By Laurie D. Willis
GREENSBORO, N.C. – When you’re housed in a city with four larger institutions of higher learning and an emerging law school, it might be easy to get lost in the shuffle. But one of the big draws for Bennett College, an all women’s HBCU in the Tar Heel State’s third-largest city, is the institution’s robust International Program.
Since 2009, Bennett has sent about 200 students to 29 countries as far away and varied as Australia, Tanzania, China, South Africa, Costa Rica and South Korea. What’s more, the institution has hosted 19 international students from formal government scholarship programs from countries including Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkmenistan and Indonesia.
“We are proud to offer our students the opportunity to travel internationally and to get a chance to learn firsthand about other cultures,” said Bennett College Interim President Dr. Phyllis Worthy Dawkins. “It’s one thing to read about a country or to get information about it from the Internet, but it’s something else altogether to visit that country. Students who enroll at Bennett College get the opportunity to do just that. In fact, this summer we’re sending students to several countries, including Brazil, South Africa, South Korea and Zimbabwe.”
Bennett’s International Program rivals and in fact exceeds programs at some much larger institutions, and Lee J. Todhunter of The Center for Global Studies is a large part of the reason. But Todhunter is quick to cite others for the program’s success, including Bheki Langa, a Bennett English professor and coordinator of English & Foreign Languages, and Dr. Gwendolyn Bookman, an associate professor and interim department chair of Political Science & Sociology. Bookman served as director of the Center for Global Studies for a number of years.
During her tenure, Todhunter worked diligently to ensure Bennett students were afforded every opportunity to study abroad. “Bennett has a long history of international engagement,” said Todhunter. “At Bennett, students are developed to be global citizens and leaders. Bennett graduates have attended graduate school in the United Kingdom at institutions such as Cambridge University, they have served as Fulbright teaching assistants and they have helped develop communities in Costa Rica, the Philippines and Rwanda through missionary work or formal government programs.”
Moreover, Todhunter said, Bennett Belles have been particularly active in the Peace Corps, with 37 graduates serving as volunteers since its inception in 1961.
According to a 2015 article in The Atlantic, which cited the Institute of International Education, only about five percent of Americans who study abroad are black. That may be, but at Bennett College the numbers are much more encouraging.
Dawkins has been at Bennett for fewer than two years and has served as interim president since mid-August. So while she can’t take credit for the college’s thriving International Program, she certainly plans to ensure it continues. Dawkins has traveled to all of the earth’s continents except Australia and recognizes the advantages studying abroad can bring. In fact, she’s credited with reinvigorating the Inter – national Program at Cheyney University in Pennsylvania.
“College students today have vast opportunities that weren’t available to the same extent when people of my gene – ration were under – graduates,” she said. “Prospective employers look favorably upon students who have studied abroad, and sometimes students who study abroad can better position themselves for overseas opportunities down the road. There’s no question I’m committed to Bennett College’s International Program.”
Rosemarie C. Igbo, also of Bennett’s Center for Global Studies, said she wants the school’s international program to continue thriving. “I’m trying to turn Bennett Belles into Global Belles,” said Igbo, Bennett’s Intensive English Language Program Manager. “My goal is to build upon the numbers of students traveling abroad. Bennett’s new English as a Second Language (ESL) Program was recently approved by our accrediting body. It’s also our goal to bring international students here. We want our International Program to attract students.”
Jaiza Wesley, 22, a psychology major from Olympia, Washington, expects to graduate in May and is grateful for the opportunity Bennett afforded her to spend the spring 2016 semester in Cyprus, an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“I’d never been out of the country before I went to Cyprus,” Wesley said. “After coming to Bennett and being so far away from home I experienced culture shock, which prompted me to want to explore and see other places. Being in Cyprus was humbling because I was able to experience the life of a Cypriot as I immersed myself in the culture more so than I would have had I just been there on vacation.”
Wesley said some students, particularly those from the West Coast, may think that just because Bennett is small it doesn’t have much to offer. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
“You enter Bennett College a girl but leave as the woman you were destined to become,” Wesley said. “I could have attended a larger school, but I might not have gotten the chance to spend a semester in Europe had I gone to a bigger school. While I was in Cyprus I traveled to several different countries including Israel, Greece and Italy. I also went cliff jumping and tried different foods I never would have tried in the U.S. “Another great thing about Bennett College is the sisterhood that exists here,” Wesley continued. “To any high school girls who are planning to attend college, I recommend they strongly consider Bennett. Likewise, any girl who enrolls at Bennett should certainly take ad – vantage of everything our Inter – national Program has to offer.”
