Episode 4: Expanding Horizons: The Center for Global Engagement (CGE)

Lynn Michalopoulos: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome everyone. Very excited for today's podcast. Welcome to the Social Workers Everywhere podcast, where we uncover the powerful, diverse, and far reaching impact of social work across the globe.

David Robertson: Each episode we spotlight the practice, research and experience of students and social workers from a wide range of industries and professions.

From clinical care to policy change, from leadership to grassroots advocacy and community engagement, social work is truly everywhere.

Lynn Michalopoulos: Through the voices of the University of Maryland School of Social Work community, including faculty, staff, students, alumni, global partners, and partners within the university across campus.

We'll explore unique perspectives and innovative initiatives shaping the future of the field. We are your host, Dr. Lynn Murphy Michalopoulos.

David Robertson: David Robertson

Lynn Michalopoulos: Today, I'm super excited, to be interviewing two colleagues of mine [00:01:00] and friends so welcome to you both.

David Robertson: So open up and begin this conversation. I'd love for you both just to give a brief description of your roles at CGE. Virginia, if you wanna start.

Virgina Rowthorn: Well, thank you and thank you so much for having, me and Amy, to the podcast. It's really an honor and I support what the School of Social Work is doing in the global area.

So much so I'm happy to be here today. I am, the Assistant Vice President for Global engagement at UMB. And that really means, working here at the Center for Global Engagement, which is a campus-wide center that supports all the schools on campus with their global engagement dreams and goals.

And, so my job is really to work with the rest of the staff at the Center for Global Engagement to see how we can help the schools. And we really try to push from behind and create opportunities and let the faculty, staff and students at the schools really shine and and do what they [00:02:00] wanna do. And I'm also a lawyer and an associate professor at the University of Maryland School for Graduate Studies.

Lynn Michalopoulos: Thank you.

Amy Ramirez: Thank you Amy Lynn and David for, having us on this podcast. So excited to be here. My name is Amy Ramirez and I am the Executive Director for Global Learning and International Services in the Center for Global Engagement. So the way I like to describe my work is I wear two hats. One is. As the executive director for International Services, which means that I oversee the Office of International Services, which is a part of CGE, and we work with all the international students and researchers and faculty who come to UMB from around the world.

And then the global learning hat is a more recent addition to my portfolio, and that work is more focused on how do we, get more global education [00:03:00] opportunities embedded into the learning experience of UMB students. So thinking about how do we get it into the curriculum across, UMB's seven schools, how do we support faculty members in doing that work?

So, and also how do we become a central repository of all of the global education opportunities, both experiential, but also within the curriculum that exist across the institution. Cheerleading, the efforts of our faculty. Also really helping students identify where they can, find opportunities to take their a, a seed of an idea and really figure out how to fund it, how to do it, how to experience it during their studies here at UMB.

Lynn Michalopoulos: That's great. Thank you. Thank you both. It's essentially both you, Virginia mentioned that you're a lawyer, and Amy, you're in the field of [00:04:00] education.

It would be great to hear, and Amy, if you wanna start, like what, what it, what actually got you into this work?

Amy Ramirez: Yeah, so I, when I, people ask me that, and I always like to start by saying I start really early because I grew up in Queens, New York, which if anybody has ever experienced Queens, New York, you know that it's an incredibly diverse

place in our country, right? Lots of immigrants from around the world, very racially and ethnically diverse domestic diversity as well. And so I did not know when I was growing up that that wasn't the entire lived experience of our country. That was my lived experience. And so I just got interested and curious about the world.

That was very naturalized for me. And so, because I had friends from all over the place and so when I went to college, I, I did all the things that often become your entree into the international education field. I studied Spanish, I worked in the [00:05:00] international office, I studied abroad and I made lots of friends with international students and so that was very much my entree.

I've spent over 20 years now working with international students and faculty members. So that is where a lot of my expertise came come from. But in the course of my career, I became just much more interested as well. And just thinking through how is it that we think about not just who is on our campus, but also how are the, the learning spaces of the university, making our international students feel welcomed, supported?

Like they're views of the world matter, right. And their understandings of the world matter, which is why I got increasingly interested in, in what we call in the international education field, the curriculum internationalization space.

Lynn Michalopoulos: That's great. I love that. Thank you. And Virginia, how about you?

Virgina Rowthorn: Well, it's funny, I'm glad you asked 'cause it's a little bit of the history of [00:06:00] the Center for Global Engagement and whereas Amy sort of came up in what might be a more traditional way, I definitely zoomed into this field sideways and I, was in the Peace Corps in the Marshall Islands, but that was, you know, I had sort of put that behind me and I

was trained as a health lawyer and I was working sort of understanding how health is regulated in this country from a very domestic point of view. And I was managing director at the law and healthcare program at our law school here on campus. And, in about 12 years ago, a wonderful professor named Hala Zam at the School of Medicine got an NIH Fogerty International Center Grant called a framework for Global Health Grant.

