November 15, 2021
Shawnee State University welcomed fifty international students from over twenty countries for the 2021-2022 academic year as part the university’s Center for International Programs & Study Abroad (CIPSA).
At SSU, the international students are involved in various sports, academic programs, and student organizations on campus. The students’ nationalities include: Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Republic of Congo, England, Germany, Iceland, India, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Tunisia, and Ukraine.
“Increasing our number of international students on campus has been really positive coming back from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ryan Warner, SSU’s Director of CIPSA. “Now that some of the restrictions have been lifted and international travel is slightly easier, we have welcomed up to fifty members into our program for this fall. Our goal is to potentially double that number in the next two years.”
Aside from increasing its number of international students, CIPSA is also seeking to expand their international partnerships. Several schools abroad have expressed interest in creating a new partnership with the university.
“One school that reached out is HAN University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands,” said Warner. “They have a gaming program like we do. It will be a bilateral partnership – meaning they can send students to us, and we can send American students to them. We hope to form at least one or two more of these partnerships with other schools over the next year.”
SSU’s international students excel in the classroom as well as in their day-to-day lives and careers. The CIPSA program includes student-athletes who are part of SSU Athletics’ Men’s and Women’s Soccer, Baseball, Men’s Basketball, Men’s and Women’s Tennis, and Men’s and Women’s Swimming programs. Represented throughout many academic programs on campus, international students are also members and officers in several clubs and organizations within the student body.
“The growth and success these students make means everything to me,” said Warner. “One thing that’s exciting is that the SSU Development Foundation, through the assistance of Vice President Eric Braun, has actively been creating scholarships just for international students. We would not have gained thirty new international students on top of the existing twenty without donors or the Development Foundation. These opportunities set students up for a lifetime of success.“
To learn more about international programs at Shawnee State University, visit shawnee.edu/cipa.