn’t anticipate creating a Clemson Abroad Champions Taskforce or developing a more advanced workshop series for these individuals, but we’re so glad that we have the opportunity to do so! That being said, one change could have been to ask program participants what level of involvement they desired as a question in the application process. 

At the beginning of the program implementation, we also thought our main focus would be to increase marketing and recruitment efforts during the 2019-2020 academic year. We do plan to do so, but have realized the need to ensure that our practices and processes are more inclusive so that we are better prepared to support students from underrepresented populations. That was a large takeaway from the workshop with Diversity Abroad, and so even though we may not have necessarily been able to change that initially, it helped us rethink our future plans for the program.

What were the results of your initiative?

The Champions program expanded the network of people on campus who are invested in promoting global engagement activities to students. Clemson Abroad provided our Champions with the tools/resources that will help them to better support students from diverse backgrounds. Since the program is now coming to an end in its first year, it is unlikely that we will see a significant shift in the number of underrepresented students that go abroad this academic year. Currently, of the participants in the program, 38% identified as belonging to an underrepresented population. However, if the program is effective and the Clemson Abroad Champions Task Force updates current processes and procedures to make them more inclusive, we should see a shift in demographics in subsequent years.

What would you recommend to other institutions interested in implementing a similar initiative?

At Clemson there was an overwhelming response to the program which speaks to the need for such an initiative. Many study abroad offices on various campuses do not have enough resources or personnel to focus specifically on diversity and inclusion, so this is an example of a small step that can be taken to increase the number of individuals on campus who can help. If interested in implementing a similar program, we recommend meeting with your respective on-campus diversity and inclusion experts so they can help to guide program development and goals.