And this was to incentivize universities to create interprofessional global health resource centers on their campus. And so she got the grant from the School of Medicine and she reached out to all the schools on campus. And she said, we need a rep from every school on campus to come to this fledgling resource center and to be the advisory committee.

And so my boss at the law [00:07:00] school was like, oh, you were in the Peace Corps. You go, you go to represent the law school at this committee. And sure enough, that committee that I always joke met in a room without windows. We were just eating lunch outta Tupperwares and reporting out, started to, to grow and

started to become a place where people would come with questions about global engagement, partnerships, education abroad, other issues. And I always held back a little thinking. I'm a lawyer, I'm not a global health expert. And Jody Olson, who was a faculty member at the School of Social Work before she went to run the Peace Corps, she and I held back.

But the, the bylaws of this group were like, everyone had to take leadership and finally it it had to be us and we decided to join forces and we sort of said, look, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it right and we're gonna take the budget, which there was some money, and just start, creating programs and really doing [00:08:00] this thing called interprofessional global health.

And so that's finally, it took so much of my time that I had to break away from the law school and, and move over to run the center permanently. And so now in the 12 years it's growing to nine staff members and a real center with a big C. And that's how I got involved and really love it and would never wanna go back.

Lynn Michalopoulos: Just wanna ask a follow up question of, those beginning projects, what, what did they look like?

Virgina Rowthorn: Well, the first project we did, and I'll tell you, this grant brought a hundred thousand dollars a year with it, and we were having trouble spending it. Because, because, there were a lot of sort of

rules and regulations that we had created to try to use it. And so what Jody and I decided to do was really something big and dramatic, which was to take faculty members and students from all the schools to Malawi. And we chose Malawi because, we had an existing NIH funded [00:09:00] project there related to malaria.

And so there was some infrastructure there. And at the time, and I'm sure still now to some degree, the country was struggling with issues related to orphans and vulnerable children, which has a component for a lot of the schools on campus that students and faculty could engage with. So we took a huge team

'cause remember there's seven schools on campus, so that's seven students, seven faculty members, me and Jody. And, and really, developed a program that went on like that for three, four years. But one thing that's interesting is reflecting back. We did not do thing, we really put the horse before the cart.

Like no learning outcomes, not really thinking about safety and security, sort of not thinking about, also what impact that was this appropriate for, Malawi. And were we taking up time of people there who needed to be focusing on other things? Were we imposing ourselves on [00:10:00] them? But it did was really fertile ground for learning.

And what we learned was that we, we can do this. Students, can really learn from each other, from the other professions. But we need to do this right. And it set us on the path to really studying the ethical components of education abroad and partnership. And so that, that was really, that's what we did for the first four years before he got somewhat more sophisticated than those big, huge group projects.

Lynn Michalopoulos: That's interesting. We, and the, one of the other episodes that we've, had, we've been talking, we were talking about the concept of, charity versus solidarity. And I, I think that, that you bring up that exact point.

Virgina Rowthorn: I mean that that is something that we have really grown as a center and as a university, you know, at first we could have thought of ourself as like a service center.

Uh, but then we realized that we could do so much more and we could introduce rigor and ethics [00:11:00] into everything we do. And, and that's been something that we've been very proud of and we've engaged in scholarship in that area. So I can look back on some of the projects and say, oof. I, I that I am a recovering voluntourist, you know, and I've done things that I shouldn't have done, and, and then I really wanna make sure that's something that we don't repeat.

David Robertson: Question, question for both of you. What does it mean to be a global citizen?

Virgina Rowthorn: I can start in, in that. I see that in two ways and, and I'm curious, I'm sure Amy will add, to what I say is I think in our personal lives, outside of the educational context, it means having enough exposure to global communities, to history, to context that you can look at a global issue and really understand how complex that issues is and, and bring to it a much more sophisticated nuance.

Understanding and, and I think you can tell [00:12:00] why that would be so important nowadays, that every situation has a thousand years of history behind it has, religious and political context. And while you can never understand all or even most of the history or the context, you can understand that the, that it's there and that, and that deep sensitivity is required when encountering,

issues, challenges in the world and, and different people that you run into from a professional perspective and sort of what I see the role of my job is, is that it, that we want to turn out professionals, students who graduate, from this campus having a global perspective, not only in their personal life, but professionally and understanding that their profession

the way they do it in the United States is one way of carrying out that profession. But there are other ways, there are other good ways of doing things. And so basically to open their eyes to, different ways of thinking and being, to hopefully make them better [00:13:00] professionals. And there're mostly here in the United States where most are gonna practice.

