The Center's mission is to provide Shawnee State University's students and its community with opportunities to appreciate different values and cultures around the world. These experiences prepare our students for the increasingly global nature of society, encourage their understanding of other people, and enable them to contribute to the well being of our world community. On behalf of Shawnee State University, the Center for International Programs and Activities (CIPA), under the direction of Interim Director Rita Haider, fosters and promotes international understanding and global perspective to the university community and the region served by Shawnee State.

As of October 2007, CIPA is housed in its own building; the Rose L. and Augusta Jacobs Center for International Programs and Activities. Please come visit with us and look around. Click on the graphic to view our new location on campus.

Below find some pictures of the CIPA building and of the dedication ceremony (click on pictures to enlarge)

International Students    

Shawnee State University welcomes students from all cultures. CIPA is designed to help our international students fully participate in their college experience. The CIPA director coordinates campus services and programming which enhance our international students' social and academic success. Working in conjunction with various campus offices, CIPA assures that our international students find individual attention specific to their concerns and to their own life, educational, and career goals.

***If you are an international student wishing to study at SSU please follow this link to access a starting page for doing so.

***Click on Glossary to access brief descriptions of terms used by SSU and other US institutions.

***To access a document that contains all kinds of questions and answers about student visas to the US and other immigration issues pertaining to international students in the US please follow this link

The flags hanging from the ceiling of SSU's University Center are dedicated to the 55 nationalities of our faculty and students. We hope to add more as merited. Click here to view a record of these flags

For further assistance with the application process and information specific to your country, please contact your local U.S. Embassy/U.S. Consulate/Office of Public Affairs for referral to an overseas educational advising center near you, or consult the list available on the U.S. Department of State’s website at http://educationusa.state.gov/centers.htm.

International Relations Degree

CIPA strongly supports in a variety of ways SSU's Bachelor of Arts (BA) in International Relations (IR) degree. Located academically in the Department of Social Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, this bachelor of arts major examines the nature of the global economy, communications, politics, and cultures; the consequences of environmental interdependence among regions of the world; and the unfolding of a variety of other cross-border issues. The BA in IR provides its graduates with the conceptual and substantive tools necessary to function more advantageously and effectively in a "shrinking" world. This degree also places SSU in an exclusive group of four-year colleges and universities in the United States that offer this major and is listed by US News and World Report in the top 200 US best colleges offering this degree - visit http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/majors/brief/major_45-09_brief.php

For more information, contact Government and International Relations Professor Hadjiyannis (Skype name: Hadjiyannis) or visit the IR web site

International Study Programs

To give students and community members an opportunity to broaden their foreign study experience, CIPA sponsors international travel and language study abroad and provides mini-scholarships for credit seeking students. Examples of regularly conducted courses include travel to Britain or Greece or Ireland, or to five nations in one tour (i.e. Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Germany). Click on names below to access details of some of those travel/study courses. Please revisit our site for updates on future courses in case you wish to take one or more.

                  Britain                                              Greece 

                  Ireland                                      Holland and beyond

CIPA encourages all SSU faculty to conduct similar courses to other parts of the world. If interested, please complete and submit the linked course proposal form and peruse the instructions in this linked document.

CIPA supports, and here acknowledges, the many international endeavors and accomplishments of SSU faculty to visit, teach and research in other countries

Shawnee State also takes great pride in the international faculty who teach at the University. These faculty, and the students we welcome from other countries, share their international perspectives every day and enrich the lives of everyone in the Shawnee State academic community. International programs and activities at Shawnee State may take many forms: courses taught by university faculty, courses at foreign educational institutions, field studies, local, state, national and international internships, and student exchange programs.

CIPA sponsors an annual International Awareness Week, visits by foreign scholars and lecturers, an International Film Festival, International Meal Day, participation in the Model Arab League, and other activities. In order for its students to benefit from a variety of international study options, Shawnee State University has established sister-university agreements with Zhejiang University of Technology in China, with James I University in Spain, with the University of Applied Science in Zittau, Germany, with the Al Akhawayn University in Morocco, and most recently with South China Normal University in China and Ludwigsburg University of Education in Germany

If you are interested in an international exchange opportunity, you should plan early, consulting with your faculty advisor and with the director of the Center for International Programs and Activities. To access an application form to apply for study in Spain, Morocco, or Germany please click here. For additional info please visit our study abroad page by clicking here.

Student Initiatives

CIPA also helps the student-driven International Forum Club to undertake a variety of activities that enhance the college experience of all on campus and the wider community. For participation in or more information about the Club please contact Rita Haider. You may also contact any of the club officers for the 2009-10 academic year:

President:  Travis Turner, email:  turnert@shawnee.edu

Vice President: Brian Church, email:  churchb2@shawnee.edu

Secretary: Alihussein Noordin, email: noordina@shawnee.edu

Treasurer: Samuel Ndungu, email:  ndungus@shawnee.edu

International Food Festival

Pictures from a recent International Food Festival sponsored by CIPA and organized by the International Forum Club.