Q&A: Christopher Powers shares the positive impact of international education

I oversee our International Student & Scholar Office, our Study Abroad & Away Office and our English Language Center. I also lead our cross-campus International Initiatives Committee and work with faculty and staff to support, celebrate and advocate for all our international activities across the university. I am honored to work with an incredible team dedicated to supporting our students and faculty through all of our international endeavors. 

There are so many reasons why I wanted to join Towson University. First, I am a lifelong Marylander, who has always supported public education, especially our universities. More directly, I am the parent of a Towson University student who is about to graduate, so I felt part of the TU community well before I started working here. The first thing I noticed when we toured the campus was the International Walkway. I have worked with the staff here and know how committed they are to our students, international programs and the university.   

I tell everyone that TU is an international university. We have faculty and students from more than 80 countries and opportunities for students to study abroad in more than 50 countries. We have so many internationally engaged faculty—from those leading short-term study abroad programs to those working with colleagues from overseas universities on collaborative research. What is exciting is that there is so much more we can do. I look forward to building on all we have been doing, bringing more international students to TU, sending more TU students abroad and engaging with more faculty partnering overseas. 

I have always been interested in education and world affairs. When I was in grad school, the Cold War was ending. A lot of people told me that it was a terrible time to study international issues because global threats were fading. But I was always more interested in opportunities to bring people together than in the issues that divide us.

That is essentially what international education does—it brings people together across language, cultural and political divides—and those opportunities were expanding at the time. My first job in international education was bringing former Soviet and East Central European students to the United States. All these years later, the global threats haven’t gone away. We need international education and exchange more than ever. 

Our International Students & Scholars office supports our international students throughout their TU careers. Literally, from before they arrive, when we issue the supporting documentation for their student visas and help orient them to life and studies in the United States until after they graduate as we support them through authorized post-graduation employment. Our English Language Center provides academic language training to students who do not meet our English requirements, and this fall we launched a new Academic Pathway to Towson University program to allow students to start taking academic, credit-bearing courses, while completing their English language training.

An initiative our team unveiled last fall, in partnership with the Career Center, is International Tigers Get Hired. International students face so many roadblocks in finding acceptable work, either while in school, or afterwards. We started working with them, not just during the semester before graduation, but from the moment they arrive, to help them find on-campus opportunities, learn how to create an American-style resume and write cover letters and prepare for interviews.   

International Education Week is an annual opportunity, proclaimed by the U.S. Department of State and Education, to showcase what colleges, universities and other organizations here in the United States and worldwide are doing to support international education; to celebrate our international students, faculty, partners and study abroad students; and to highlight the benefits of international education for all.  

Here at TU, we have a series of events planned to celebrate international students and study abroad. We have an APIMEDA Thanksgiving dinner planned and special informational sessions to teach students how to market their study abroad experiences and how they can teach internationally after graduation.

Our Study Abroad & Away Office has scheduled a series of programs, including basic study abroad and away advising, but also sessions on international internships, study away opportunities for international students and a session with the Center for Student Diversity on LGBTQ+ issues related to studying abroad or away. The full list of activities is available on our website. 

Our Study Abroad and Away Office supports all of our students studying abroad, as well as those studying away, either at other universities in the United States, through the National Student Exchange or on short-term programs. We offer weekly group sessions, led by our student employees who have all studied abroad or away themselves, and offer individual advising.

Each year, we work with faculty to develop programs and lead hundreds of students on minimester, spring break or summer programs to places like Ireland, Spain, Australia, Thailand and many more. We also have TU programs in Italy, Scotland and Japan, among others, where students can study for a semester or year. We work with students to help them apply for scholarships and understand how their financial aid can make study abroad and away affordable.  

An exciting new program is TU Tigers Abroad, which we launched in August 2023. We took 12 freshmen students to Brazil before their first classes on campus started. We are committed to making study abroad accessible and affordable to every Towson University student, and this program, which expanded to taking students to Cuba in the summer of 2024, is one small way we are doing that. 

There are so many benefits to international education for individuals, the university and our broader community. To me, an important part of higher education is the opportunity to engage in the world—whether that is by studying abroad, working with international faculty or studying alongside someone from another country—so that you have experience working with and learning from people who have different perspectives and may approach solving problems in different ways.

From the university perspective, international education helps us achieve our strategic priorities. International students bring a unique level of diversity to the campus and enrich our classrooms and learning communities. International students serve as student employees across the university, adding new perspectives to our campus offices. Many also serve as graduate assistants, contributing directly to the university’s goal of becoming an R2, or high research activity, campus. Increasing the number and diversity of our students who study abroad and making it more affordable is a university priority, as study abroad serves students on a life-long path to becoming socially responsible global citizens.  

I sincerely believe that by bringing people together across cultural and political divides and giving them the opportunity to study, work and live together, we can enrich lives, strengthen our community and make Towson a better place to live, work and study.