So I see it, from both sides.

Amy Ramirez: Yeah. I lo, I mean, and there's so many different sort of academic definitions around this topic, but the way I always come back to it is always I'm relentlessly sort of thinking about how do we broaden the circle of concern right. In, in our conversations.

Yeah. Around any topic. Yeah. Right. Around almost anything. Mm-hmm. Right. How do we, how do we constantly think about how do we, I. Think about who we care about, right? And I know that can feel very heavy at times, or there will be some people that will say, well, and I have these conversations with neighbors and with friends, close friends, community members locally, and it's.

Just like, you know, well, I think we started home and then we gradually widen out from there. And I could, I could appreciate that perspective. We act locally every day. Right. And the practices [00:14:00] of citizenship are very local ones, right. Right. But I think that, it, it's a constant thinking and reflecting upon how do we broaden the circle of concern, right?

And, we can't all be perfect. And we can't as, as much as our aspirations and our optimism well. Lead us to say we can't, what are we divesting ourselves for from, right? Sometimes it's what are we leaning into? And what are we sort of. What are we really trying to pour ourselves into in a given moment, right?

But I am always thinking about how do we strive every day to live values, see our common humanity, and, but also how do we move the needle and engage in a set of practices every day that demonstrate our concern for others beyond ourselves, [00:15:00] whether that is in our local communities, whether that is people a million miles away, right?

How do we enact concern? Right. And show care for people, right? And, and think about how we accompany how do we enact our values locally? How do we make use of our, how do we make use of our spheres of influence as professionals, academics, scholars, to enact to, to enact sort of, how do I say it,

to try to be the change we want to see in the world to sort of use a, a beautiful quote, right? Yeah. So when I think about myself as an American, sometimes I'll, the students will ask me about, they'll see all kinds of things that are happening out there in the world. And it's just terrible and it's awful.

And it's like, how do I help with that? And sometimes they'll be like, well, you know, as American citizens, we actually have really special things that we can do and a very [00:16:00] special privilege that we have as American citizens is actually starting with our legislators, right.

Or, you know, thinking about how we start at home or thinking about what we're doing right here in our own country to realize, you know, to support efforts that are happening around the world, right? So sort of thinking through every day, how do we broaden the circle of concern and how do we act in ways both locally small as well as on a global scale that extend and expand the circle of concern.

Lynn Michalopoulos: Yeah. I like how you both talk about ways like internally your framework, your perspective, as well as behavior and action. Because it both, both are, are important. I'm, I'm curious to kinda shifting to, specifically to the Center for Global Engagement. Can you share with our audience members, a couple of the opportunities that the Center for Global Engagement that, that you're currently offering?

Virginia, you wanna start? I.

Virgina Rowthorn: Sure, thanks. That is one way that our center [00:17:00] functions is by, supporting faculty and students and staff with some Seed Funds to do some projects. So one of our biggest, programs is the President's Global Impact Fund, and there we. Have grants, that support faculty who are starting education, service, or research programs with an international partner or partners.

And the goal of that project is to give faculty that initial bump so that they can develop some preliminary data, or a preliminary curriculum to then carry it on, that project to get external funding or to get the course formally approved, by the curriculum committee. And so that project started in, 2020

the first few years were a little difficult because of, COVID obviously. And we had to see some extreme flexibility on behalf of the grantees who moved a lot of their research online. And so that project [00:18:00] is, that funding is still there and, and I know you may later address this sort of funding issue that is happening in the global sphere.

That's one way that we do continue and hope to consider that like bridge funding until, more funding at the federal level is, available, knock on wood. And, another, program we have for students is called the Provost Global Scholar Program. And, this is only two years old. But this was created, it's a $2,000 unrestricted

grant to students that we developed because what we know on our campus, students are gonna come to us with so many different types of projects. I mean, that's the beauty of this campus. We have seven schools. Some students are gonna do legal research, some are gonna do research related to their PhD. And if we knew if we got too complicated in terms of budgets and things like that, that, we would have

fewer applicants. So we opened it [00:19:00] up with sort of a wing and a prayer that this money would, be used well by our students. And it is amazing to see the types and broad projects that we have and that are appropriate for each type of student, on our campus, which includes social work students who've, used the project to study

how aging, admittance to nursing homes happens in Korea. They've looked at, different things around reproductive rights in Nigeria. So those are two, programs that we're really proud of because it's enough money and enough support that we believe and we've seen in our experience that it, it.

