Denison: 'Crossing Borders: Migration, Youth and Higher Education'

Denison University holds a forum titled “Crossing Borders: Migration, Youth and Higher Education,” addressing the promises, struggles, and challenges of border crossing, migration, and higher education, at 4 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 11, in the auditorium of Higley Hall (100 Ridge Road). This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Madalina Shipp at 740-587-6369 or visit Denison.edu. Organized by Denison professor Taku Suzuki, the forum is part of the Great Lake College Association’s (GLCA) Grand Challenge program and includes two panel discussions that build on a collaboration between Suzuki’s Migration and Citizenship course and Allegheny College professor Brian Miller’s Migration and the New Europe course. Students and faculty from Allegheny College will attend the event. The first panel discussion will focus on the perspectives of refugee community leaders on the promise and challenge of their resettlement in the U.S., in general, and central Ohio, in particular. The panel will also discuss the issues regarding the educational experiences of the community’s youth. After a short break, the second panel discussion will introduce current university students from refugee backgrounds, and what they view as promises and challenges in higher education in the U.S., in general, and central Ohio, in particular. The second panel discussion will be opened up to the audience, which will include the members of refugee, immigrant, and/or ethnic minority student organizations at Denison University and the Ohio State University, as well as the students from Allegheny College. The panelists include members of the Bhutanese-Nepali and Somali communities in central Ohio: Binaya Subedi, associate professor, department of education at Ohio State University; Jibril Ali Mohamed, executive director, Somali Community Action Network; Sudarshan “Shud” Pyakurel, executive director, Bhutanese Nepali Community of Columbus; Suad Osman, president, Somali Student Association at Ohio State University; Hari O. Adhikari, president, Bhutanese American Student Organization at Ohio State University; Maria Trixie Cortez, president, Asian American Association at Denison; and Danielle Kepeden, president, African Student Association at Denison. Through generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) has launched Global Crossroads, a four-year initiative to advance internationalization of the programs of learning that define GLCA undergraduates’ experience of the liberal arts. As part of Global Crossroads, the Global Alliance Grand Challenge program is designed to bring internationalization into the totality of the educational experience through collaborative exploration of a significant issue that is impacting humanity and whose scope spans disciplinary boundaries.