Can change a student's career professional trajectory permanently, and it can change a faculty's research agenda permanently. So I'll, we have a few others. I'll turn it over to Amy, but, those are two special ones.

Amy Ramirez: Yeah. So, one that I'm involved in, that you guys know me, what well for is [00:20:00] the Costa Rica Faculty Development Institute, which takes a group of faculty members to Costa Rica every year to work on curriculum design projects, right?

So these are faculty members that propose to work on courses or. Modules tracks. There's a lot of different terms for curriculum across our seven schools, and so they work on curriculum design projects during the course of, of our time in Costa Rica, and there's some pre-departure and post trip meetings as well, so that's

that program. And you know, right now we're in the process of reviewing applications for the fourth cohort that will be going this December. So that's one program. We also have, curriculum internationalization grants, which you of course are a two time recipient of those funds. So, and those are small grants that we give to faculty members and sometimes to staff [00:21:00] members too, to implement

Curriculum, global curriculum projects, right? So they want some funds to work on to actually put in place a course or an education abroad program, or, a learning opera, a co-curricular program that's so things things that might be, organized within the division of Student Affairs, for example, that you don't get academic credit for, but it's a learning experience that students can participate in.

And so the focus of what I do, particularly my criteria is that student UMB students must be an audience, right? So always with my, with my work, and this is sometimes this has been a hard sort of part of my job sometimes when I'm trying to explain it to, particularly to our global health faculty that have been very accustomed to thinking about curriculum is work that they do with partners in

low and middle income countries is, no, I want you to design curriculum for students that are enrolled in our [00:22:00] degree program. So how do we make use of this great research and service expertise that you have been doing, and clinical work that you have been doing overseas, and how do you make sure that our students are benefiting from this expertise that you have developed?

So that's very much my wheelhouse.

Lynn Michalopoulos: I, I did have a question for students that may be interested. Just so we get the word out for the, the provost, global Scholars program, where is that advertised? Where can students find information about

Virgina Rowthorn: that? It's advertised on the Center for Global Engagement webpage under for students.

And just so you know, those applications will open again around December 1st, 2025. And probably be due around February 1st, 2026. The idea is that most students will use the money in the summer, so we have a cohort of students that are, you know, gonna use the funding this summer. You to David, including David.

Um, and then, and then it'll open [00:23:00] again for students for spring break or next summer.

David Robertson: Okay, great. Thank you. I, I had a, a question in regards to future thinking about the, in its infancy stage or toddler is two years old now. Mm-hmm. Uh, in regards to, uh, is there opportunity or would it, are they thinking about embedded opportunities for reinvestment?

Based on the international collaboration between institution and global partner or global opportunity. Uh, if, if as the, the students come back and see like, this is really impactful, uh, is there an opportunity or is there somewhere to, to thought partner to help kind of pipeline, other ways to fund, knowing that this is kind of like a seed opportunity to support students.

Virgina Rowthorn: I mean, that is such a good question. And, and, and what we try to do is offer to meet with every student because each student's situation is quite individual. But you're referring to what, I mean it's used in different terms, but in, in a [00:24:00] sense, sustainability because, what in, in every sphere, whether it's you doing your research or, or you Lynn doing your research at, at different stages of your professional careers or

your time as a student, you want to see how that's gonna evolve. And especially when you in, bring in international partners, you don't wanna do a one-off, you wanna sort of think how, how can I keep going with this partner or who I've got excited about an issue, who I've learned from.

And, so, so we do tackle this issue. And I can say it's quite difficult in, in some regard, but it, it's, it's like our challenge, our extreme sport to make sure that you, for instance, David, if you come to us and say you wanna keep working with this partner, that we help you find other sources of funding.

Or we find other mentors for you to pursue. And Lynn, as it's, it's something that we really focus on who, what other sources of fundings are there. Who else can we introduce you to?

So, I, I can't thank you [00:25:00] enough, David, for that question because we do not wanna do one-offs.

We don't wanna be a center that has just more and more pins on the map, right? We wanna be those pins to be, deep and meaningful. So, that's a goal of ours. It has been and, and will be going forward.

David Robertson: That's super helpful, thank you. And leading into the next question, which is kind of weaving into it, is, uh, what are some innovative ways that you all have come up with, uh, in regards to, uh, CGE and across the university to address some of the funding challenges?

Amy Ramirez: I think one of the things that I just really wanna say is I feel like we get very high impact for, in the grand scheme of things, fairly small amounts of money. Right? I mean, one of the things that I just wanna say is that a lot of what we do in CGE is seeding good ideas, right?

And so, part of what we do here is very [00:26:00] much we like to, I like to think of what we do in CGE as being like the connectors of people and we have small pots of money, like we're not, and that can really be just enough to help faculty members and students. Take a good idea and get it up off the ground.

Right. And we're really lucky, and we're truly fortunate that we have faculty members and students that really are just, they can take that money and they can run with it and they can do really impactful things with it for not a lot of funds. Right. So I'm just kind of blown away by the vision of many of the applications that we get.

To take what I consider to be a pretty nominal sum of money and are able to just get findings and results out of research projects or work on something that is itself going to have an impact that is just a very [00:27:00] amplified, right? So I like curriculum, for example. I always say if you're gonna work on things that are gonna live in a core syllabus or

one of the projects that we're funding in the curriculum internationalization grant, they're a faculty member in their law school that teaches the contracts course. For example, they're gonna be working on the project to integrate both indigenous and western law contract provisions into teaching around

contracts. Right? And there's also gonna be a case law book that she co-authors that's going to integrate some of this content. Now think about the fact that this is now gonna be out there for law schools across the US and Canada to now use in the way that teach about contracts. That's a product that's gonna far outlive.

That's an evergreen product, in many respects. Right? Yeah. To me, that's, and that's not a lot of, we're not giving her a whole lot of money to do that. [00:28:00] Right. And so. I think that's one of the ways that we get really creative and PGIF operates on a very similar model. The projects that get funded are not huge sums of money, but the projects that do get funded create very, very actionable data that now become the foundation for much larger sums of money.

Yeah. Virginia, do you wanna pick up on that?

Virgina Rowthorn: No. Yeah, no, thank you. You, I think you answered perfectly is that we try to seed the efforts and then, and then support faculty as they seek external funding or so students as they seek, other pathways like Fulbright or, foundation funding to do their work.

So, we. Don't we? We do the initial seed funding and then try to stay connected to focus on the sustainability piece as well.

Amy Ramirez: I also have to say that some of the students, particularly the Global Scholar students, some of the proposals that I've read there too, [00:29:00] have been amazing projects. Right? Like just really impressive, amazing projects, right?

I always have to say that I'm always impressed by, in particular. Social work students, since this is a social work podcast, the, the ideas that that come up in those proposals are really just very novel, creative and again, social workers are often not operating on big budgets and are having big impact with the work that they're doing.

So again, I just, I do wanna say that, you know. Sometimes you can have a very amplified outsize impact from not a lot of money. Yeah.

Lynn Michalopoulos: In, in addition to, funding, I'm curious to know what are some of the other challenges to kind of running the Center for global engagement? I mean, thinking about the fact you said seven, that's, that's a lot of schools, seven schools and varied different disciplines.

I mean, I think you all have done a fantastic job of kind of integrating [00:30:00] across the schools. I mean, I've formed relationships with. Pharmacy, nursing, law, medicine, and it's just been extremely helpful for me in the work that I do, and making the work more impactful. But what are some of the challenges or that have come up, that you've been able to address or things that you that haven't been able to address?

Virgina Rowthorn: It's funny, I do feel like we have to. Work right in a sweet spot where we're providing assistance and support, but really understanding that each of the schools, like the school of social work, has their own mission and goals and curriculum and things like that. And so we really are careful never to, have our own set of goals or requirements or things that.

Run counter to what the school is trying to do. And so I don't call it a challenge 'cause we've been able to thread that needle, but it's something that we constantly try to understand. And so it's very relationship driven. An area that, [00:31:00] just an example of working in the central administration with seven.

Quite independent in different schools is that, for instance, in the 2021 to 2026, UMB strategic plan, global engagement is one of the themes,

and to the themes are decided at the highest level and then pushed down to the schools to add goals. And that's an area where you see really widely divergent goals.

. And almost a lost opportunity to work more collaboratively. But that's the tension in a campus like this where you have a thin central admin and schools. So it's something that we're constantly aware of, but it's also the greatest. Area of satisfaction and joy bringing together, students and faculty from different schools.

And I just re one little anecdote is I remember when we first started going to Malawi and we had students from different schools and one of the students was a law student. And, I think a pharmacy student said. [00:32:00] Oh, you're gonna work on human rights issues in Malawi. I really thought lawyers and law students just basically sued people.

Like I didn't understand this bigger perspective. So that's also one of the best things about working here, is you can see the fullness of each profession, of each, of all the things that we do on this campus. And, so I'll, I'll just leave it there. That it's, that can be both somewhat difficult to maneuver and also our greatest strength, I would say, right?

Amy Ramirez: Yeah. I have to say one of the. Very unique challenges of working on this campus, really, and particularly for me because I'm so much in the education and the curriculum space is professional education itself. And most of my, career, I have spent more in the graduate education space, which functions quite differently.

They are really distinct, right? In the graduate disciplines, right? The academic disciplines.

And so even at other universities that [00:33:00] I worked at, the academic disciplines you can never get out of, sort of whenever you're in, particularly I've, I've spent my whole career in research universities and so you can never get out of sort of the disciplinary, siloization in research universities because that is the orienting logic of academia.

What was a real surprise that it took me a long time to learn is how rigid professional curricula can be. And that is why we never want to be, it's very much why a lot of the work that we've been doing on curriculum has had to start with faculty and has really had to be very grassroots in this way and has had to start at a very sort of okay, I'm gonna explain to you what are sort of.

From my perspective, what are we trying to achieve with a globalized curriculum? What is it that we're trying to accomplish here? But what I need you faculty member to tell [00:34:00] me is how do these words and these ideas link up with priorities important central ideas for competencies within your field, right?

I need you to help me, you know, to we, we have to have that conversation, that linkage happen, right? So a lot of the work that we do with faculty is really helping them, helping have that conversation and linking the dots between, here's what I'm trying to help students to learn, and here's how I make the argument to curriculum committees and to my students about why it is it's important for you to know this, right?

And this is how I make the case for why we have to put this in our curriculum. So it's. You know, it's definitely been a journey in that regard for me to really understand some of, some of that piece. But I love the challenge of that because, you know, that's sort of like having that, I mean, you can never have a full insider perspective of all of these fields and disciplines if you [00:35:00] haven't been fully brought up in them.

But like, I love the challenge of trying to get inside that mindset. So that's, that's fun for me.

David Robertson: How has CGE reengaged with communi with the community to address some of the current challenges in our climate?

Virgina Rowthorn: Well, thanks for that question. And it, it is the question, yeah, I, I can't say David, that we fully understand the scope of, what's going on right now enough to address it? I, I think it's causing, a lot of, us to engage in a lot of conversations and internal dialogue about.

How important global education is, and research with global partners is, and how to keep that going and how essential it is to keep that going. And it's really making us try to understand that global is really an approach. It's not like a topic. It's, it's an approach [00:36:00] to seeing the world. And that's something that we have to do.

Whether the grants are there or, or whether they're not. So, I think that, and we have the supportive leadership on this, that we know that our center is gonna move forward through challenging times. We're gonna. Keep talking about how important it is to give our students, a, a global open perspective, how important it is to support faculty in their professions, collaborating with colleagues around the world.

And that's the only way to develop knowledge that's, full and broad. On a more concrete level, I think right now we're, we're leaning into, as Amy said, the impact of smaller funding opportunities and also reaching out to donors, to, to ask for support from donors. And we're hoping to use this as a time of growth, as a bridge time that, that.

When funding spigot opens up, or you know, when we fully understand the situation. We haven't just [00:37:00] been waiting twiddling our thumbs, but we've been preparing for that and, and we're ready to go and that we are just as global university, you know, when that happens. So it's a little bit of a broad answer, but, um, yeah, it's hard to get a full picture yet, but we're full steam ahead.

Amy Ramirez: I just wanna it, that's a beautiful answer, Virginia. Yeah. But I piggyback on to it, and maybe it's gonna sound too optimistic, but I, this is where I just truly believe that our work in education is like the work of planting trees who shade, you'll never sit.

Right? I always think to myself that the work that we're doing inside education is truly the work of we're developing the next generation, right? We're developing the next generation of leaders for our country and for our world, right? And so. You know, to the extent that we remain as [00:38:00] we maintain a sense of optimism and hope in spite of challenges that we see today, that is, that's just so important.

That, and that remains critical and that remains, you know, like the North Star for what we're, what we're doing every day in CGE. So. We've been through difficult times before and we've always gotten through them, and I just, I continue to practice daily gratitude for good colleagues and great people every day.

And, you know, always just, you know, we, we have a lot of, there's a lot to be concerned about in the world and I don't want to minimize that, but there's a lot to be grateful for too. So, you know, we, we keep, we keep doing the good work. That's what I always tell people.

Lynn Michalopoulos: I really appreciate both of your answers.

Both like, I feel like I needed that today. Teach students of the, and that you know, it doesn't mean that things are feel great and that there isn't [00:39:00] concern that we should have and we should be acting and doing. but also having hope and valuing the relationships, like the relationships that I have with, with both of you, with all three of you actually, um, is, is of value and one of the reasons why I love the, the work that, that I do.

So I, I I love that. Thank you. I did wanna ask a question about, in an ideal world, if you had all the resources available to you in terms of funding, other resources, not even, you know, monetary. But, if you had all the resources in the world, what one or two things do you think you would add to, the Center for Global Engagement?

What would that look like?

Virgina Rowthorn: Well, I personally would love to have a program that, gave each student the chance to have a global opportunity. And by that I mean either getting on a plane, but probably mostly for most students who, we have a lot of students who have jobs and families and things, not getting on a plane, but having the opportunity that we've curated to interact [00:40:00] with different communities, experience, what it's like to be vulnerable in the face of, other communities and other situations and.

I would love to see a program where each student had the chance to have a curated global opportunity that opens their eyes, whether here or abroad. And then, so that's a dream I have. And then another dream would be to get more faculty involved faculty in global work, not by necessarily

changing their topical focus of their research or teaching, but finding like colleagues in other settings. And the way I would really love to do that is by having sort of workshops hosting thematic workshops around the world where, faculty can meet each other and say, oh, you're studying this type of science.

Oh, I am too. Wouldn't it be nice if we did that together? And I know that works because, we have a wonderful donor who's given us money to support [00:41:00] an agent collaborative in, in Costa Rica. And when you do put faculty together in a room, and I find that sort of human contact really works and have them talk about, for instance, their microbiome studies.

The synergies are amazing, but it's, it's bringing folks together and then having some funding to then support that idea. I would love to have a hundred workshops around the world so that faculty. I think they are hungry for that. Like how do you make that connection and then how, and, and, and have ways to support it.

So that, that's my dream world.

David Robertson: I just came back from the gerontology course in Japan and my ear was really laser focused on grief care globally. And what were some of the, the terminology that was utilized locally, and it wasn't until we went to our sister partner school, which was St.

Mariana, which is the medical school where we as a [00:42:00] interdisciplinary team, lawyers. Medical, students, medical doctor, social worker, pharmacy students. We were surrounded by, by all manner of medical doctors and students. And it was the first time that I was, it clicked that, the one person in the room talking about mental health was not a social worker, was not a nurse, but a psychiatrist.

And that was our connection. And it gave me, it began to make me think about how, how do I, as a phD student and researcher on our campus begin that. Create the relationship between our medical school and the conversation between their medical school and psychiatry. Prior to this trip, I never even thought about the partnership between social work and psychiatry on a global level.

And so now, and you know, this unique serendipitous opportunity of japan and Maryland having such a unique relationship on a governor level. And so, you know, it, [00:43:00] even this conversation has me, percolating on What does that look like? Is, that can be student led, as an opportunity to continue this?

'cause we all know that there's many aspects that cannot be met, but as a researcher, we see gaps in the area and how can we fill those gaps?

Virgina Rowthorn: You know, I honestly, I feel like you just gave us a new hashtag for our center, but it's that click that you had. That's, that's all we're trying to do. That's a small thing, but it's a huge thing.

It's just that click where you, where you realize something different about your country or your perspective or the people that you're with, that then just makes you go, you know, in a different direction. So thank you for that.

Amy Ramirez: That's what's beautiful about global education. And I'll say why? Because when you're environment like

your at antennas are so up. Like that's what it is. I'm convinced. Because you're so highly attuned, because the environment is so different that you're so observant of things that you would [00:44:00] not be observant of in your daily life. Because it's so, because you're a little desensitized to it, because it's so routinized for you.

Right? And so like. You understand things differently and you're like, why don't I talk to my colleagues in psychiatry? I'm on the campus with a school of medicine, and we're both interested in mental health, right? Like, why don't I know anybody in psychiatry? Right? And so, you know, I mean, these are the kinds of things, right, that suddenly start to realize very quickly that it's like, wow.

Like, and I just think that's one of amazing things about global education is you understand your profession, you understand yourself, you understand your country. You understand so many different things differently because things that just seem very normal, every day to you that you haven't even asked questions about will look very different to you through the eyes of another place or another people.

Lynn Michalopoulos: That's [00:45:00] great. Thank you. Thank you both. I wanna, we're going to unfortunately have to wrap up our time here for this episode, but we have one final question for you both. Can you tell us one thing that every prospective student should know about global work at UMB? And, Amy, you wanna get started?

Amy Ramirez: Do it. It's great. There's so many opportunities. If you're interested, you should absolutely do it. And the other thing that I really wanna say is there's lots of opportunities for you within the School of social work. Dr. Michalopoulos here is an amazing leader, and there's more thing, and there's things for you to do.

Interdisciplinary too, right? We, and we work very hard. So one of the things I, we've talked a lot about the work that we do with faculty, but something I, I really wanna say for students is that the work that we do with faculty particularly. My work on curriculum and faculty development is so that we have, we [00:46:00] have new opportunities for students in the pipeline continuously, right?

So like, if you are interested in things that you're, you're not seeing, let me know, Virginia, you know, reach out to us. We'd love talking to students because. We wanna listen to your ideas and we would love to figure out how to support you, in your global aspirations. But absolutely do it because it's a life-changing experience.

We know from every student that has an opportunity to do it, and it will change the way you think about your life and your career and your profession.

Virgina Rowthorn: And I would just say that, that we get you, we understand you. We, I respect our colleagues at the undergraduate level so much. I was up at Towson today.

On a most undergraduate campus or a campus with a lot of undergraduates, but we know our students here at UMB, we know social work students and other, and so the global opportunities are tailored to your [00:47:00] interest, to your future career, to your timeframe too. Because you may not have a whole semester to spend abroad, though I know the school of social work has opportunities like that,

you, we know that you're in a very rigorous curriculum. You don't have much time. But we really recommend you think about a global opportunity because it will enrich your education. And, we have, opportunities tailored for your time and your interest.

David Robertson: I just say something really quickly to my fellow peers.

A few of my peers were uncomfortable applying because they didn't know who to recommend them, for recommendation letters. And what I would say is, again, just do it. Begin having a conversation with your professors, with your director of your program. Even if you're not aware of where you wanna land globally, begin to let them know that you wanna be connected to global opportunities.

So when you potentially do see these opportunities. In emails in the Elm through casual conversations, [00:48:00] you're not blindsided by the fact of you already have a reservoir. People that know that you have global on your mind and that they're ready to support you with the quick recommendation, just so that you're connected to this opportunity or these opportunities.

Lynn Michalopoulos: So thank you everyone. Thank you so much Virginia and Amy, for all of your insight and if this was a wonderful conversation, it's always great to talk to both of you. So thank you everyone for listening to the Social Work is Everywhere podcast. If you've been inspired by the stories and impact shared today, please consider supporting the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

Your donation helps fund scholarships, research, innovative teaching, and community partnerships that make a real difference.

David Robertson: Every gift matters. Visit ssw.umaryland.edu/give To donate today. Please choose other and specify global.

Lynn Michalopoulos: And to request more information about admission to the University of Maryland School of Social work, visit ssw.umaryland.edu

Msw. Thank you again. Bye for now. Bye.

David Robertson: Go social workers and allies. Thank you.

Virginia Rowthorn, JD, LLM (Global Health Law), is assistant vice president for global engagement at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and executive director of the Center for Global Engagement (CGE). She also is an Associate Professor at the School of Graduate Studies and a member of the School of Graduate Studies Leadership Team.

Previously, Rowthorn was the managing director for the Law & Health Care Program at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law for 10 years; a staff attorney at the Department of Health and Human Services; associate at the law firm of DLA Piper; and a Peace Corps volunteer in the Marshall Islands. She is on the board of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH).

In her role as AVP, Rowthorn oversees the activities of CGE, a Universitywide center that serves as the hub of interprofessional global health and education activities on the UMB campus. CGE provides Universitywide leadership to build and sustain global education at UMB; nurtures strategic global partnerships through the center-run President’s Global Impact Fund; creates and manages student, faculty, and staff mobility programs; promotes collaborative international research; develops curricula designed to build global competency through the GLOBALtimore Fellows Program; and delivers educational and professional services that support sustainable global programs.

Rowthorn obtained her BA in American studies from Carleton College, JD from the UM Carey School of Law, and LLM in Global Health Law from Georgetown Law.

Amy Ramirez, MA, was hired in 2011 as Director of the Office of International Services to oversee services to UMB’s international student and scholar community. In 2022, she was promoted to Executive Director, Global Learning and International Services to expand CGE’s global learning portfolio. Amy directs the UMB Costa Rica Faculty Development Institute, an intensive professional development experience for a select cohort of UMB faculty members to develop courses, modules, tracks, clinical electives or learning experiences that incorporate global themes. She will also continue to provide leadership to the Office of International Services.

Amy’s passion for the field of international education was inspired during her undergraduate studies, where she studied abroad in Spain, lived in the International House, and worked as a student worker in the international student office. Before coming to UMB, Amy worked in international student and scholar services at Johns Hopkins University and The George Washington University. She has also served in several volunteer leadership positions in NAFSA: Association of International Educators, most recently as a trainer for NAFSA’s Management Development Program. Amy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Maryland, College Park, a Master’s degree in International Education from The George Washington University, and is a Ph.D. candidate in Higher Education Administration at the University of Maryland, College Park. In her spare time, Amy loves to read and travel to new places.